Voters in California's 41st Congressional District, which includes much of the Coachella Valley, are facing the same question they did two years ago: Has challenger Will Rollins, a Democrat, proven that his ideas and experience better serve constituents in the Inland Empire than incumbent Ken Calvert, a Republican who has represented the region for decades? The answer is yes.

At a time when too many are preaching allegiance over consensus-building, Rollins, a Democrat, has made it clear he can and will pragmatically look for allies outside his own party to get things done where he can. He served in the administration of Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, when he was governor of California, afterall. Sadly, the same cannot be said for his opponent.

After a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Rep. Ken Calvert was one of the 147 Republicans who voted to overturn the election results by rejecting the Electoral College results from Arizona and Pennsylvania.

"The reason that I got into politics; the reason I quit a job that I loved to run was because of Congressman Calvert's vote to overturn the last presidential election," Rollins said during an interview with both candidates and The Desert Sun Editorial Board.

Rollins has the political will to put the nation first and his party second at a crucial moment in our history when a woman's right to make her own medical choices is in peril, when agreement on a cogent and humane immigration policy continues to elude lawmakers and when our economy is teetering on recession.

…With regards to the Bipartisan Immigration Bill, Calvert described the bill as "just a processing bill" that wasn't "doing what we needed it to do."

Rollins called out Calvert's refusal to support the bill, saying he would have supported the bipartisan immigration bill "even if Donald Trump told me to kill it." He accused Calvert and other Trump allies of refusing the bill because they knew it was a campaign issue, "…and they would rather campaign on it than fix it," Rollins said.

Rollins sees smarter border technology investments, reform of the immigration court system and a revamped guest worker program that provides a clear path to citizenship as keys to better securing our southern border.

Rollins slammed former President Trump's border wall rhetoric. He stressed the need for anti-tunneling technology, thermal imaging at the border, more boots on the ground, "all of that would go a lot further than a nationwide wall, which is cost prohibitive and a waste compared to having targeted barriers in certain parts of the country where there's a high level of influx," Rollins said.

"I think we need a new generation of leadership in Washington from both parties, with people who actually want to solve the problem," Rollins said.

…Rollins said he would have supported both the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the Inflation Reduction Act, which Calvert opposed in 2022, that is providing $250 million to the Salton Sea. Rollins is a big proponent of additional federal investment in modernizing our energy infrastructure, "which, by the way, will reduce gas prices and also get us an advantage over China and Europe, both of whom are working really hard to develop this technology because they know it's going to fuel the global economy for the next century."