On the Issues: 25th District: Rep. Steve Knight and Katie Hill

California’s 25th Congressional District, once predominantly white and Republican, has become more diverse as newcomers are drawn to more affordable housing at the northern edges of L.A. sprawl: Simi Valley, Porter Ranch, Santa Clarita and the Antelope Valley.

The district’s voters are most concerned with the candidates’ views on immigration, taxes, the economy and gun laws, according to a recent poll by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies.

Those issues have become the bedrock of 31-year-old Democrat Katie Hill’s challenge to Rep. Steve Knight (R-Palmdale), who represents the last remaining Republican-held congressional district in Los Angeles County. Knight has joined fellow California Republicans in efforts to push Congress toward bipartisan policies on immigration, but has hewed to Republican Party lines on tax policy. Hill, who led a nonprofit that serves the homeless, has made rebuilding the middle class a major plank of her platform, focusing on income equality and accessible education.

Although it has sent Republicans to Washington since 1993, the district now has more registered Democrats that Republicans and voted for Hillary Clinton by nearly seven percentage points in the 2016 presidential election.

Members of California for Progress, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients and others march in L.A.’s Westlake District in February in support of a “clean” Dream Act that would provide a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Immigration

Social security

Taxes

Climate change

Turbines are seen on a wind farm in the San Gorgonio Pass area near Palm Springs.

(David McNew / Getty Images)

Healthcare

Gun control