Teacher enters crowded race to topple Rep. Ken Calvert, with Barbara Boxer’s blessing

Katherine Aleman, an Inland Empire public-school teacher and part-time chicken farmer, is the latest Democrat to join a crowded field of challengers hoping to unseat 41st Congressional District Rep. Ken Calvert, the longest-serving Republican in California’s congressional delegation. 

The race against Calvert, who for more than 30 years has represented Riverside County, will be one of the most closely watched in the nation as Democrats push to retake control of the U.S. House in 2026. The congressman, a Trump loyalist, has been a perpetual white whale for Democrats despite his controversial votes to overturn the results of the 2020 election. 

This time, Democratic insiders are bullish that Aleman – a mother of four sons who teaches middle school in Corona – will be the one to break their cycle of losses.

Aleman is leaning into her background as a working parent and lifelong Inland Empire resident as she works to make affordability her primary message. Along with cost of living, she said veterans’ issues and education are important to her as the daughter of a Marine helicopter pilot and an elementary school principal.

“Folks deserve someone who has walked in their shoes, who’s had to balance a household budget, who’s struggled,” Aleman told CalMatters. “We have a congressman who really has only been serving himself and his friends.”

Calvert will not be an easy target. This past quarter he outraised all of his Democratic challengers combined, pulling in more than $1.3 million in contributions and bringing his  stockpile of cash on hand to an eye-popping $2.5 million. 

“This massive fundraising haul shows just how energized voters are to keep him in Congress,” Christian Martinez, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee wrote in a statement when the fundraising numbers were released earlier this month. 

The W-shaped district spans from working-class towns like Corona and El Cerrito in the west to wealthier Coachella Valley cities like Palm Springs in the east. Aleman’s fluency in Spanish, which she refined during two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay, is an asset in a district where nearly 40% of the population is Hispanic. 

Aleman’s supporters, who include former U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, say her deep roots on the western side of the district – where more than 70% of the population is – differentiate her from her competitors. That background also sets her apart from Will Rollins, a former federal prosecutor who lost to Calvert twice and whose campaign Boxer vigorously supported. 

Former U.S. Sen Barbara Boxer is a fan

“She’s an undiscovered star,” said Boxer, who sought to support a female candidate from the western side of the district. “I’ve been around a long time, and I never say that.” 

Boxer, a 24-year veteran of Capitol Hill who, alongside former Sen. Dianne Feinstein, won election to the Senate in 1992’s ‘Year of the Woman,’ pointed to Aleman’s successful 2020 campaign for Norco City Council as proof that she can win Republican votes. Aleman, the council’s lone Democrat, won despite a nearly 30% Republican voter registration advantage, but lost her reelection bid last November.

When the two women met for lunch a month ago, Boxer said she was immediately impressed with Aleman’s straightforward assessment of her district’s top issue – affordability.

“She said, ‘Senator, people can’t afford to live here anymore, and I grew up here.’ And I just saw the authenticity of her,” Boxer said of Aleman. “She fits so well into what we’re looking for,” Boxer added, “someone who has lived the lives of her constituents.”

This time, Calvert has attracted at least eight other Democratic challengers. Among them are Brandon Riker, an entrepreneur who ran for lieutenant governor of Vermont in 2016, and Anuj Dixit, a voting rights attorney who was born and raised in Riverside County. Tim Myers, the bassist for the band OneRepublic, has already bowed out and announced he will instead run for lieutenant governor.

“Katherine is exactly the type of candidate the Democratic Party needs,” said Orrin Evans, a media strategist working on Aleman’s campaign launch. His has helped Democratic candidates such as Rep. Derek Tran defeat incumbent Republicans in tough races. 

Evans said the takeaway from the 2024 election should be the importance of candidate quality, and that a “homegrown leader” like Aleman would gain the most traction. 

“Katherine’s not from Hollywood or Vermont,” he said. “She’s from the Inland Empire.”

In addition to teaching, Aleman raises chickens and sells eggs at a family farm stand. What began as a side project during the pandemic to provide eggs for her family has grown into a small business known as “Fluffy Butt Ranch.” The additional income helps cushion the family budget. 

She also runs a chicken club at her school, which provides extra food security for students in the form of farm-fresh eggs.