Melissa Toomim, incumbent Ted Lieu run for US House of Representatives seat

(Mia Tavares/Daily Bruin senior staff)

By Gabrielle Gillette
Nov. 3, 2024 10:37 p.m.
This post was updated Nov. 4 at 2:29 a.m.
Westwood voters will decide who they send to the United States House of Representatives on Tuesday.
UCLA resides in California’s 36th Congressional District, where Republican investigative journalist Melissa Toomim is challenging the Democratic incumbent Rep. Ted Lieu, who is in his fifth term in the U.S. Congress. The district covers the South Bay and west Los Angeles County, including Westwood.
Lieu was first elected to represent the 36th district in Congress in 2014. Before entering Congress, he was a state senator from 2011 to 2014 and a state Assembly member from 2005 to 2010.
Toomim was an investigative journalist before running for Congress in 2022, when she lost the primary race.
“I have been an investigative journalist for many years,” Toomim said. “I was covering Afghanistan and Pakistan and digging deeply into that story – I started learning what fake news was long before anybody else.”
Lieu’s team declined the Daily Bruin’s request for an interview or comment on his reelection bid.
In the March primary election, Lieu received just over 68% of the vote, and Toomim received 14.9% of the vote – finishing in second place, ahead of fellow Republican candidate Ariana Hakami by just 0.8 percentage points. All 435 members of the House of Representatives are up for reelection, meaning control of the house could be at stake this cycle.
Lieu’s tenure in Congress has been focused on artificial intelligence, the environment, cybersecurity, civil liberties, foreign affairs and veteran affairs, with Lieu serving as the co-chair of the House’s bipartisan Task Force on Artificial Intelligence. Lieu has also introduced legislation to improve cybersecurity in consumer products as well as ensuring law enforcement and tech companies ensure consumer privacy.
Following the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Lieu was a manager for the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.
[Related: UCLA faculty consider causes, consequences of Trump’s second impeachment]
A self-described “passionate Constitutionalist,” Toomim said she was inspired to run for Congress because of her disappointment with Lieu’s congressional tenure thus far. Toomim is running on a platform of increased border control, reviving LA’s entertainment industry and reassessing cash flows to entities that receive funding for unhoused support, she said.
“A big one for me (is) restoring the entertainment industry, which we have pretty much lost from Los Angeles,” Toomim said. “And a lot of that is because of taxation, regulation and censorship.”

Toomim also said on her campaign website that her support for Israel is a significant factor in her involvement in politics. Toomim said she believes Lieu supports Palestinian political party and militant group Hamas.
However, Lieu issued a press release Oct. 7, 2024, condemning Hamas’ attack on Israel – during which the group killed around 1,200 people, according to the Associated Press – adding that he is committed to denouncing antisemitism in his district.
“As a co-Chair of the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, I am committed to rooting out antisemitism and the insidious ways hate spreads in our communities,” he said in the press release. “Like any form of bigotry, antisemitism should be condemned in the strongest terms.”
Lieu also released a statement last October in support of President Joe Biden’s announcement of humanitarian aid for citizens in Gaza and the West Bank.
Benjamin Kersten, doctoral student in art history, said he noticed that support for Israel can be a nonpartisan issue, with both the Democratic and Republican party officials voicing support for the country. They added, however, that Toomim expresses her support in a more reactionary manner, which they feel does not put her in a position to appeal to voters.
With regard to the Palestine solidarity encampment at UCLA, Toomim said the university was correct to sweep and dismantle the encampment, adding that she believes the protest was “threatening” and incited violence. While Congress does not have direct powers over policing responses, the House Education and Workforce Committee criticized the university’s response to protests.
“The campus has a duty to shut down a threatening protest,” she said.
[Related: Gene Block faces scrutiny over protest response in Congress antisemitism hearing]
The encampment was swept May 2, one day after counter-protesters attacked the encampment and incited violence.
Kersten said he believes Toomim’s rhetoric about the encampment was disingenuous and upsetting, adding that he believes her account misrepresented the events of the demonstration.
“It really scares me in a way because that, to me, is kind of a tacit endorsement of what I saw, which was people waving Israeli flags and hurling homophobic and racist comments at people and then attacking them,” they said.
Aaron Littman, an assistant professor of law at the UCLA School of Law, said the future of the 36th district’s congressperson may also have an impact on local criminal justice systems. Congress has the ability to distribute federal funding for local prison and jail construction, as well as pass legislation affecting state and local criminal justice reform, such as the Prison Rape Elimination Act in 2003.
Kersten said he hopes to see someone in Congress who will support higher education and recognizes that education can be a practice of freedom. Though they said Toomim does not represent their interests, they said Lieu falls short as well, adding that they are disappointed in Lieu’s lack of calling for a ceasefire and support for increases in military spending.
“My choices are this person who is basically a centrist through and through, but it’s a safe bet that he’s going to win in a Democratic district over a conservative reactionary,” they said. “I’m very tired of those being what’s on the table.”