Former San Diego City Councilmember
Carl DeMaio on Monday announced that he's running for Congress.
The openly gay DeMaio has until Friday
to collect the necessary number of voter signatures required for him
to become a candidate.
“I appreciate all the San Diegans who
have reached out to me to encourage me to run for Congress,” DeMaio
said in a statement. “If we want better results from government,
we must first start by fixing Congress and holding them accountable
when they violate the public's trust.”
California's 50th
Congressional District includes most of San Diego county.
Representative Duncan Hunter, a Republican, currently represents the
district, previously numbered the 52nd district.
In 2014, DeMaio, a Republican, narrowly
lost his bid for Congress. DeMaio's campaign was rocked by
last-minute allegations of sexual misconduct by a former openly gay
campaign staffer. Todd Bosnich claimed that DeMaio had masturbated
in front of him. He later admitted to faking threatening emails he
claimed were written by DeMaio and pleaded guilty to one count of
obstruction of justice.
DeMaio, who married publisher Johnathan
Hale in 2015, at the time called the allegations “false” and
“incredibly painful to me and my family.”