Jewish Journal: Democrat Senate Candidate Christina Pascucci Aims to Stop “Degradation” of CA

Former newswoman says she supports “people over party.”

By Aaron Bandler

Christina Pascucci, 38, a former journalist for KTLA and FOX 11, is running to be the Democratic nominee for the late Dianne Feinstein’s Senate seat. She fancies herself as a political outsider hoping to reverse the “degradation” of California. And she didn’t know until her early 20s that she is of Jewish ancestry and has been on a journey of “self-exploration” regarding her Judaism.

Pascucci is running in a field that includes Representatives Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) and Katie Porter (D-Irvine), as well as former Los Angeles Dodgers baseball player Steve Garvey, a Republican. She has been endorsed by Rabbi Marvin Hier, the founder and dean emeritus of the Simon Wiesenthal Center; Pascucci told the Journal in a Zoom interview that she is honored to have Hier’s endorsement.

At a Jan. 7 #EndJewHatred rally in Los Angeles, Pascucci mentioned that her grandmother “was in Munich, Germany during the Holocaust and had to hide her religion to survive. And I just think of how many Jews around the world who don’t know their own story.” Pascucci told the Journal over Zoom that she was raised as a Christian and that her grandmother died when she was a baby. But when she learned of her Jewish ancestry, she “went on a mission of self-exploration to figure out as much as I could,” including going on a Birthright trip to Israel.

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Pascucci decided to leave her journalism career and run for public office because she had “a front row seat to the degradation of our state” throughout her career as a journalist. “As I saw this more and more, I became increasingly frustrated,” Pascucci said. “I realized that we were having the same elected leaders who were part of the problem getting reelected and contributing further to the problem, and I had to step in and do something.” She believes the state needs leaders “who reject polarization by bringing us back to our ideals where we have decency and we reach across the aisle and we collaborate and we truly serve the American people.”

In Pascucci’s view, the “degradation” of California includes “how unaffordable it is to live here, how the border is complete chaos and not secure, how homelessness is rampant and we’re not taking care of our people.” She is called it a “travesty” that “60-70% of our kids aren’t reading at grade level.” “That’s like a national security concern, frankly,” Pascucci contended.

Additionally, Pascucci believes that mental health should be prioritized “in a way that can really move the needle” through “innovative new therapies like psychedelic therapy research that could really change the scope of how we deal with mental health.”