California’s Democratic Party is going all in on trying to get a former punter for the Minnesota Vikings into the state Assembly, potentially knocking out a Republican Huntington Beach Councilwoman in a district that stretches along Orange County’s coast.
The 72nd Assembly District is currently represented by Republican Assemblywoman Diane Dixon, who’s not running for re-election as she makes a bid for county supervisor, leaving her seat that covers the coast from Seal Beach to Laguna Beach empty.
Huntington Beach City Councilwoman Gracey Van Der Mark and Chris Kluwe, a former punter for the Vikings turned local political activist, are both gunning for the seat.
Kluwe first came on the local political scene when he was arrested at a Huntington Beach City Council meeting in February 2025 after he called the Make America Great Again movement a “Nazi movement” and was carried out of the meeting by police officers when he stepped over a protective barrier and approached council members on the dais.
Kluwe was released and cited for disrupting an assembly, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Van Der Mark was at that meeting and has served on the city council over the past four years, spearheading a controversial proposal to change how books are picked at the library as well as voting for a series of legal battles with state leaders over local control.
While Kluwe picked up the largest share of the vote in the primary with just under 44% of all the votes cast, over 54% of the votes went to Republican candidates.
Around 39% of the district’s voters are registered Republicans according to the Orange County registrar, compared to 32% Democrats and around 22% of voters having no party preference.
So far, Kluwe is leading the way on fundraising, disclosing over $1.1 million of fundraising compared to Van Der Mark’s $314,000.
Kluwe’s biggest financial support is coming from the Democratic Party itself, with the state party disclosing over $652,000 in donations to his campaign while other county parties in places like Santa Clara and Del Norte Counties have disclosed donations of $30,000 and $40,000, respectively.
As of Monday, Kluwe’s also faced over $158,000 in recent attack ads from the Legislative Action PAC, a group aimed at aiding Republicans in getting elected to state office funded by groups including Google, various county Republican parties and several oil companies.
Most of Van Der Mark’s support comes from a variety of local Republican donors, firefighter and law enforcement unions, and developers according to her campaign disclosures.
So far, Van Der Mark hasn’t received nearly as much financial support from the Republican Party this year.
The OC Republican Party spent around $28,000 supporting Van Der Mark according to their disclosures, while the state party didn’t disclose any spending as of Monday.
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.
