John Horst, longtime community volunteer and chairman of the Mira Mesa Community Planning Group, has announced his candidacy for the 52 Congressional District seat held by Democrat Scott Peters.
Horst describes himself as a lifelong registered Republican, but is not running as the recruited candidate of the party.
“I am coming to this campaign from deep roots in community volunteering and advocacy,” he said. “For too long we have looked at our communities through political lenses, instead of looking at politics through community lenses. I want to change that.”
Horst says he will run on a platform to “get America working again” focusing on innovation and middle class jobs.
In a Congressional district split evenly among Republicans, Democrats and independents, Horst says compromise is an absolute necessity.
“Compromise simply means we tell each other the truth on the front end, and follow through on our commitments on the back end,” Horst says. “If we can do this, there are no barriers to getting good work done together. We do this all the time in Mira Mesa; I want to bring these values to Washington.”
Peters is also being challenged by Denise Gitsham, a partner in a public relations business in Little Italy and a former Washington, D.C., attorney, and Jacquie Atkinson, a Marine Corps combat veteran and wounded warrior.
The 52nd District includes Coronado, La Jolla, Poway and much of the city of San Diego.
