Five months after issuing her challenge in person, Gloria Chadwick has withdrawn her bid to unseat Rep. Duncan D. Hunter in the 50th Congressional District.
The 71-year-old El Cajon resident trailed two other Democrats in the fund-raising race and gave notice of her pullout in a July 27 Facebook post.
“I have decided to terminate my run as there are terrific candidates running, and I will run for re-election for the Grossmont Healthcare District,” Chadwick said Monday.
She didn’t throw her support behind a rival, saying she’d stick with her public remarks that “all of the candidates should support each other and then rally behind the primary victor.”
Chadwick said she waited for the “pressurized June 30 deadline” to put things in order and “then mulled and mulled even after another forum event before ending the campaign.”
She says she now knows the other candidates very well and deems them “quite capable” of taking on Hunter.
“Two have quite the organized machinery and dollars behind them, but it will still be a battle in our district as the Republicans are recruiting their own 50th replacement,” she said.
In turning to another race for the Grossmont health-care board, where she is vice president, she said: “I have serious concerns about local health-care needs with this aggressive and heavy-handed Congress.”
The former psychiatric nurse noted the East County hospital district’s “mission has always been to meet unmet healthcare needs. Little did we know what lies ahead if clearer heads and gentler hearts don’t prevail.”
In mid-March, Chadwick attended Hunter’s Ramona Town Hall meeting.
When her name was drawn from a bucket to ask a question, she stood and told Hunter about attending the Women’s March in Washington and learning about his campaign spending scandal.
“You do not deserve to represent us,” she said. “And I’m here to tell you that … I am going to run against you in 2018.”
According to the Federal Election Commission, Chadwick had raised $23,835, including $12,335 in individual donations. She had $11,500 in loans.
After expenses, she had about $13,000 left in the bank.
By contrast, Democrats Ammar Campa-Najjar and Josh Butner had raised about $174,000 and $141,000, respectively.
Since January, Hunter has raised close to $319,000 and had $617,000 in the bank at the end of June, says the FEC.
Others Democrats in the running are Pete Beauregard, Glenn Jensen and Patrick Malloy, who lost the November 2016 race to Hunter by 27 percentage points.