Air Force Veteran Tamika Hamilton Running For Congress in California’s 3rd

Donald Trump Jr. just named Tamika Hamilton ‘MAGA Candidate of the Week’ for the House of Representatives

By Katy Grimes, June 10, 2020 2:10 am

10 Jun 2020 2:10 am

Air Force Veteran Tamika Hamilton makes hundreds of calls each week to voters in the 3rd Congressional District. When they talk, she tells voters, “You’re way more important than me.”

“I come from nothing,” Tamika Hamilton said in a California Globe interview. “But I respect the taxpayers’ money.”

As for campaigning during the statewide lockdown, Hamilton acknowledged that she and the other Republicans running for Congress are writing the manual on how to do it differently. And that’s not a problem for Hamilton: She says “people don’t want the same old campaigning – they want face time. So I make hundreds of calls every week and we talk.”

“The people don’t know that our state is solely controlled by Democrats,” Hamilton said. “They don’t know that in the Legislature, they don’t need a Republican vote to get anything passed.”

“After 10 years of broken promises, it is time for a change,” Hamilton said. “I’m not running to be the most popular girl in Washington, D.C. I’m running because I believe our representative in Congress should put our needs first.” She’s speaking about the current officeholder in District 3, John Garamendi, who was elected to Congress in 2009.

“People want to work and be valuable,” Hamilton said. “Yet the Democrats tried to run Tesla out of the state.”

Hamilton says she doesn’t ever hide anything about herself: “I’m hell bent on being me,” she said. “Black people like everybody else just want to be successful and take care of their kids.”

Hamilton said she’s very concerned about so many in the country embracing Communism and Socialism.

Hamilton noted that the Republican Party in California has only 7 Congressional seats out of 53. “That is shameful,” Hamilton said. “I ruffle people’s feathers,” she said. “We are missing an opportunity to connect with people.”

Tamika Hamilton said the Republican Purity test is silly. “Originally they thought I was a Democrat mole, because I’m black,” she said. “Republicans say they want minorities to run, but then they try to change you. As a Party, we need to position ourselves differently. We need all kinds of people to work.”

“I’m a woman, a veteran, an African American.” But Hamilton said prior to the Primary, powerful Republicans tried to table her vote. She said she received a lot of pushback from Republican leadership. “But CA GOP Chairwoman Jessica Patterson made sure my votes didn’t get tabled,” Hamilton said. “She broke the tie, and then I got the GOP endorsement.”

Hamilton also caught the attention of Donald Trump Jr., who called her the day before the Primary Election. “He didn’t have to help me; there are hundreds of seats open,” she said.

Trump Jr. also just named Tamika Hamilton ‘MAGA Candidate of the Week’ for the House of Representatives.

“If we can raise $500,000, we can win this race.”

Who is Tamika Hamilton?

Tamika Hamilton and family. (Photo: Tamika Hamilton for Congress)

After 14 years of Air Force active duty and two tours in the Middle East, Tamika Hamilton became an Air Force Reservist. She said she and her husband bought a beautiful home in Dixon, CA, and she planed to go back to school to finish a degree in Architecture and Design. But almost immediately, even though Dixon feels like “Little America,” she said she had feelings of unrest. She saw that schools in the state were failing, and statewide schools as a whole, only rank 46th in the nation. She saw outrageous homelessness, and found only one homeless shelter in the region.

High taxation, the nation’s largest homeless U.S. veteran population, on top of the nation’s largest poverty class and homeless population, caused Tamika Hamilton to walk into the local Republican Central Committee. “I told them I wanted to run for Congress, and wanted to put myself in the fight,” Hamilton said. “I prayed which way to go.”

Hamilton has faced a lot of opposition, and was even told by Republicans that she should get out of the race. Yet even with much less funding than her Democrat opponent and another Republican in the race, Hamilton made it through the March 3 Primary Election and placed second, putting her in contention in November.

Over her decorated 14-year military career, Tamika Hamilton was awarded the Air Force Achievement Medal, Joint Service Commendation Medal, Air Force Meritorious Unit Award, and Air Force Good Conduct Medal. “Don’t ever think there is a gatekeeper to your success,” she said.

Hamilton’s two grandfathers were veterans and farmers. Her husband is a police officer and served 6 years in the Navy.

Tamika and her husband have four children, ages 16, 6, 4 and 2. “I just want to raise my babies in a world they can understand. I just want to represent my people and my district.”

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Katy Grimes

Katy Grimes, the Editor in Chief of the California Globe, is a long-time Investigative Journalist covering the California State Capitol, and the co-author of California's War Against Donald Trump: Who Wins? Who Loses?