Spending a Hot Day with Alex Balekian on a Quest for Adam Schiff’s Seat

Congressional district CA-30 includes western sections of Pasadena, Central LA, West Hollywood, Glendale, and Burbank.

Sporting a USC umbrella to shade himself from the 110-degree heat, candidate Alex Balekian, M.D., canvases a Burbank neighborhood that is part of the expansive district. As we walk in the blistering temperature, homeowners appear receptive and supportive of his message, often remarking how he must really want the job if he’s out in the hair-dryer heat. 

Within the first two blocks, we observe five home construction projects, including one roof replacement, two ADUs, a bedroom extension and an air conditioning upgrade. With the current increased demand for housing, these projects provide jobs for workers doing rough framing, exterior construction, mechanical, electrical, plumbing and finish work.

The neighborhood is clearly in transition.

Balekian refers to his notes and remarks, “The resident in this home has only voted once in the last four elections. Let’s see if we can change his mind.” 

Replacing the clipboard of yesteryear, Balekian uses a phone app called Voter Science, canvassing software that comes with ready-made voter contact information. The app was created to redefine how right-of-center candidates like Balekian campaign for office by using a holistic approach to voter engagement.

“I mark on the app that I left literature and then press submit. It greys out the house. Now we’re on to the next, which is a purple household with a red and a blue voter in it.”

He greets the next resident in Tagalog, a language he learned while working as a pulmonary specialist in an ICU with a large Filipino workforce. During the walk, he also pivots between Armenian and Spanish with a bit of conversational French thrown in.

“Let’s see if Mr. Hernandez is at home,” he says. “He’s voted in three of the last four elections, and I see a Coast Guard sticker on his car.”

“Hello, are you Jose? I’m Alex Balekian. I’m a doctor in Glendale, but I’m also running for Congress.”

After a short chat, he saves Jose’s contact information in the app, noting his conversation and the literature distributed, and then he’s on to the next residence where the app tells him two unaffiliated voters live.

He leaves them a pro-choice Republican flyer. 

A No-Holds-Barred Effort

It’s a big deal for Balekian to be a Republican battling for the House of Representatives office, especially after he’s beaten the odds of a Democratic-only runoff following the March 5th “jungle” primary. In that race, he was one of two Republicans on the ballot against 12 Democrats and one independent.

The previous representative for CA-30 was Adam Schiff, who gave up campaigning for his House seat after 24 years to run for U.S. Senate.

Balekian’s opponent in the general election is Laura Friedman, who was previously the Mayor of Glendale (2010-2011) and has served the 24^th Assembly District since 2016. She is a member of the California Legislative Progressive Caucus.

Today is an 18-hour day of campaigning, but in the next two weeks, Balekian will split his time between canvassing, fundraising, and interviews, sandwiching all in between his duties as an ICU pulmonary and critical care specialist.

“I’m still a physician because I have to pay the bills, right? And we continue to fundraise. We have a budget for ballot harvesting, which is going to be key, especially with the Armenians,” says Belekian.

“I’m not afraid of the Armenian vote going for my opponent. I’m afraid they’re not going to vote at all.”

“Ballot harvesting” is collecting completed absentee ballots from voters and delivering them to polling places or election offices. These efforts often focus on helping elderly voters or people without access to transportation ensure their ballot gets in on time, but the practice is more complex than it sounds.

As of 2016, California’s AB1921 allows anyone to return another person’s ballot and there is no limit on how many ballots a person can return. However, there are requirements. A person cannot accept compensation for returning a ballot, they have to provide their name, their relationship to the voter, and their signature on the envelope.

“I’m not afraid of the Armenian vote going for my opponent. I’m afraid they’re not going to vote at all,” says Balekian. “Ballot harvesting will run about $100,000. I’ll make some fundraising phone calls this afternoon because we also need to pay for our mailers to get us past the finish line.”

Next Stop, X

After canvassing in Burbank, Balekian sits for an afternoon Zoom broadcast on X with fellow physician Dr. Drew Pinsky as a guest on his @AskDrDrew show. With more than 2.5 million followers, The Dr. Drew interview is a great catch for the Balekian campaign and an especially friendly one since Pinsky and his wife, Susan Sailer Pinsky, live in the Pasadena area.

Pinsky readily comments, “Susan, we should vote for him.” Pinsky once considered running for the Congressional seat himself “until Susan told me to sit down,” he relates during the interview.  

Since surviving the primary where four candidates raised over $1 million each and he received 17 percent of the vote, Balekian has regularly been featured nationally on FOX News and other cable networks.

Prone to speaking in memorable sound bites (e.g., “I’m not homophobic and neither is my husband”), his natural good looks and engaging personality get him lots of coverage in an all-too-volatile campaign season, where doxing and threats abound. California’s 30th district is overwhelmingly blue, with registered Democrats outnumbering Republicans by more than three to one.

“It’s about keeping the messaging simple and acknowledging that all politics are local, and all voting is emotional,” says Balekian to Pinsky.

“You really have to find those one or two issues that get people jazzed up,” said Balekian. “Otherwise, they’re not going to participate. We have super fans that help us. The difference between my super fans and my opponent’s super fans is blue super fans have disposable time to do these things. They’re very switched on.”

The Campaign Matrix

How does underdog Balekian hope to prevail in a campaign where he’s being overspent and underrepresented in party registrations?

Time to bring in media professional and Balekian’s husband, James Clarke, who readily admits, “I’ve never done marketing for a political campaign, but it’s a transferable skill set. Ultimately, you’re trying to sell something. This time, I happen to be selling Alex.”

“It’s a strange dynamic to be working with your significant other,” says Clarke in his transparently British accent. Originally from Leeds in West Yorkshire via London, he moved to Los Angeles where he met and married Balekian in 2017.

“It’s hard to be objective when you’re in it,” said Clarke. “But when you’re running a marketing campaign, you can’t be taking risks on things other people might do. We’re building support with people and individuals in the community. Our donations are all from individual contributors, with amazing endorsements from LA County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, former Supervisor Michael Antonovich, and the Log Cabin Republicans.” 

Of opponent Friedman, Clarke says, “She has a whole machine behind her, including the media and her party. But you never know, especially nowadays. Anything could happen. She’s had her eye on the prize for a long time. She’s already got her apartment in Washington DC. But that’s really off-putting to a lot of people. They think, who is this person?”

The downside to running a campaign? “I’m ready for all the scrutiny to stop,” Clarke says, “like having all these crazy people posting online that we’re extremists, evil, homophobic and racist. It’s exhausting. They post they know where we live. We’ve even had people on the City Council and school board spouting stuff. Elected officials should know better.”

Platforms

During the @askDrDrew X broadcast, Balekian said his pro-choice platform focuses on public safety, tax reduction, and a limited role for government.

Pinsky characterizes Balekian as an “intensivist,” someone who dedicates his time to hospital-based care in the intensive care unit, a description Balekian embraces alongside being a self-described “Deukmejian Republican.”

George Deukmejian served as the 34th governor of California from 1983 to 1991. He was the state’s first governor of Armenian descent. He earned the nickname “The Iron Duke” for his anti-spending fiscal policies.

When Pinsky asks, “Do you work in one of the hospitals here locally?” Balekian’s response is, “I work in the community. We’ve had some crazies dox us. So, I am not at liberty to discuss exactly where I work because then phone calls start coming to the hospitals. It’s definitely been a wake-up call.”

“I’m an intensive care physician. I deal with slim chances all the time.“

“I’ve been called a hateful, anti-environmental, anti-LGBT extremist by a Glendale City Council member during a discussion about something as innocuous as a bike lane,” said Balekian. “My opponent authored a bill in Sacramento to mandate bicycle lanes in every single assembly district and bypass the customary public comment period to make them a quick build. I call her the bike lane lady and a cyclo-path because her point is we’ll build a bike lane, then we’ll collect one to five years’ worth of data, and then if people don’t like it, we’ll reverse it. By then, the frog has been successfully boiled.”

“I’m actually for bike lanes. Currently, drivers are avoiding the boulevards with the bike lanes and traveling on the quiet residential streets. So, they’ve actually increased the interface between bicyclists and cars. If more local input were allowed, these ideas would flourish rather than flounder,” says Balekian.

Pinsky continues with questions about the Balekian platform.

“Homelessness is a mental health and drug addiction issue,” Balekian replies. “It’s not simply a housing issue. Criminals need to be prosecuted and punished. We need to secure the border. Don’t defund the police. Fund Customs and Border Protection. Intercept the crystal meth coming across the border. My opponent authored a law to provide clean needles and safe injection sites, a law that was so bad even Gavin Newsom vetoed it. She’s for extending health coverage to one million illegal immigrants, but without increasing the number of doctors to see those additional patients. Everyone’s wait times are going to increase and life-saving cancer screenings are going to be delayed, leading to worse health outcomes for everyone.”

Everybody loves a David and Goliath story

“I was on nobody’s Bingo card in March 2024. But I’m an intensive care physician. I deal with slim chances all the time,” said Balekian.

“I will go on CNN and MSNBC. I am not afraid to answer the hard questions, and I’m more than happy to explain my positions because I represent 80 percent of us in the moderate middle. Yes, prices are high; crime is high. But what matters most to local parents is the indoctrination that’s occurring in the schools. School districts like LAUSD say our curriculum is ‘queer all school year.’ I say, what about ‘math all month,’ ‘multiplication Mondays’ or focusing on basic skills that will make American children innovative like we used to be?”

At the end of the day, David Donahue, President of Vision Burbank, describing his group as “common sense people working for common sense solutions,” hosted a community meet-and-greet with Balekian at the Burbank Chamber of Commerce. The energetic crowd asked an array of questions about Balekian’s positions on the right to bear arms, the federal deficit, and the American dream.

They also drank in his compelling immigrant family story.

“My father was an Armenian engineer born and raised in Baghdad. In 1978, he and my pregnant mother and my sister left for America with whatever they could grab. He found a fried chicken joint in San Fernando to lease until he could get his general contractors’ license. He reinvented himself. But the current business climate makes it difficult, if not impossible, to do that now. For example, Glendale has discussed a new business tax to shore up its $90 million budget deficit. Who’s going to open up a new business in that financial climate?”

Regarding securing public safety, Balekian says of the right to bear arms, “The instruction manual for our country is the Constitution, and the Constitution gives us the right to bear arms. Like driving, citizens should treat gun ownership as a privilege and responsibility.”

“He is a petulant child, and I will not vote for him.”

On the federal deficit? “We would all be better off if we ran this country like we run our own households: on a budget and with minimal interference from outside sources. I will never vote yes on deficit spending. I don’t care if it’s a Republican or a Democratic budget. I am emphatically against what Donald Trump and the Republicans did in 2017, which was to increase the debt ceiling without making spending cuts.”

Of former President Donald Trump, Balekian says, “He is a petulant child, and I will not vote for him. However, I am also not a Republican for Harris. I’ll probably write in Vivek Ramaswamy.”

Balekian ends the long day with a quote from Ronald Reagan, referencing Reagan’s infamous take on what he termed were the nine most terrifying words in the English language: “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”

“I am an endangered species. I am a pro-choice Republican. What is my position on abortion? Stay out of it. This is why I’ve gotten so far in a safe blue Dem-on-Dem district. People want the government to stay out of their lives.”

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