Who is Kevin Paffrath? Democrat recall candidate calls for a pipeline to the Mississippi River

In his first appearance on the 2021 California recall election debate stage, Democratic candidate and YouTube content creator Kevin Paffrath advocated for building a water pipeline from the Mississippi River, pledged to clear the streets of homeless people in 60 days and called on his Republican debate opponents to step down and endorse him.

Paffrath is one of 46 candidates whose name appears on the ballot, which asks voters two questions: Should Gov. Gavin Newsom be recalled from office and, if so, whom should replace him. Voters have until Sept. 14 to mail in their ballots.

Newsom has largely succeeded in keeping big name Democrats out of the recall election. Though there are nine Democrats on the ballot, Paffrath — who has more than a million YouTube followers — is the only Democrat with any widespread recognition.

At Wednesday’s debate, hosted by the San Francisco Chronicle and Sacramento’s KCRA 3, Paffrath labeled himself as “a JFK-style Democrat” who would accomplish big things while in office, where his Republican opponents would stumble across a recalcitrant Legislature.

A pipeline to the Mississippi River

Perhaps the biggest achievement Paffrath said he would accomplish if elected governor would be to solve California’s water crisis by building a pipeline across the country.

“On day one I will declare a state of emergency to begin the construction, as soon as feasibly possible, of a pipeline to the Mississippi River,” he said.

Paffrath said that he would do so by working with President Joe Biden’s administration, and that there is enough federal land, with the exception of Texas, between California and the Mississippi River to accomplish such a feat of engineering. As for Texas, Paffrath said California could rent land in that state.

Asked whether he had spoken with leaders from the states that such a pipeline would run through, Paffrath said “Absolutely.”

What to do about housing and the homeless?

Paffrath, who has a background in real estate, also was asked about California’s housing crisis, and what he would do to solve it. He said that it’s not enough to build homes along transportation corridors, but that the state needs to vastly expand the amount of housing it’s constucting.

“We need to build hundreds of thousands of homes throughout California, ideally half a million homes per year,” he said.

Such homes should be built outside of major cities, Paffrath said, which he said would increase infrastructure in those communities.

Paffrath frequently criticized fellow candidate Kevin Faulconer, the Republican former mayor of San Diego, which led Faulconer to fire back in his own remarks.

“It’s not the time for on-the-job training for YouTube. Someone that’s never actually had to get the legislation across, actually had to get the units constructed and built and actually take the stands to get housing constructed in California. I think that’s a clear difference between you and me, my friend,” Faulconer said.

Police reform and homelessness

Asked whether he would support the passage of California Senate Bill 2, which would give the state the ability to de-certify police officers found guilty of misconduct, Paffrath said that he has “3,000 hours of experience in law enforcement,” though he did not expand on that.

He said that he would consider signing a bill like SB 2, but called for more reforms in policing in California.

“We need a massive community style policing package in our Legislature to make sure we can reform law enforcement,” he said.

When asked whether he would consider lowering taxes in California, Paffrath responded that he had a multi-step plan to make the state more affordable, beginning with getting homeless people off the streets within 60 days.

“Once we invest in Californians, then we can lower taxes,” he said.

‘Drop out of the race’

Throughout the debate, Paffrath, the lone Democrat on stage, took shots at his fellow debate participants, all Republicans.

He repeatedly claimed to be polling better than all of them combined, and said that if a Republican were to get elected in the recall, they would be stymied for a year by a Democratic super-majority-controlled Legislature and then replaced by a Democrat in the 2022 gubernatorial election.

In his closing remarks, Paffrath made a request of fellow debate participants Kevin Faulconer, John Cox and Kevin Kiley.

“I would ask them to drop out of the race and endorse me, Kevin Paffrath, on the second part of the ballot, so we can defeat Larry Elder and bring bold change to California,” Paffrath said.

Larry Elder, a Republican conservative talk radio host who is consistently polling higher than the other recall candidates, did not attend Wednesday’s debate.

Faulconer appeared to respond to Paffrath in his own closing statement.

“It’s time to stop the circus. This is very serious times for our state. We don’t want to replace one dysfunctional governor with another,” Faulconer said.

This story was originally published August 25, 2021 at 9:26 PM with the headline "Who is Kevin Paffrath? Democrat recall candidate calls for a pipeline to the Mississippi River."