The district backed Trump in 2024, giving him 49.50% of the vote to 47.18% for his Democratic rival, then-Vice President Kamala Harris. At the same time, Rep. Young Kim (R-CA) easily won reelection, extending a congressional career that began in 2020 when she beat a Democratic incumbent.

Kim has largely joined fellow House Republicans in backing Trump’s agenda during his second, nonconsecutive White House term. But she is at odds with the House GOP majority on how much to raise the deduction level for state and local taxes on federal tax returns — or whether to do so at all. This SALT deduction is a major intra-Republican sticking point as lawmakers debate what legislation should look like to extend the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Trump’s signature domestic achievement during his first White House stint.

If nothing is done, taxes will rise on many people and businesses. So, the big question now is what should and should not be included in the eventual legislation.

Most House Republicans don’t want much change in the SALT provision that became law with the TCJA. It capped SALT deductions at $10,000 for single and joint filers who itemize their income tax deductions. The SALT deduction used to be unlimited.

That’s a big problem for voters in Kim’s district, where the median household income is $127,956 and the median property value is $878,300.

Economic statistics are similar in the districts of other House colleagues vocally pushing to change the SALT deduction law, such as Reps. Andrew Garbarino (R-NY), Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ), Nick LaLota (R-NY), and Mike Lawler (R-NY). Like Kim, each won reelection in 2024 without breaking too much of a sweat, but these GOP lawmakers in an unfavorable political environment could become major Democratic targets.

The House GOP quintet possibly has significant leverage to get its way on SALT as negotiations progress. House Republicans will have a maximum 220-215 majority over Democrats when current vacancies are filled by special elections. Until that happens in May or June, margins will be even tighter.

Intra-GOP differences of opinion

While the five House Republicans, joined by other GOP colleagues who haven’t been as vocal, want to raise the SALT tax deduction significantly, many in the majority party aren’t interested. The deduction cap was put in place during negotiations on the 2017 tax law intentionally to hit people in blue states hard. It limits a popular tax deduction that often has the biggest effects on people with high property taxes and expensive homes while living in states with Democratic tax-and-spend supermajorities in state government, such as California, Maryland, and New York.

Put another way, in this view, well-off people who choose to live in profligate spending states shouldn’t get to deduct state and local taxes on their federal returns, saving large amounts of money ahead of each April 15.

Yet the SALT Five don’t represent deep-red districts where such a view would prevail. Take LaLota, who was first elected in 2022 in New York’s 1st Congressional District, covering eastern Long Island and the north shore of Suffolk County. In the district, which includes the Hamptons but also several decidedly middle-income and working-class communities, Trump prevailed over Harris by 54%-44%.

Garbarino, in the neighboring 2nd Congressional District, covering the South Shore of Long Island, saw Trump win over Harris by 56%-42%. Trump also prevailed in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, taking in the southwestern New York City suburbs and exurbs, which has been represented by Kean since January 2023.

The toughest SALT Republican constituency politically is New York’s 17th Congressional District, based in the lower Hudson Valley. Lawler won reelection relatively easily, but in the presidential race, the district narrowly supported Harris over Trump, 49.91% to 49.35%. That made the district one of only three out of 435 to elect a Republican House member and not give a majority of its support to Trump.

These lawmakers will likely get a lot more attention in the coming weeks and months as TCJA extension talks intensify. While their House Republican colleagues push for a dash of SALT deduction increase at most, they’re seeking a shaker’s worth.

It’s a fight that will reverberate from the sunny, rolling hills of Kim’s district east and north of Los Angeles to the eastern tip of Long Island, a continent away in the constituency represented by LaLota.