In summary
Left-leaning college professor Randy Villegas easily defeated Republican Rep. David Valadao in the Central Valley, padding the Democratic congressional majority.
Progressive Democrats have decisively flipped California’s Central Valley blue.
Randy Villegas, a political newcomer from Bakersfield supported by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, defeated incumbent Republican Rep. David Valadao by a two-to-one margin, according to The Associated Press.
Democrats also firmly held onto a key seat in the northern San Joaquin Valley as Rep. Adam Gray defeated Republican former Stockton Mayor Kevin Lincoln by more than 22%, the AP declared Wednesday. And Democrat Marni von Wilpert prevailed over her Republican challenger in GOP outgoing Rep. Darrell Issa’s district.
Nationally, Democrats didn’t even need California’s congressional races to easily reclaim control of the U.S. House but they’ll pad their majority with at least four additional California seats currently held by Republicans in the wake of last year’s Proposition 50. Voters approved redrawing five California districts to favor Democrats as a countermeasure to pro-Republican gerrymandering in Texas. Democrats have won four of those five Texas districts.
Central Valley, San Diego area seats pivotal
California’s most hotly contested race featured 12-year Republican incumbent Valadao of Hanford, a dairy farmer and perpetual target for national Democrats, and political newcomer Villegas, a political science professor.
Villegas defeated Valadao after winning more than two-thirds of the tallied vote, the AP declared Wednesday. Villegas had about 66% with about 57% of the votes counted.
Valadao’s defeat was years in the making as Democrats repeatedly tried and failed to unseat him ever since 2018, the last midterm under President Donald Trump.
Villegas’s win gives liberal Democrats proof of concept that their progressive ideas such as Medicare for All and universal childcare can appeal to swing voters in battleground areas like the historically conservative and agriculture-rich Central Valley.
Valadao, the lone remaining Republican who voted to impeach President Donald Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021 riots, sought his seventh term and touted the importance of bipartisanship and independent thinking. But he ultimately faced a reckoning over his decision to support Trump’s megabill that will ultimately strip healthcare coverage from more than 2 million Californians in the next four years.
Further south in San Diego and Riverside counties, Marni von Wilpert, a Democratic San Diego City councilmember prevailed over Republican San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond to fill the seat of Issa, who chose to retire rather than seek reelection in a redrawn 48th District.
Both ran traditionally centrist campaigns that harken to pre-Trump politics. Von Wilpert eschewed the insurgent progressive left and instead campaigned with former Vice President Kamala Harris, while Desmond worked overtime to distance himself from Trump and the president’s MAGA rhetoric.
Progressives try to remake Democratic Party
Several California races featured two Democrats.
Among the most closely watched was the 11th District race to succeed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who endorsed San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan. State Sen. Scott Wiener, a prolific legislator who has authored several laws to expedite housing production and secure competitive wages on state-subsidized projects, was poised for a win. Chan, a Chinese immigrant from Taiwan who is known for opposing urban development, conceded the race Wednesday.
In the Sacramento area’s 7th District, 41-year-old Sacramento City Councilmember Mai Vang, who launched an intergenerational “battle of the ages,” was trailing Rep. Doris Matsui, 82, who had 57% of the vote Wednesday with 41% of ballots counted, according to the AP.
And in the Los Angeles-based 34th District, incumbent Rep. Jimmy Gomez fell to Democratic Socialist Angela Gonzales-Torres, The Associated Press declared Wednesday. The five-term congressmember won the June primary by double digits but bled support amid a House ethics investigation into allegations of sexual assault, which he’s denied. Gonzales-Torres was declared the winner with nearly 59% of the vote.
Upsets in Prop. 50 districts could endanger majority
Three incumbent Republican or former Republican lawmakers will lose their jobs in the wake of Prop. 50.
Either Rep. Young Kim or Rep. Ken Calvert, who competed for California’s 40th District, will be left jobless. Gerrymandering drastically reshaped Calvert’s 41st District, but rather than retire, he chose to challenge his colleague Kim. Both scrambled to “out-Trump” the other in the primary election but Kim later returned to a more centrist, fiscally conservative approach. Calvert was leading with 54% Wednesday with about 42% of the vote tallied.
Rep. James Gallagher, who succeeded the late Rep. Doug LaMalfa in representing the rural north state in the 1st District, lost to former California Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire, a Democrat. The district was redrawn to remove several conservative and rural areas near the Oregon-California border.
Rep. Kevin Kiley, who left the Republican Party earlier this year, sought reelection in the 6th District rather than his former district which was significantly reshaped to favor Democrats. He lost to Dr. Richard Pan, a physician and former state senator running as an anti-Make America Healthy Again candidate, the AP declared.
