BAKERSFIELD— The southern Central Valley is home to one of California's few remaining congressional battlegrounds, where Democrats are eager to unseat longtime Republican Rep. David Valadao.
Proposition 50, passed by voters last year, redrawn the lines of this majority-Latino district slightly in favor of Democrats. Two leading Democratic candidates are fighting over who is the best choice to face Valadao (R-Hanford) in November.
Valadao is particularly vulnerable after it voted last year to cut spending on Medicaid, a critical resource for many in this poor rural area. Two-thirds of the district's residents are enrolled in the federally funded low-income health insurance program, and more than 60,000 people are expected to lose coverage when work requirements and other federal rules take effect next year.
Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford) leaves a meeting of the House Republican Conference at the Capitol Hill Club on March 17.
(Tom Williams/Getty Images)
National Democratic infighting has overshadowed a classic primary race between moderates and progressives since the House Democrats' campaign arm threw its support behind one candidate, Assemblyman Jasmeet Bains (D-Delano), against Randy Villegas, a school board trustee backed by progressives including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
The race was already tense when the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added Bains, a family physician and two-term assemblyman, to its “Red to Blue” program, which provides staff and fundraising support to Democrats running against vulnerable Republican incumbents. Local party leaders said they had received assurances from national Democrats that they would stay out of the race, further angering Villegas and his supporters.
“This is another example of why people's faith in the Democratic Party and its leadership is at an all-time low,” Villegas said in an interview with The Times. “In many ways, it's a badge of honor to not be the internal candidate and say I'm actually going to fight for community members here and not for DC elites.”
DCCC Chairwoman Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington cited Bains' background as a family physician and his history in the Legislature fighting to expand access to health care.
Randy Villegas, candidate for California's 22nd Congressional District, said his campaign manager wants him to take frequent selfies for his social media while walking through Bakersfield neighborhoods.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
“We only intervene in primaries when we feel that a candidate stands out as the strongest possible candidate to ensure that we win in the general election,” DelBene said in a recent interview on CBS' “Face the Nation.” “This is a district that has been devastated by health care cuts and a large Medicaid population, so she is an incredible candidate and can definitely address the issues needed in health care.”
For Democrats, the outcome of the primary could have national significance. With President Trump's popularity at a low point nationally (and especially in California), the party hopes to gain enough seats in the 2026 elections to oust Republicans from power in the US House of Representatives.
Valadao, who was first elected to Congress in 2012, has been a perpetual target for Democrats, who have had a considerable registration advantage in his district. Valadao, a moderate Republican, had emphasized his support for immigration reform, a departure from his party. Still, Democrats unseated Valadao in the 2018 blue wave, only for him to regain the seat in 2020 and remain in office ever since.
Both Villegas and Bains are touting themselves as Democrats' best option to unseat Valadao once again.
Villegas, the son of Mexican immigrants, has the backing of Hispanic and progressive groups in the House of Representatives and has described Bains as a corporate-backed candidate who would bow to special interests.
Jasmeet Bains, candidate for California's 22nd Congressional District, speaks with Mary Jimenez during a campaign walk in Bakersfield.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
“We can't just say we're not Trump. The Democratic Party really needs to stand for something,” he said. “To me, that means fighting for universal health care, universal early childhood education, banning members of Congress from trading stocks, getting rid of corporate money from PACs. Those things can make Democratic leadership uncomfortable, and I'm okay with that.”
Bains is campaigning on her experience as a doctor in a region known for its poor health and environmental outcomes. After medical school, he returned to Kern County, where he completed his residency and continued working in clinics serving primarily low-income patients in the region.
He decided to run for the seat after Valadao voted in favor of HR 1, the Republican spending bill that Trump signed into law last year that cut nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid funding to pay for tax cuts, which Bains described as a “betrayal.”
“In the Valley, your word is your bond,” he said in a phone interview while driving the 250-mile trip from his district to the state Capitol in Sacramento. “At first he kept telling everyone that he wasn't going to vote for it, and I took him at his word.”
Jasmeet Bains brings 8-month-old Chiquita as her campaign walks through a neighborhood in Bakersfield.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
Bains is the daughter of Indian immigrants and was the first South Asian woman elected to the California Legislature. He continues to work weekend shifts at a clinic in Delano.
“I thought the disparities in health care for people who lose their private insurance and have to transfer to Medicaid” were bad, Bains said. “With the trillion dollars cut from Medicaid at the federal level, I am now in a position where I am transferring my Medicaid patients to nothing. The health care problem in the Valley has gotten worse and worse.”
It's why unions, including SEIU Local 521, which represents workers in the public, nonprofit and health care sectors in Kern and other counties across the state, are backing Bains.
“Within my own union, the members I represent in Kern County, in certain ZIP codes, have a life expectancy that is 15 years lower than my union members who live in Monterey County, which is a very similar community” with rural agricultural interests, said Riko Mendez, the union's elected director.
He said Bains understands the region's unique health challenges and has used his position in the Legislature to address them, including pushing for funding to research and treat valley fever, an infection caused by fungal spores in the region's soils.
“We believe that his experience, his profile, his message is one that we agree with and that he has a better chance of winning in the second round against Valadao,” he said.
Bains' time commitments in Sacramento and his work at the clinic leave him little time for a traditional campaign by knocking on doors and attending community events. Some voters who support Villegas have noticed this.
Randy Villegas takes a phone call in the shade while walking through the neighborhoods of Bakersfield.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
“For us, running is one of the most important things, and he is the only candidate who has been doing it consistently,” Vanessa Orozco Romero, 18, said after a recent candidate forum in Bakersfield. Although nearly a dozen candidates were invited for various offices, Villegas and two other Democrats running for legislative seats were the only ones who attended.
Orozco Romero called the DCCC's decision to endorse Bains “stupid and morally wrong,” especially since neither candidate garnered enough delegate support to win the state party's endorsement earlier this year.
Bains and Villegas have similar backgrounds as children of immigrants who grew up in the southern Central Valley. Although both earned high-level degrees, each is adamant about remaining in Kern County to improve the lives of its residents.
The district is anchored on the east side of Bakersfield, home to California's once-prosperous oil fields, and extends north toward Fresno to include swaths of farmland and small farming towns.
While there are more than twice as many registered Democrats in the district as Republicans, Democratic candidates often underperform in the Central Valley and independent voters play a crucial role in electing winning candidates. Even under the new Proposition 50 lines that favor Democrats, President Trump would have defeated former Vice President Kamala Harris by nearly 2 points.
Although nearly two-thirds of the district's voters are Latino, turnout is typically low among Spanish-speaking voters, who are often put off by negative attack ads, Democratic activists said.
Barring the 2018 midterm elections during Trump's first term, Valadao, a dairy farmer, has frustrated Democrats by continually winning over enough independents to keep the seat. Although all three candidates are competing in an open primary, Valadao is expected to advance to the general election as a longtime incumbent and the only Republican on the ballot.
“As he does in every primary election, Congressman Valadao is working hard to earn the vote of all Democrats, independents and Republicans,” Robert Jones, a Valadao campaign consultant, wrote in an email. “We are confident that Central Valley voters will send the top two candidates to the November general election.”
