The sky was overcast Saturday morning as a group of people from all over Kern County gathered in the parking lot.
The mood was light, and many wore shirts expressing their support for Rudy Salas, a Democrat running to represent the 22nd Congressional District, a sprawling, mostly rural area in the south Central Valley. A white board reminds volunteers of an upcoming deadline: Election Day is November 5th.
“Are you excited? Ready? Followed?” Salas asked the crowd of about 40, who responded with applause and cheers. He instructed canvassers to remind voters of his accomplishments while serving in the California Assembly for 10 years. This includes his work that earned $100 million for the California State University system and another $100 million for Bakersfield College.
“This election really comes down to a few votes,” he said. “At the end of the day, you will make the difference.”
In a way, Salas summed up what Central Valley congressional races often do: close margins. In 2022, Salas lost to GOP representative David Valadao by about 3,100 votes in the district of 775,000 residents. That same election, another Democrat in a district to the north lost to a Republican by 564 votes.
While the California metro area is blue and progressive, the Central Valley follows a different playbook. The 22nd Congressional District covers parts of Kern, Kings and Tulare counties, stretching from Hanford south to Bakersfield. The economy is dominated by agriculture, and more than 70% of the population is Latino.
On paper, the district leans Democratic — 43% of registered voters are Democrats compared to 26% registered as Republicans and 23% registered without a party preference. But the region tends to reject that label, regularly electing Republicans to Congress.
Moderate Democrats in the area are nicknamed “Valleycrats,” to signal their predilection for voting for the person they believe will do the best job for their district rather than sticking with one party.
Flor Olvera talks to young people in Wasco as they vote for Democratic congressional candidate Rudy Salas.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Democratic leaders hope Salas, 47, can win their trust, flip the district and strengthen their efforts to capture a majority in the closely divided U.S. House of Representatives. Salas is the first Latino elected to the Bakersfield City Council, and will be the first Latino to represent the Central Valley in Congress.
“California will decide control of Congress, and the Central Valley is at the heart of that effort,” Dan Gottlieb, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in a statement. Salas, he said, has an army of volunteers, real momentum and “a better understanding of the reality that families in the Valley face every day.”
But winning here means besting Valadao, another Central Valley native who remains popular among moderates. The Valadao family started a dairy business in the Central Valley shortly after emigrating from Portugal in 1969. He was born and raised in Hanford, and worked in the family business. His family now runs two dairies in Kings County.
GOP Rep. David Valadao, a dairy farmer, said he will run for re-election to continue fighting for water and resources for the Central Valley.
(Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)
Valadao was first elected to Congress in 2012 and won the seat in 2020 after losing in 2018. From his position on the House Appropriations Committee, he has fought to keep federal and state water flowing to Central Valley farms amid years of drought and regulatory cuts.
In an interview, Valadao, 47, said he knows the district better than Salas, and that he will seek re-election to continue to advocate for resources for the Central Valley. In Congress, he generally voted along the GOP party line. Recently, he helped secure $6 million in federal funding to help the city of Delano build a new drinking water well and another $3.5 million to build a regional access road in Porterville.
“I think people are seeing how hard we work in the district, and our numbers are growing,” Valadao said. “It’s getting out and talking to constituents, finding out what’s going on, hearing directly from them, spending time in the district, seeing things and working on issues to try to make their lives better.”
Dolores Coronado Maas, 79, is a registered Republican and Hanford resident. Maas said he wanted to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris – a Democrat – for president, but he chose Valadao for Congress because of his work with veterans and voted to impeach President Trump in 2021. Valadao is one of only 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for role in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riots. They have not endorsed Trump’s election bid.
While the impeachment vote was controversial among some conservative voters, Maas said he commended Valadao to Trump, who has said he wants to bring women back to an era when reproductive rights were limited. He said he’s confident Valadao, a “favorite Republican,” will continue to stand firm against Trump.
“I can’t say anything to (Valadao),” he said. “He has guts.”
Salas, a lecturer at CSU Bakersfield, was born to a Central Valley farm worker and grew up in the fields. He said he decided to run for another term in Congress because he believes the people of the district are excited about the prospect of a change in leadership.
“We feel it. We see it. We hear it in every community throughout the county,” he said. “It’s really just asking people to take the time to cast that ballot. We know the support is there.
Among the canvassers who spent a Saturday morning last month knocking on doors for Salas was Flor Olvera, president of Democratic Women of Kern. Olvera said he supported Salas because of his work to uplift farmers and Latinos in the area when he served in the state Assembly.
“Just like Kamala (Harris) needs a home to be successful, Rudy needs an advocate at home to be successful,” said Olvera, who is running for the Kern Community College District board. “I’m just so excited.”
Both candidates are targeting each other, criticizing their opponents for taking votes that are not in the interest of the district’s citizens.
Salas called on Valadao to vote against the Inflation Reduction Act, a climate, energy and health bill that, among other changes, would cap monthly insulin costs for Medicare enrollees at $35. Congress eventually passed the measure and President Biden signed it into law in 2022.
Salas also highlighted the contrast between her and Valadao regarding reproductive rights.
Salas supported the successful 2022 ballot measure, Proposition 1, which enshrined the right to contraception and abortion in the California Constitution. In Congress, Valadao sponsored the Life at Conception Act, a failed bill that would have banned abortion nationwide without exception.
“I am the person who sees how hard I have worked in the district, and our numbers have increased,” GOP Rep. David Valadao said of the reelection bid.
(Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)
Valadao began to weaken his position. In an interview, he said that after “spending more time on the issue,” he now supports exemptions for rape, incest and if the mother’s life is at risk.
But she also disputed the notion that reproductive rights are a burning issue in her district, saying she ended up having discussions with constituents last year, with a group of seventh-grade girls who are antiabortion.
“The state of California isn’t going to change its rules anytime soon, so it shouldn’t be a problem for most Californians,” Valadao said.
District 22 voters, he said, are concerned about water rights, homelessness, crime and affordable housing. He pointed to his work to secure funding for Delano’s new well, Bakersfield’s homeless shelter and law enforcement resources, including $622,000 for the Wasco Police Department’s dispatch center.
Salas said his record in the Assembly shows he understands how issues such as health care costs, access to education and immigration reform affect the daily lives of county residents.
As a member of the Assembly, Salas voted to raise the minimum wage and supported a 2016 law granting overtime pay to farm workers when they work more than 40 hours a week. In 2017, he broke with the ranks of the Legislature’s Democrats to vote against a gas tax increase, saying he was concerned about the impact on his family. That decision put him in the lead on a key legislative committee.
Her campaign volunteers have been knocking on doors over the weekend in hopes of getting people to vote.
Flor Olvera, from right, Rosann Wattonville and her husband, Tom, talk to Joe Cardenas while knocking on doors for Democrat Rudy Salas in Wasco.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Working in their neighborhood in Wasco on a recent Saturday, Rosann and Tom Wattonville met Joe Cardenas, 60, an HVAC technician working on a truck in the driveway. Cardenas said he plans to vote for Salas — but not for Harris. He said Salas’ background resonated with him; he, too, grew up in the fields.
“He’s been great for Latinos; (he’s done) a lot of work for us low-income people,” Cardenas said.
But many voters are still making up their minds. At Elite Fades, a barbershop in Hanford, owner Kenwin Charles argued with customers about the election and Trump’s statements about the improvements he made during his presidency.
“They just talk crazy,” said Charles, 46, of working with a client.
Charles said he decided to vote for Harris because he wants to see a woman leading the country, but he is still considering both candidates for Congress. Valadao, he said, is the type of politician who promises 10 things and delivers only two, and he’s not happy with his record so far.
“I’ll check it when it gets closer,” he promised. “Sometimes, change is good.”
