This swing Central Valley congressional district will cross party lines for ‘best’ candidate

The sky was graciously cloudy on a recent Saturday morning as a group of people from all corners of Kern County gathered in a parking lot.

The mood was light, and many wore shirts declaring support for Rudy Salas, the Democrat running to represent Congressional District 22, a sprawling, largely rural expanse in the southern Central Valley. A white board reminded the volunteers of the impending deadline: Election Day is Nov. 5.

“You guys excited? Ready? Revved up?” Salas asked the crowd of about 40, who responded with applause and cheers. He instructed the canvassers to remind voters about his accomplishments while serving in the California Assembly for 10 years. That included his work securing $100 million for the California State University system and another $100 million for Bakersfield College.

“These elections really come down to just a handful of votes,” he said. “At the end of the day, you guys are going to be the difference.”

In a way, Salas summed up what Central Valley congressional races often come down to: close margins. In 2022, Salas lost to incumbent GOP Rep. David Valadao by about 3,100 votes in a district of 775,000 residents. That same election, another Democrat in a district just north lost to a Republican by 564 votes.

While California’s metro areas are deep blue and progressive, the Central Valley follows a different playbook. Congressional District 22 spans portions of Kern, Kings and Tulare counties, stretching from Hanford south to Bakersfield. The economy is dominated by agriculture, and more than 70% of residents are Latino.

On paper, the district leans Democratic — 43% of voters are registered Democrats compared with 26% registered as Republican and 23% registered with no party preference. But the region tends to defy the labels, regularly electing Republicans to Congress.

Moderate Democrats in the area have been nicknamed “Valleycrats,” to signal their predilection for voting for the person they believe will do the best job for the district rather than sticking with any one party.

Flor Olvera talks with young men in Wasco while canvassing for Democratic congressional candidate Rudy Salas.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Democratic leaders are hoping Salas, 47, can win their trust, flipping the district and bolstering their efforts to retake the majority in a closely divided U.S. House of Representatives. Salas was the first Latino elected to the Bakersfield City Council, and would 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, spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in a statement. Salas, he said, has an army of volunteers, tangible momentum and a “better understanding of the realities that families across the Valley face each day.”

But winning here means besting Valadao, another Central Valley native who remains popular among moderates. Valadao’s family started a dairy business in the Central Valley shortly after emigrating from Portugal in 1969. He was born and raised in Hanford, and works in the family business. His family now runs two dairies in Kings County.

GOP Rep. David Valadao, a dairy farmer, says he is running for reelection so he can continue to fight for water and resources for the Central Valley.

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Valadao was first elected to Congress in 2012 and reclaimed 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 cutbacks.

In an interview, Valadao, 47, said that he knows the district better than Salas, and that he is running for reelection so he can continue advocating for resources for the Central Valley. In Congress, he has largely voted along GOP party lines. Recently, he helped secure $6 million in federal funding to help the city of Delano create a new drinking water well and another $3.5 million to build a regional access road in Porterville.

“I think that people are seeing how hard I’ve been working in the district, and our numbers have been improving,” Valadao said. “It’s going out and talking to constituents, figuring out what’s going on, hearing from them directly, spending time in the district, looking at stuff and working on issues to try to make their lives a little bit better.”

Dolores Coronado Maas, 79, is a registered Republican and Hanford resident. Maas said that she intends to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris — a Democrat — for president, but that she is voting for Valadao for Congress because of his work with veterans and his vote to impeach then-President Trump in 2021. Valadao was one of only 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. He has not endorsed Trump’s election bid.

While that impeachment vote is controversial among some conservative voters, Maas said she appreciates that Valadao stood up to Trump, who she said wants to take women back to an era where their reproductive rights were restricted. She said she believes Valadao, her “favorite Republican,” would continue to stand firm against Trump.

“I can’t say anything against [Valadao],” she said. “He’s got guts.”

Salas, a lecturer at CSU Bakersfield, was born to Central Valley farmworkers and grew up working in the fields. He said that he decided to make another run for Congress because he believes district residents are excited at the prospect of a leadership change.

“We feel it. We see it. We hear it in every community throughout the entire district,” he said. “It’s really about just getting people to take the time to turn in that ballot. We know that the support is there.”

Among the canvassers who spent a Saturday morning last month knocking on doors for Salas was Flor Olvera, president of the Democratic Women of Kern. Olvera said she supports Salas because of his work to elevate farmworkers and Latinos in the region when he worked in the state Assembly.

“Just like Kamala [Harris] needs a House to be successful, Rudy needs advocates here at home to be successful,” said Olvera, who is running for a seat on the Kern Community College District board. “I’m just so fired up.”

Both candidates have taken aim at each other, criticizing their opponent for taking votes they contend are not in the interest of district residents.

Salas has called out Valadao for voting against the Inflation Reduction Act, a far-reaching climate, energy and healthcare bill that, among other changes, capped the monthly cost of insulin for Medicare enrollees at $35. Congress ultimately passed the measure and President Biden signed it into law in 2022.

Salas also highlights the contrast between himself and Valadao on reproductive rights.

Salas supported a successful 2022 statewide ballot measure, Proposition 1, that enshrined the rights to contraception and abortion in the California Constitution. In Congress, Valadao co-sponsored the Life at Conception Act, a failed bill that would have banned abortion nationwide with no exceptions.

“I think that people are seeing how hard I’ve been working in the district, and our numbers have been improving,” GOP Rep. David Valadao says of his reelection bid.

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Valadao has since softened his position. In an interview, he said that after “spending more time on the issue,” he now supports exceptions for rape, incest and if the mother’s life is at risk.

But he also disputed the notion that reproductive rights are a burning issue in his district, saying that the last time it came up in his discussions with constituents was years ago, with a group of seventh-grade girls who were antiabortion.

“The state of California isn’t going to change its rules anytime soon, so it’s a nonissue for most Californians,” Valadao said.

District 22 voters, he said, are concerned about water rights, homelessness, crime and affordable housing. He points to his work securing funding for Delano’s new well, a homeless shelter in Bakersfield and for law enforcement resources, including $622,000 for a Wasco Police Department dispatch center.

Salas said his record in the Assembly shows he understands how issues such as the cost of healthcare, access to education and immigration reform affect the everyday lives of district residents.

As an Assembly member, Salas voted to raise the minimum wage and supported a landmark 2016 law that grants farmworkers overtime pay when they work more than 40 hours a week. In 2017, he broke with the Legislature’s Democratic ranks to vote against a gas tax increase, saying he worried about the impact on families. The decision cost him his leadership role on a prime legislative committee.

His campaign volunteers have been knocking on doors on weekends in hopes of getting people to vote.

Flor Olvera, from right, Rosann Wattonville and her husband, Tom, speak with Joe Cardenas while door-knocking for Democrat Rudy Salas in Wasco.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Working a neighborhood in Wasco on a recent Saturday, Rosann and Tom Wattonville came across Joe Cardenas, 60, an HVAC technician who was working on his truck in his driveway. Cardenas said he intends to vote for Salas — but not for Harris. He said Salas’ background resonated with him; he too, grew up working in the fields.

“He does very good for Latinos; [he’s done] a lot of work for us low-income,” Cardenas said.

But plenty of voters are still making up their minds. At Elite Fades, a barbershop in Hanford, owner Kenwin Charles argued with a customer about the election and Trump’s pronouncements about the improvements made during his presidency.

“He just be talking crazy,” Charles, 46, said as he worked on a client.

Charles said he’d made up his mind to vote for Harris because he wants to see a woman leading the country, but he was still considering the two candidates for Congress. Valadao, he said, was the type of politician to promise 10 things and deliver just two, and he wasn’t happy with his record so far.

“I will check it out as it gets closer,” he promised. “Sometimes, change is good.”