Becerra and SEIU Target Valadao's Medicaid Vote as CA-22 Becomes the Fall's Hottest Race

At the Bakersfield Marriott Grand Ballroom last Thursday evening, California gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra joined leaders of SEIU Local 2015 — the union representing nearly 470,000 long-term care workers across California — to deliver a final-stretch argument for congressional challenger Randy Villegas: that the healthcare coverage of tens of thousands of Central Valley families is directly on the line come November 3.

With eleven days before Election Day, Thursday's mobilization transforms one of California's most historically resistant Republican cities into the latest front of a national contest for House control.

Labor's Offensive Against Valadao's Healthcare Vote

Becerra, who led the Department of Health and Human Services under President Biden, centered his remarks on Valadao's vote for H.R. 1, the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" — the sweeping budget reconciliation law signed by President Trump on July 4, 2025, that included approximately $1 trillion in cuts to federal healthcare programs, largely through Medicaid reductions, alongside $4.5 trillion in tax relief. Becerra argued those cuts drained resources from working families while directing the benefits toward corporations and the wealthiest Americans.

Villegas sharpened the charge into a personal confrontation: he told the Thursday crowd that "ripping away healthcare" from an estimated 70,000 district residents was what was truly extreme — pushing back against Valadao's effort to brand him as out of step with Central Valley values. Beyond healthcare, the challenger linked rising grocery and fuel prices to Republican economic policy while also criticizing what he described as an indiscriminate expansion of federal immigration enforcement, one that in his telling has swept up farmworkers and military veterans alongside undocumented residents.

A Redrawn Battleground in the Heart of California

The new CA-22, reconfigured under California's Proposition 50 — a redistricting measure approved by voters in November 2025 — draws together portions of Kern, Kings, Tulare, and Fresno counties into a district that is approximately 75 percent Latino, according to post-redistricting demographic data. Democrats have maintained a registration advantage in the area for years, yet Valadao has won six of seven congressional races in the area since 2012, routinely outrunning his party's presidential margin by double digits through an appeal rooted in personal moderation rather than partisan alignment.

The June 2 primary tested those dynamics directly: certified results from the California Secretary of State show Valadao received 40.7 percent of the vote while the two Democratic candidates — Villegas and Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains — combined for roughly 59 percent. Villegas advanced to the general with 32.2 percent to Bains' 27.1 percent. Under California's top-two primary system, only the two highest vote-getters move forward regardless of party affiliation.

The Candidate the Valley Made — and Unions Are Now Mobilizing

Villegas, 31, is a Central Valley native and the son of working-class Mexican immigrants. After earning an associate degree at Bakersfield College and a bachelor's in political science from California State University, Bakersfield, he went on to earn a doctorate at UC Santa Cruz — becoming the first in his family to hold a PhD — and was recognized by the American Political Science Association in 2025 for his teaching, mentorship, and civic engagement work with students. He currently teaches political science at College of the Sequoias, a community college in Visalia, and previously served as a trustee on the Visalia Unified School District Board.

His campaign has declined corporate PAC money throughout, and the labor coalition backing him spans SEIU Local 2015, National Nurses United, and the Working Families Party. Should he prevail on November 3, he would become the first Latino ever elected to Congress from California's Central Valley — a historic marker that has eluded the region across multiple election cycles. SEIU California, the 750,000-member parent organization, has separately endorsed Becerra for governor, framing the combined candidacies as the strongest available vehicle for protecting union jobs, Medi-Cal access, and in-home support services across the region.

On the fundraising front, the two candidates have combined for more than $11.5 million this cycle, with Valadao leading at nearly $6.1 million to Villegas' roughly $5.5 million. Turnout in CA-22 has historically lagged behind the district's Democratic registration advantage, handing Valadao repeated wins even as the Latino voter rolls have grown — and that structural gap is precisely what the current labor mobilization is designed to close.

Valadao Fires Back: "Too Extreme" to Build Across the Aisle

The Republican incumbent has pressed the same line throughout the final weeks, arguing to local broadcasters that the steady parade of nationally prominent progressives into Bakersfield vindicates his concern. The presence of figures like Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, Valadao argues, signals that Villegas would function as a reliable progressive vote in Washington rather than a pragmatic problem-solver for a region whose economy depends on agriculture, water rights, and energy. The National Republican Congressional Committee has amplified that framing, labeling Villegas a socialist and warning that a Democratic-held CA-22 would extend the reach of an agenda the district has historically rejected.

Valadao's argument carries a data point to match: under the new Proposition 50 lines, Trump carried the redrawn CA-22 by approximately two points in 2024, a result that underscores how competitive the reconfigured district has become while also reflecting how far Valadao himself outperforms his party's presidential numbers. His 2021 vote to impeach Trump remains part of his argument for cross-partisan appeal with moderate and independent voters.

Villegas has dismissed the socialist label, reframing the contest not as a left-right ideological debate but as an economic reckoning: working families in the Central Valley against entrenched interests that have, in his telling, neglected the region for more than a decade while his opponent voted to cut their healthcare and reward the wealthy.

Tonight's AOC Rally — and a Race That Could Tip the House

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is set to appear alongside Villegas this evening at the historic Nile Theater at 1721 19th Street in downtown Bakersfield, with the event starting at 6:30 p.m. The appearance caps a remarkable three-week sequence: Sanders headlined a "Fighting Oligarchy" event at the Harvey Auditorium at Bakersfield High School on October 4, drawing union members, farmworker advocates, and grassroots organizers; Becerra followed on Thursday; and Ocasio-Cortez closes out the week. No competitive congressional district in California has drawn this density of national Democratic firepower in the closing stretch of this election cycle.

The structural stakes explain the urgency. Republicans currently hold a 219-212 House majority with four vacant seats. Flipping CA-22 alone would not put Democrats in control of the chamber, but it would tighten an already precarious margin and demonstrate that progressive organizing — backed by labor infrastructure — can perform in a majority-Latino district that Republicans have held for most of the past thirteen years.

A Villegas campaign-internal poll released in July placed him ahead 48 percent to 44 percent — though independent forecasters have not confirmed the margin, and Cook Political Report continues to rate the race a Toss-up. What happens at the Nile Theater tonight, and at the ballot box on November 3, may offer the clearest signal yet of whether a labor-fueled, community-rooted campaign can finally crack the hold David Valadao has kept on California's Central Valley.

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