{"id":325017,"date":"2026-05-20T19:45:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T19:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/325017\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T19:45:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T19:45:17","slug":"longtime-sacramento-congresswoman-doris-matsui-faces-serious-re-election-challenge-for-1st-time-in-elected-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/325017\/","title":{"rendered":"Longtime Sacramento Congresswoman Doris Matsui faces serious re-election challenge for 1st time in elected career"},"content":{"rendered":"

Longtime Congresswoman Doris Matsui is facing a real challenge for the first time in her elected career, as Sacramento City Councilmember Mai Vang is running for California’s 7th Congressional District<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Downtown Sacramento, with its ever-changing menu of political leaders, her name has remained constant for decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sacramento native and political strategist Rob Stutzman sat down to talk about the new challenge facing Doris Matsui.<\/p>\n

“Where does that name fit in voters’ minds when they go to a ballot box right now?” CBS13’s Steve Large asked.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The Matsui name is the ultimate legacy name in Sacramento,” Stutzman said. “I’m not young anymore. When I was in high school and started getting involved in politics, Bob Matsui was the congressman from Sacramento.”<\/p>\n

Congresswoman Doris Matsui won the district seat in 2005 following the death of her husband, Congressmember Robert Matsui. Combined, the Matsui name has represented Sacramento in Congress since 1979.<\/p>\n

“So Matsui, if there is a Rushmore for Sacramento, yeah, I think their names are certainly emblazoned upon it,” Stutzman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, fellow democrat and Sacramento City Councilmember Mai Vang is challenging Doris Matsui as a voice for change.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vang’s advertisements are calling for a change of the old guard, and they are forcing Doris Matsui to mount a defense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Doris Matsui’s ads recount her own compelling life story \u2014 born in a Japanese internment camp during World War II.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“This is not unique to the Sacramento race that there’s these younger candidates kind of pushing, but it’s not just youth, it’s typically more progressive, more liberal,” Stutzman said. “A little bit more activism behind their campaigns.”<\/p>\n

Money is pouring into both sides of this campaign, with Doris Matsui amassing $1.3 million in contributions to Vang’s $598,000.<\/p>\n

Vang has received financial support from independent expenditure groups, such as $300,000 from National Nurses United and $34,000 from the Working Families Party PAC.<\/p>\n

“There’s money on the progressive left to try and take on old guard candidates,” Stutzman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

California’s Congressional District 7 boundaries were changed by Prop 50<\/a>. It now also includes areas as far east as Placerville and as far south as Lodi.<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Longtime Congresswoman Doris Matsui is facing a real challenge for the first time in her elected career, as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[204,121,123,122],"class_list":["post-325017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-election","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}