changed district boundaries<\/a> last year. Though the goal of the gerrymander, driven by Gov. Gavin Newsom, was to help Democrats flip Republican-held seats, the redrawn districts have spurred intraparty challenges in some parts of the state where incumbents have been forced into new territory.<\/p>\nIn the Napa Valley wine country, Representative Mike Thompson, 75, is facing a challenge from Eric Jones, 36, a former venture capitalist, after redistricting shifted Mr. Thompson\u2019s district eastward. In Southern California, Jake Levine, 42, is running to oust Representative Brad Sherman, 71, whose district now swoops in the shape of a backward C from Malibu to Simi Valley.<\/p>\n
And in the Sacramento area, Ms. Matsui must now introduce herself to voters in upscale suburbs and small Gold Rush towns in the Sierra Nevada foothills beyond the urban core.<\/p>\n
Frank Porter, vice chairman of the El Dorado County Democrats, said he was excited by the chance to be represented by a Democrat after having had a Republican congressman for decades. He met with Ms. Matsui and Ms. Vang as he weighed his options.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had reservations about her age, I\u2019ll be candid with you,\u201d he said of Ms. Matsui. But he found her sharp, capable and \u201cvery ready to serve us well.\u201d<\/p>\n
While he was impressed by Ms. Vang\u2019s enthusiasm and passion, Mr. Porter decided to vote for Ms. Matsui because he believes she will be more effective if Democrats win the House majority, given her seniority.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Mai Vang has a bright future,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a practical decision about how will we get Congress back in shape.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms. Matsui has been endorsed by Mr. Newsom, a powerful federation of labor unions and most of Ms. Vang\u2019s colleagues on the Sacramento City Council. She also won the endorsement of the California Democratic Party after a hard-fought battle at the convention.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not about clinging to power,\u201d Ms. Matsui said at the convention after being heckled. \u201cRight now you have to have effectiveness when you have the highest risk that we\u2019ve ever had in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, Ms. Matsui senses a serious threat from Ms. Vang. She loaned her campaign $1.4 million, a step she has never taken in her 10 prior re-election campaigns, according to campaign finance reports.<\/p>\n
Progressive groups see a real opportunity to oust an establishment incumbent. Three national organizations that back progressive candidates, Our Revolution, Justice Democrats and the Working Families Party, have endorsed Ms. Vang.<\/p>\n
Under California\u2019s primary rules, if Ms. Matsui and Ms. Vang finish first and second Tuesday, the intraparty battle will continue into November. But if a Democrat and a Republican make the top two, the Democrat is almost certain to prevail in November because the district\u2019s voters skew Democratic.<\/p>\n
The campaign has had a uniquely Sacramento flair, with the candidates\u2019 life stories reflecting the region\u2019s diverse communities. Ms. Vang is the daughter of Hmong refugees who fled war in Laos and settled in Sacramento\u2019s large Southeast Asian community. Ms. Matsui was born in an internment camp for Japanese Americans, where her parents were sent during World War II, and raised on a farm in California\u2019s Central Valley.<\/p>\n
Glimmers of the race have emerged along Sacramento\u2019s tree-shaded streets, where front yards are dotted with campaign lawn signs, the candidates sometimes alternating on the same block. In the city\u2019s youthful Midtown neighborhood, hundreds of Ms. Vang\u2019s supporters gathered in March for a fund-raising concert by the rock band Cake, which hails from Sacramento.<\/p>\n
Onstage, the band\u2019s leader, John McCrea, held up a T-shirt that said, \u201cI [heart] Democracy.\u201d Cheers erupted as he threw it into the crowd. The drummer hit his opening beats and fans holding plastic cups of beer began singing along.<\/p>\n
Afterward, John Ruffner, a contractor in attendance, said he was supporting Ms. Vang because he liked her activism during the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 and her opposition to U.S. military funding for Israel.<\/p>\n
For a long time, he saw Ms. Matsui as someone \u201cyou don\u2019t need to think about\u201d because her family was such a constant in local politics.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was a little boy, her husband was the rep, and then when I was a teenager, she kind of slid into it,\u201d Mr. Ruffner, 43, said.<\/p>\n
But Ms. Matsui now strikes him as a politician who has lost touch with her community and refuses to pass the torch.<\/p>\n
\u201cPure hubris,\u201d he said. \u201cShe feels entitled to camp in that seat.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the California Democratic Party convention in February, Ms. Pelosi rose from her seat as the forum came to an end. Ms. Pelosi, 86, is retiring this year, giving way to younger candidates, but she still wields tremendous clout among California Democrats.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that some of you are eager for another generation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
But, she added, sometimes people forget how much seniority helps representatives deliver for their districts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s important, to have new blood coming into the Congress and experience to show the way,\u201d Ms. Pelosi said. \u201cCongresswoman Matsui has been great on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the meeting was over, Ms. Vang remained energized, if a bit shellshocked by Ms. Pelosi\u2019s surprise intervention: \u201cI just had the establishment come in and say, \u2018Hey, what are you trying to do? She\u2019s my friend.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the California Democratic Party convention this year, Representative Doris Matsui, 81, was trying to convince a roomful…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,139205,989,11272,130673,86842,6190,9553,4517,4510],"class_list":["post-337327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-doris-o","tag-elections","tag-house-of-representatives","tag-matsui","tag-midterm-elections-2026","tag-nancy","tag-pelosi","tag-sacramento-calif","tag-united-states-politics-and-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337327","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=337327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}