{"id":355823,"date":"2026-06-11T05:25:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T05:25:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/355823\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T05:25:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T05:25:20","slug":"valadao-to-face-villegas-in-november-as-democrats-seek-to-flip-house-majority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/355823\/","title":{"rendered":"Valadao to face Villegas in November as Democrats seek to flip House majority"},"content":{"rendered":"

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK\/KBFX) Voters in California\u2019s 22nd Congressional District are headed for a November general election matchup between Republican Rep. David Valadao and progressive challenger Randy Villegas, as Democrats look to flip the narrow Republican majority in the U.S. House.<\/p>\n

\"Valadao<\/p>\n

Valadao to face Villegas in November as Democrats seek to flip House majority (KBAK\/KBFX)<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the House it\u2019s 217 Republicans to 212 Democrats with one independent and five seats open,\u201d said Ian Anderson, an adjunct professor at Taft and Bakersfield College.<\/p>\n

Moderate Democrat Jasmeet Bains, who had been supported by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, did not advance to the general election.<\/p>\n

Valadao\u2019s district was also at the center of last year\u2019s Proposition 50. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat disbanded temporarily the Citizens Redistricting Commission and replaced it with these partisan maps. <\/p>\n

And Valadao\u2019s district was one that was heavily impacted by that,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n

Villegas was not endorsed by the DCCC, but he did receive an endorsement from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has endorsed other progressive candidates moving on to general elections, including Graham Platner in Maine.<\/p>\n

\"Valadao<\/p>\n

Valadao to face Villegas in November as Democrats seek to flip House majority (Photo by Heather Diehl\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Anderson said endorsements can help, but he described Villegas\u2019 campaign as offering voters a change from the status quo. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are looking at alternatives to what they are currently seeing and so the candidates and the parties need to be aware of that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Valadao, the incumbent, received more than 40% of the vote in the primary. <\/p>\n

Anderson said Valadao\u2019s background and the district\u2019s agricultural priorities remain significant factors. <\/p>\n

\"Valadao<\/p>\n

Valadao to face Villegas in November as Democrats seek to flip House majority (KBAK\/KBFX) (Photo: KBAK\/KBFX)<\/p>\n

Comment with Bubbles<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s important to remember he is a farmer. Ag is very important in the county, and I think that weighs heavily in the county.\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK\/KBFX) Voters in California\u2019s 22nd Congressional District are headed for a November general election matchup between…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-355823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355823","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=355823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}