Democrat Progressive Randy Villegas Ousts Republican Valadao in California's Central Valley

Democratic candidate Randy Villegas has defeated Republican incumbent David Valadao in the race for California's 22nd congressional district, clinching one of the state's most closely watched congressional races and notching another win for the Democratic Party's progressive left.

Villegas is an educator who grew up in the Central Valley as the son of Mexican immigrants. He won support from figures such as Senator Bernie Sanders after a campaign that railed against the rising cost of living, healthcare cuts and sweeping immigration raids.

Speaking to supporters in the city of Bakersfield on Tuesday evening, Villegas called the result a historic victory for the Central Valley. Acknowledging the sacrifices of his parents, he said the victory was not because of him but because of all of them. He later told supporters: 'We beat the Democratic establishment. We beat the Republican establishment. We beat corporate PAC money. We beat AIPAC!'

The story of the district fits a larger one playing out across the country, the report said: angry about surging prices driven partly by the Trump administration's decision to launch a war on Iran, and overreach in areas such as ICE raids, voters decided to punish the president and his party. Polls had indicated for months that the president had become deeply unpopular, closely linked to collapsing faith in his handling of the economy and the cost of living.

Despite his image as a relative moderate with strong ties to the Central Valley, Valadao did not escape that trend on Tuesday night. After Trump's win in 2024, much was made of the Republican Party's inroads with Latino voters despite rhetoric vilifying immigrants and restrictive immigration policies; less than two years later, those gains have entirely evaporated, the report said.

Residents and officials in the Central Valley said ICE raids sent shockwaves through immigrant and Latino communities, with arrests of farmworkers and family members cutting against the administration's claims that it was targeting criminals. Villegas slammed the raids and linked them to Valadao's support for a massive increase in the budget for ICE, one of the agencies at the centre of the mass deportation raids. A recent Pew Research Center survey found that 56 percent of US voters now view ICE unfavourably, making it one of the least popular agencies in the federal government.

A member of the United Farm Workers (UFW) labour union who knocked on doors in Latino communities for Villegas said on Monday that some people said they regretted having voted for Trump, because he had not done what he promised.

Before facing Valadao, Villegas had to win a hard-fought primary against California State Assembly member Jasmeet Bains, a candidate aligned with the party's establishment wing who warned that his progressive positions would be too far to the left in the traditionally conservative region. Villegas and his supporters challenged that premise, and his populist message appears to have resonated in a race dominated by concerns about the cost of living and access to healthcare.

Villegas won endorsements from Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and energised supporters from the party's base, including members of organised labour who worked to get out the vote.

Manpreet Kaur, the progressive vice mayor of Bakersfield and an early supporter of Villegas, said Randy's race had shown that the Central Valley cannot be counted out of the urgent change needed in every corner of the country, and that the Central Valley is included in that.