This Republican voted to impeach in 2021. He’s still getting campaign cash from Trump backers
San Joaquin Valley Rep. David Valadao voted to impeach President Donald Trump in January, and that’s meant campaign money from like-minded Republicans.
But at the same time, the Hanford Republican has also taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from the House GOP leaders who energetically opposed impeachment and, in most cases, voted not to certify key 2020 presidential election results.
So Valadao, whose too-close-to-call congressional race is viewed nationally as crucial to control of Congress next year, has $1.35 million on hand, thanks to money from almost all corners of the divided Republican Party.
Last year, Valadao ensured he appealed to both sides. He voted for, then against, the effort to set up a panel to examine the Jan. 6 insurrection, and has repeatedly declined or ignored requests from The Fresno Bee to discuss the Capitol riot. His team did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
In January, Valadao was one of 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach Trump for inciting an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Seven of those representatives are seeking re-election.
At the time, Valadao said Trump was “without question, a driving force in the catastrophic events that took place on Jan. 6 by encouraging masses of rioters to incite violence” as they overran the Capitol. “His inciting rhetoric was un-American, abhorrent, and absolutely an impeachable offense.”
In the first part of 2021, Valadao’s fundraising benefited from his vote to impeach.
He got $24,000 in the first quarter from other Republican lawmakers who voted to impeach Trump, including $5,000 from the political action committee of Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming, who lost her House GOP leadership post because of her vocal opposition to Trump.
He received $5,000 from the PAC led by Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., one of the seven Senate Republicans that voted to convict Trump. And he got another $4,500 from two House members who had favored censuring Trump.
Valadao’s Vitoria PAC, one of his three campaign committees, contributed $1,000 each to eight of the House members who voted for impeachment, including Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill. Kinzinger and Cheney, who are the only Republicans on the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection.
Valadao sides with the right
Since then, the Hanford Republican has sided with his more right-leaning members of the GOP on matters related to the insurrection.
He voted for, then against, the creation of an independent Jan. 6 review body. The first commission plan would have set up a panel of 10 people who were not part of the federal government chosen in equal parts by the Senate and House majority and minority leaders.
The second version, which Valadao voted against, created a group of House members picked by House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, could have had a say on Republican members, but pulled back his choices after Pelosi rejected two of them.
Following the vote, Valadao said the House committee would politicize Jan. 6 rather than address the problems at the heart of it.
Valadao said an independent, bipartisan review would have been a better approach, as Jan. 6 “was an attack on not only our legislative institution, but on our legislators themselves.”
“The members of Congress who will sit on the select (Pelosi) committee cannot be expected to investigate the tragic day they lived through firsthand with impartiality,” Valadao said in a release following the vote on that committee. “This select committee doesn’t have a deadline, so the majority can draw out their witch hunt as long as it suits them.”
“The American people deserve to know the truth about what happened that day, and now they will be stuck with soundbites and theatrics,” he added. “This will only divide us further.”
Valadao had been a loyal Trump supporter. The nonpartisan FiveThirtyEight Project found he supported Trump 96.8% of the time when he served in Congress during the Trump presidency.
Valadao avoids talking about Jan. 6
Valadao has been silent about Jan. 6 since. His office declined to offer statements on the anniversary of Jan. 6, with his spokesperson referring to past comments.
The most he has said on the topic came last August, when he tweeted: “Thank you to the Capitol Police for their protection today and every day. These men and women stand in harm’s way, harm that has come far too often lately, and we are indebted to them for their service. Thank you.”
Valadao has continued to get support from centrist Republicans. The Republican Main Street Partnership and the Republican Governance Group/Tuesday Group contributed to his campaign. So did No Labels, a bipartisan organization that aims to erase partisan divides, according to Federal Election Commission filings last year.
But he’s also benefited from contributions from the same GOP leaders and lawmakers who ousted Cheney and refused to name members to the committee.
That gives Democrats ammunition. “From taking money from politicians who want to throw out election results, to his dangerous attacks on Social Security and Medicare, it is clear David Valadao has abandoned the Central Valley for his party’s extremism,” said Maddy Mundy, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Most of the money goes into his Valadao for Congress account. Take Back the House, a McCarthy fundraising effort, gave Valadao’s campaign $178,293 last year.
Minority Whip Steve Scalise’s Eye of the Tiger PAC contributed $10,000.
Valadao also has tapped from traditional conservative sources. KOCHPAC, the political arm of Koch Industries, contributed $6,000. HUCKPAC, the committee associated with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, gave $5,000.
Valadao’s district considered a toss-up
Valadao frequently works with colleagues across the aisle, such as in a 72-member letter from late-January prodding President Joe Biden to take emergency actions to address supply chain issues.
But he also holds strong Republican ideologies, having voted to gut the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act and disavowed abortion access.
For the Central Valley, Republican consultants have referred to Valadao as a “great candidate” to bridge conservative and liberal voters. The Hanford dairy farmer will have to thread a fine needle in his increasingly Democratic district that major election-trackers are calling the home of a toss-up election in 2022.
Among several other challengers, Valadao faces Democratic Assemblyman Rudy Salas, who has dozens of endorsements from local politicians — including 10 of Valadao’s California Democratic colleagues, among them Sen. Alex Padilla. Salas raised $218,000 in the last three months of 2021, according to his campaign, and he has more than $204,000 on hand.
Valadao has represented the area around his hometown in Congress for the better part of eight years. He is no stranger to close elections: He narrowly won in 2020, ousting former Democratic Rep. TJ Cox. Cox had narrowly bested Valadao to unseat him in 2018. Valadao won his first three elections handily.
This story was originally published February 7, 2022 at 5:00 AM with the headline "This Republican voted to impeach in 2021. He’s still getting campaign cash from Trump backers."
