Fact Check: Democrat TJ Cox calls GOP’s David Valadao a ‘yes man’ for Trump. Is he?
Rep. TJ Cox released two advertisements in the last week, both portraying him as the candidate who cares about immigrants and making health care more affordable, while portraying his opponent as President Donald Trump’s “yes man.”
Cox, D-Fresno, is trying to defend his seat against former Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford. Cox beat Valadao in 2018 by fewer than 1,000 votes, and the seat is a top target for Republicans.
Political groups have already spent more than $7 million in ads for this one congressional race.
Cox’s campaign declined to specify how much it spent to reserve space for the ads. One, focused on health care, is running in English and the other, focused on immigration, is running in Spanish on TV and online in the district.
What the health care ad says
Cox: “I’m proud to have built community health clinics across the Valley to help make care more affordable. It’s why I took on the drug companies to lower the cost of prescription drugs.”
Voiceover: “But David Valadao was a ‘Yes Man’ for Trump. Trump and Valadao gave the drug companies billions in tax breaks – while letting them jack up prices. That’s just wrong.”
What the immigration ad says
Voiceover: In Washington, David Valadao sided with Donald Trump 99% of the time — making our life harder. Opposing the DREAM Act. Even allowing Trump to separate families. Valadao’s for Trump — not us.
TJ Cox is the proud son of hard-working immigrants. Cox fought against Trump’s cruel policies, then worked with Republicans and Democrats to provide legal status to immigrants brought here as children, including soldiers who serve in the U.S. military.
Analysis
Cox’s factual claims in both of the advertisements are true, although some of the claims are somewhat misleading.
His first claim, that he helped build community health clinics across the San Joaquin Valley, is true, though his company received significant government grants to fund them. Cox’s campaign pointed to his presidency of the Central Valley New Market Tax Credit and its work to build four community health centers in Mendota, Parlier, Selma, Sanger and Fowler. Cox’s company was not solely responsible for funding the health centers — it connected projects with bank lenders to get them financing, using government tax allocations as incentives for the banks, in addition to putting up funding of its own.
Cox also portrayed himself as someone working diligently to bring more affordable health care to the Central Valley as a congressman, saying he “took on the drug companies to lower the cost of prescription drugs.”
He’s referring to voting on the passage of a Democratic bill that was meant to lower prescription drug costs. Cox was not a co-sponsor of the bill and it never became law. It passed the House with the support of all Democrats and two Republicans, but the Republican-controlled Senate declined to take it up, leaving it in limbo.
He accuses Valadao of giving “the drug companies billions in tax breaks – while letting them jack up prices.” He’s referring to the Republican tax cuts passed in 2017, which did give significant tax breaks to all companies, including drug companies.
In both ads, Cox portrays Valadao as someone who largely aligned himself with Trump, calling Valadao Trump’s “yes man” and saying he voted with Trump 99% of the time. That figure is a common one cited by Democrats — though technically accurate, it’s misleading because a Republican-controlled House is unlikely to put forward legislation not supported by a Republican president. The House was controlled by Republicans until 2019, when Valadao left office.
Saying Valadao opposed the DREAM Act, which would grant a path to citizenship for young immigrants brought into the country illegally as children, and “allowed” Trump to separate families are also misleading claims.
Democrats in procedural votes tried to force Republicans to open debate on bills that were about to pass the House, including attaching the DREAM Act to those bills. It’s a typical tactic by the House minority party, and House Republicans have frequently tried to use it against Democrats now that they’re in the minority and Democrats have nearly always voted to end debate.
Republicans voted to defeat Democrats’ motion every time, and Valadao voted with Republicans. So while it’s technically true that Valadao voted to table the DREAM Act, it wasn’t a straight yes or no vote on the DREAM Act.
In fact, Valadao had co-sponsored the DREAM Act during his time in Congress, but Republican leadership never granted a vote on the DREAM Act by itself.
Saying Valadao allowed the separation of children from their families also is misleading. The Trump administration changed a policy unilaterally, without the approval of Congress, that resulted in more families being separated at the border. Congressional leaders talked about passing a bill to end the practice, but in the end Trump’s administration scaled back on the separations before Congress intervened.
Finally, Cox said he “worked with Republicans and Democrats to provide legal status to immigrants brought here as children.” House Democrats passed the DREAM Act in 2019 to provide a path to citizenship for Dreamers.
House Democrats did not work with Senate Republicans on the bill, and the Senate ignored it. The bill did not become law. House Republicans were also not involved in crafting the bill, but seven of them voted along with all House Democrats to approve the bill in the House floor vote.
This story was originally published August 28, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story stated Cox’s company was not directly responsible for funding health care centers. His company did put up some funding for the health care centers, in addition to government grants.
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