Where David Valadao, Rudy Salas stand in close California congressional race
Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford, was leading former Assemblyman Rudy Salas, D-Bakersfield, in early returns from California’s 22nd Congressional District on Tuesday night, according to the Associated Press.
The race is expected to be one of the nation’s closest 2024 elections, and the winner may not be clear for weeks.
The 2024 rematch between Valadao and Salas could help decide which party controls the House of Representatives in 2025.
Their 2022 contest was one of the closest in the country, helping hand Republicans a slim House majority. Valadao was declared the winner two weeks after Election Day, prevailing by 3 percentage points.
Valadao had 54% of the votes and Salas had 46% with an estimated 41% of ballots counted as of 10:10 p.m. on Tuesday.
The 22nd district includes most of Kings County and parts of Tulare and Kern counties.
It is one of more than a dozen congressional districts across the country held by GOP congressmen where President Joe Biden would have beaten former President Donald Trump in 2020 had current legislative boundaries been in place. Boundaries were redrawn to reflect the 2020 census. Voters in the new 22nd would have picked Biden by 13 points in 2020.
It’s a Latino-majority voting-age district with a large population of young people. Compared to the rest of California, this district tends to have low turnout, leading older, white, more conservative voters to disproportionately influence elections here. Still, presidential general elections tend to see the most turnout.
Valadao, 47, is a dairy farmer who served in the Assembly for a term before Congress. He was first elected to Congress in 2012. He lost his seat in the 2018 “blue wave” midterms and regained it in 2020, both times on slim margins.
Valadao is a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, which writes government spending bills, and House Budget Committee.
Salas, 47, served in the Assembly for a decade before leaving through his 2022 congressional bid. He was on the Bakersfield City Council before being elected to the Legislature and grew up working in the fields with family members.
This story was originally published November 5, 2024 at 8:49 PM with the headline "Where David Valadao, Rudy Salas stand in close California congressional race."
