Randy Villegas won California’s Central Valley Democratic primary for the state’s 22nd congressional district, setting up a November matchup with incumbent Rep. David Valadao. The race became a public split between progressive lawmakers and the party’s officia
Randy Villegas knew the Central Valley primary wasn’t going to be neat.
In the final stretch. it came down to whether voters would back a progressive challenger pushed by national figures like Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—or stick with Jasmeet Bains. a California State Assembly member whom Democratic Party leaders had viewed as a stronger opponent to incumbent Rep. David Valadao.
On Tuesday, Villegas was projected as the winner of the tough primary election, a week after Election Day. The result means he will advance to the November general election to face Valadao, a Republican, in California’s 22nd congressional district.
The political fight behind the numbers was unmistakable. Progressives supported Villegas in a split with Democratic Party leadership, which had signaled earlier preference for Bains. It was one of several midterm races this year where progressives and party officials worked against each other inside the same coalition.
In a victory statement, Villegas said, “Despite the onslaught of outside corporate money spent against us, we have shown that working people are ready for change.”
After the Associated Press projected Villegas’s win on Tuesday, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee quickly shifted behind him.
Rep. Suzan DelBene, the DCCC chair, said in a statement that “Randy Villegas is a son of the Valley and has spent his career fighting for working families too often left behind by Valadao’s failed leadership.” DelBene added: “He’s the kind of people-first leader Valley voters deserve.”
That move came after Villegas had already framed the general election as a contrast vote. In an interview with HuffPost last month. he said a more progressive candidate would be a better foil for Valadao—criticizing what he described as Democratic candidates running campaigns that look “Republican-like. ” taking the same corporate PAC money. and taking the same money from AIPAC as Valadao.
In the same comments, Villegas argued the district “should have been flippable a decade ago,” adding that Democrats now had to “offer people something different, something to actually believe in, and something to fight for.”
Republicans reacted sharply to Villegas advancing, leaning into the intra-party disruption they said he benefited from. National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Mike Marinella said in a press release that “They tried to sink him. They failed. Now national Democrats are staring down a reality where they could be stuck with the socialist nominee they tried to take out themselves.”.
For Democrats, the stakes are tied directly to House math. The race is seen as important because Democrats hope to flip enough Republican seats to retake control of the House of Representatives.
There’s also pressure from the way voters will be drawn this fall. The district will have more Democratic voters after California Democrats redrew their maps to counter Republican gerrymandering in Texas.
Healthcare is expected to be a central issue once Villegas squares off with Valadao in November.
Valadao’s district has the highest proportion of Medicaid beneficiaries in the U.S. and Valadao was among several moderate Republicans who said he wouldn’t support Medicaid cuts last year—but later voted for a bill that will shrink program enrollment by several million. The law has not been popular in surveys.
Republicans have sought to rebrand the measure as the “Working Families Tax Cut” after President Donald Trump named it the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” The bill used cuts to Medicaid and food assistance to offset part of the cost of more than $4 trillion in tax cuts.
Bains, for her part, tried to position herself outside the party’s internal power debates. A family doctor who has served in the state Legislature since 2022, Bains said she did not consider herself part of the Democratic establishment.
In comments to HuffPost last week, Bains said, “I consider myself a physician that’s working to increase access to healthcare,” and added: “I consider myself a person that has always worked to protect vulnerable communities. My community knows very well the work that I’ve done here.”
So the primary outcome does more than change a candidate name on a ballot. It determines which kind of message Democrats will carry into a high-stakes general election—one where Medicaid and food assistance cuts are already weaponized. where national party organizations moved quickly after the Associated Press projection. and where progressives and party leadership spent much of the campaign pulling in different directions.
Randy Villegas Jasmeet Bains David Valadao California's 22nd Democratic primary DCCC Suzan DelBene Bernie Sanders Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Medicaid Working Families Tax Cut One Big Beautiful Bill AIPAC