The Briefing:
- Xavier Becerra and SEIU Local 2015 formally backed Randy Villegas in Bakersfield on October 22, making Valadao’s vote for H.R. 1 — the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” — the central argument of their healthcare-focused closing push.
- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is scheduled to appear alongside Villegas tonight, Friday, October 23, at the Nile Theater in Bakersfield starting at 6:30 p.m., capping a stretch that also included a Sen. Bernie Sanders rally at the Harvey Auditorium at Bakersfield High School on October 4.
- Independent forecasters currently rate CA-22 a Toss-up or Tilt Republican; a Villegas campaign-internal poll from July placed him ahead 48 to 44, a margin that outside analysts have not independently confirmed.
At the Bakersfield Marriott Grand Ballroom last Thursday evening, California gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra joined leaders of SEIU Local 2015 — the union representing nearly 470,000 long-term care workers across California — to deliver a final-stretch argument for congressional challenger Randy Villegas: that the healthcare coverage of tens of thousands of Central Valley families is directly on the line come November 3.
With eleven days before Election Day, Thursday’s mobilization transforms one of California’s most historically resistant Republican cities into the latest front of a national contest for House control.
Labor’s Offensive Against Valadao’s Healthcare Vote
Becerra, who led the Department of Health and Human Services under President Biden, centered his remarks on Valadao’s vote for H.R. 1, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” — the sweeping budget reconciliation law signed by President Trump on July 4, 2025, that included approximately $1 trillion in cuts to federal healthcare programs, largely through Medicaid reductions, alongside $4.5 trillion in tax relief. Becerra argued those cuts drained resources from working families while directing the benefits toward corporations and the wealthiest Americans.
Villegas sharpened the charge into a personal confrontation: he told the Thursday crowd that “ripping away healthcare” from an estimated 70,000 district residents was what was truly extreme — pushing back against Valadao’s effort to brand him as out of step with Central Valley values. Beyond healthcare, the challenger linked rising grocery and fuel prices to Republican economic policy while also criticizing what he described as an indiscriminate expansion of federal immigration enforcement, one that in his telling has swept up farmworkers and military veterans alongside undocumented residents.
A Redrawn Battleground in the Heart of California
The new CA-22, reconfigured under California’s Proposition 50 — a redistricting measure approved by voters in November 2025 — draws together portions of Kern, Kings, Tulare, and Fresno counties into a district that is approximately 75 percent Latino, according to post-redistricting demographic data. Democrats have maintained a registration advantage in the area for years, yet Valadao has won six of seven congressional races in the area since 2012, routinely outrunning his party’s presidential margin by double digits through an appeal rooted in personal moderation rather than partisan alignment…