How Randy Villegas Could Prove That a Progressive Can Win Anywhere

In California’s 22nd District, Randy Villegas, a school board trustee and political newcomer, is facing off against Rep. David Valadao (CA-22) in a race with high stakes for the Democrats, and potentially even higher stakes for progressives. 

Villegas started his campaign in a primary battle with state Rep. Jasmeet Baines, a moderate Democrat who enjoyed the support of the Democratic Party’s institutions, including the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). Now, his general election opponent is the one-time mentee of former GOP Speaker Kevin McCarthy and one of the last Republicans in the House to have voted to impeach President Donald Trump following the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

The district is also among the most competitive in the country, with the Cook Political Report calculating the district advantages Republicans by about 1 point, making it the median House district in the entire country, at least by partisan leanings. The Caucus currently rates the race a Toss Up and the 12th most-likely GOP seat to flip to Democrats. Valadao has also proven to be a better-than-average Republican candidate, losing his seat in 2018 before retaking it in 2020. 

Villegas told The Caucus that in order to turn California’s 22nd from a swing district to a Democratic district, the party needs to spend less time listening to the “type of people who sit around in a room from a 2,000-foot view and like to think that they know what working class people are feeling and what they want.”

“I think those are the types of folks who need to do a lot less talking and who need to do a lot more listening to what people are actually feeling on the ground, because what we have seen in our campaign is  that we are actually able to build a broad coalition here in the Central Valley. When we had our rally, not only did we have Sen. Bernie Sanders and local leaders, we had a local Republican mayor who also spoke on that stage, and say this is why he was supporting me,” Villegas said.

While campaigning with local Republican officials might sound like the ideal move of a Blue Dog Democrat, Villegas is anything but. Since the beginning of his campaign, his platform has been centered on progressive mainstays like Medicare for all, universal childcare and universal access to higher education and trade schools.

It was in part because of this platform that he found himself at odds with party leadership in the primary, with the party’s official House arm, the DCCC, backing Baines in the primary, though they have since endorsed Villegas in the general election.

Villegas’s unabashedly progressive platform also means that his race will be one of the most closely watched in the country come election night, when different factions of the Democratic Party are looking for signals to reaffirm their theory of how to win in competitive races. Like Dr. Abdul El-Sayed’s Senate candidacy in Michigan, a Villegas victory would almost certainly be taken by progressives as proof that a working-class focused progressive platform can win, even in the swingiest of swing districts. 

At the same time, Villegas explained that his platform was not built for the purpose of fighting an ideological battle in the Democratic Party. Rather, it was developed through conversations with his community and potential constituents.

“Every district is its own district. Every race is its own race. Every community is their own community, and candidates should be responsive to those needs. I can't speak to any districts outside of my own. But what I can tell you is that people are looking for candidates who are actually going to stand up for working people and who are going to center them at the decision at every decision that they make,” Villegas said. 

At the same time, the race in California’s 22nd is very close. Though some polling has shown Villegas with a lead, he said he will continue talking to voters straight through to Election Day, and is still recruiting new volunteers for canvassing and phone banking. He also said that the recent surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in California has impacted the district.

“I'm hearing a lot of concerns from folks who are afraid to go to work, kids in my own school district afraid to go to school because of what this administration is doing, and you know, I think people are motivated now more than ever to have a representative who's actually going to stand up for our immigrant communities,” Villegas said.