Randy Villegas

Randy Villegas is the 2026 Democratic nominee for California's 22nd Congressional District, running to unseat four-term Republican incumbent David Valadao in one of the most consequential House races of the cycle. Born and raised in Bakersfield, Kern County, Villegas is the son of Mexican immigrants and the first in his family to earn a Ph.D. He earned his associate's degree from Bakersfield College, his bachelor's degree from California State University, Bakersfield, and his doctorate in political science from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is a professor of political science at the College of the Sequoias in Visalia and has served on the Visalia Unified School District Board of Education since 2021.

Villegas grew up in a working-class family that relied on Medicaid, food assistance, and free school lunches — the very programs that Valadao has since voted to gut. He also owns a small family auto repair shop, and watched as elected officials turned a blind eye to the disproportionate rates of asthma and cancer in the Central Valley caused by corporate polluters. Those experiences shaped his commitment to public service: he became a journalist, educator, community organizer, and school board trustee, building deep roots in the community he now seeks to represent in Congress. He has been endorsed by Senator Bernie Sanders, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus's CHC BOLD PAC, the Working Families Party, Indivisible, and the Democratic National Committee.

Villegas advanced to the November general election after finishing second in California's jungle primary, beating out a more establishment-backed Democratic opponent despite facing late opposition from party insiders. Prediction markets have placed Democrats as strong favorites to flip CA-22, with one giving Villegas a 78% chance of victory. The district — which spans parts of Kern, Kings, and Tulare counties, is 75% Latino, and has the highest rate of Medicaid enrollment of any Republican-held congressional district in the country — is at the center of the Democratic Party's effort to reclaim the House majority.

Villegas is fighting to:

• Lower the cost of living by cracking down on corporate price gouging, protecting Social Security, establishing universal paid family leave and childcare, and raising the federal minimum wage
• Defend and expand access to health care — including protecting Medicaid for the more than two-thirds of CA-22 residents who rely on Medi-Cal — and fight for Medicare for All
• Create good-paying jobs by ending harmful tariffs, investing in infrastructure, breaking up monopolies, cutting taxes for small businesses and working families, and ensuring a fair transition for oil and gas workers to clean energy jobs
• Fix our broken immigration system with a path to citizenship, an end to unconstitutional mass deportations, and policies that address the root causes of migration
• Bring deported veterans home and fight for an immigration system that honors those who have served our country
• Make housing more affordable by banning private equity and hedge funds from buying up homes, and cutting red tape to build more affordable housing
• Fight political corruption by banning Members of Congress from trading stocks, stopping corporations and billionaires from buying elections, and passing Congressional term limits
• Fully fund public education, oppose private school vouchers, and restore federal education funding
• Hold corporate polluters accountable and protect the Central Valley's air, water, and communities from environmental harm
• Ensure responsible development of artificial intelligence that protects workers, privacy, and democratic institutions

As the son of immigrants who grew up depending on the very programs now under attack in Washington, Villegas brings lived experience to the fight for working families. He is not taking a dollar from corporate PACs, and is running to be the unbought, people-first voice that California's 22nd District has long deserved.