CA-22 offers Democrats one of the best pickup opportunities in the country. Democrats hold an 18-point registration advantage over Republicans. The district is 69% Hispanic, making it the district with the highest Hispanic population in the state. President Biden won this district in 2020 with 56% of the major party vote, a 12-point margin, the second widest margin for any seat held by a congressional Republican in the state. The district is D+5 and rated a Toss-up with a Republican incumbent.
Assemblyman Rudy Salas’ bona fides in the Central Valley bolster Democrats’ chances of flipping this competitive seat from red to blue. California’s redistricting process has empowered California’s growing Latino communities within the electoral process to better ensure representatives reflect their lived experiences and values. Rudy Salas is a product of the Central Valley.
His opponent, David Valadao, has voted with his MAGA party bosses to oppose the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and push tax raises and Social Security cuts on middle-class families. He is among the most vulnerable of Republican incumbents.
Born and raised in the Central Valley, Salas is a lifelong Central Valley resident, who worked his way from laboring in the fields with his father to graduating from UCLA and becoming the first Latino Bakersfield City Council member in its 112-year history.
In his five terms in the California State Assembly, Salas has stood by his commitment to take a stand for Central Valley families and deliver for the region. Salas has been a steadfast voice for the Valley in the state capitol, fighting for more public safety funding, expanding workforce development programs, expanding veterans’ and workers’ rights, clean water infrastructure, and support for its small business community. In the past year, Salas secured $50 million of dedicated investments for Central Valley projects to expand local nursing programs and construct an emergency response center, a cooling center, a clean water well, a new building at Bakersfield College’s Delano campus, and secured millions for our local students and colleges. Additionally, Salas helped save Kern Medical Hospital from closing its doors and was instrumental in ensuring small business assistance and protective equipment got to residents and frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Salas has always believed that the government shouldn’t interfere in a woman’s healthcare decisions and put Proposition 1 on the ballot to protect the rights of women to control their own bodies. These most personal decisions are to be decided by a woman, her doctor, and within her faith., he said.
Rudy Salas has been named a gun sense candidate by Moms Demand Action.
