Tuesday’s election is set to fill the region, according to its current lines, by the end of the year. The June primary and November general election will be held along the new California county lines, with the winner taking office in 2023 for a regular two-year term. Given the expiration date of the district’s existing lines, the vacancy gathered a number of unknown but ideologically different candidates in a race under the radar that state parties and national congressional campaign committees generally ignored. All registered voters in the district were sent postal ballots and the polls close at 8 p.m. PT. But Tuesday may not be the end of this fight. If no candidate receives a majority of the vote (50% plus 1), the top two, regardless of party affiliation, will advance to a run-off on June 7, when California holds the state primary. A second round could be even more confusing, as the names of one or more of the special election candidates could appear twice on the June ballot if they run for a second term. The briefness of the possible assignment in Washington has created a rift between the candidates between those who say they are only interested in this position and those who are simultaneously seeking another congressional position for the term that begins in 2023. Republican Connie Conway, who has the biggest name in the field as a former minority leader in the state convention and former Tulare County overseer, has argued that voters should support her because she would serve as a “caretaker” and not used the office. as a “step” in another congressional office. “There’s just a lot of work in the district that I really want to see done by the end. I think it’s very important,” Conway told CNN, noting the role that congressional offices play in resolving everything from passport delays to problems. with social security. benefits. Conway said it has established relationships with most members of the California delegation on both sides of the aisle. “I think I’m the right person at the right time to get the job done.” Others, such as Republicans Matt Stoll and Michael Maher, as well as Democrat Eric Garcia, see Nunes as a starting point as they fight to represent the new 21st District, where they will face Costa. Stoll, a retired Navy fighter pilot who said he wanted to take part in a “red tsunami” in November, told CNN he was trying to boost the special election as a “springboard” for competition in the 21st District. He described the remaining months of Nounes’s term as a time when he could build alliances with like-minded members “to reverse every aspect of the progressive agenda and what Joe Biden stands for”. He cited examples ranging from the school curriculum, which he says aims to “teach our children in socialist ways,” to environmental valleys in the Central Valley that restricted the flow of water to farmers, to restrictions on domestic oil drilling, which he says have overthrow America’s potential for “global energy sovereignty.” At the other end of the spectrum, Garcia argues that if Democrats can gain control of Nunes’s seat, it will serve as a significant symbolic victory for San Joaquin Valley residents who have “suffered in silence” from the area. Decades of challenges with poverty, air pollution and polluted water supplies. Garcia told CNN he would focus on a single bill to help the Valley’s distressed families – reinstating the enhanced monthly tax credit for children that expired in 2021 after the collapse of Democratic efforts to expand it.
“I do not see (the special election) as a stepping stone. I see it as an opportunity to finally bring representation to a region that has been neglected for 10 years,” said Garcia, a therapist and veteran marine who unsuccessfully challenged Nunes. in 2020 and decided to run again in the region after the US Capitol Uprising. “Generations from generations of my family live in this valley and we suffer from bad air, bad water. I’m just tired of it,” Garcia said. “I want to be a voice for those people who have no voice and are left behind.”

Commitment to immigration reform in a rural area

The feeling that voters in the area have been neglected is a unifying sentiment among candidates, including Republican tech executive and former congressional aide Elizabeth Heng, who founded The New Internet, an encrypted Internet browser that says it does not monitor user information. As the daughter of Chinese-Cambodian immigrants who grew up in Fresno working at her parents’ grocery store, Heng told CNN she was disappointed by what she called the lack of progress on top issues for voters in the region. He pointed out the lack of water, the need to review both immigration and education, and what he sees as a hostile climate for those trying to start or maintain businesses. He noted that he ran to face the same concerns as the Republican candidate in 2018 in the 16th Congressional District, which he lost to Costa by 15 points. “Even just the main political reason here – it has completely deteriorated – and we need to have new faces, new leaders who can bridge the gap,” Heng said. He argued that she could be a “leading voice” in “resolving our immigration policy once and for all” as the daughter of refugees who fled the Khmer Rouge.
“We need to find new ideas to be compassionate for people who are already in our country – and in addition, DACA recipients who are in the state through no fault of their own. We need to have a path to citizenship for them,” he said. referring to immigrants who came to this country as children and were part of the now-deadlocked Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.All Republican candidates have said they support Trump’s border wall. Macher, a Navy veteran and former FBI agent, said he hoped to spark a less polarizing immigration debate. He said he would work for legislation to “create a clear path for people to come and work and be able to return home.” When asked if he would prefer a road to obtaining citizenship for undocumented immigrants already in the country, or even a narrower solution for the “Dreamers”, Macher would not commit to a specific plan. “This is not an issue that a Central Valley MP is going to come up with and say, ‘I’m going to solve this whole issue,’” he said, adding that he is working with the Central Valley Latino community as well as business owners and farmers to determine the best solution based on the work needs of the area.

The unpredictable in a field of lesser known candidates

Even longtime political observers in the region are reluctant to make predictions about an unusually scheduled snap election between a field of lesser-known candidates and low spending. Heng led the way in fundraising, according to the latest filing with the Federal Election Commission, after raising $ 214,900, followed by Garcia with $ 205,715. As Central Valley became more competitive during Nunes’s last term, the veteran MP enjoyed a comfortable lock in his constituency not only because of his growing national profile in the GOP as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, but also because of his his huge war chest. He held his place with a comfortable margin of 8 points in 2020 – a slightly better performance than Trump, who beat Biden by just over 5 points in the 22nd District. Nunes had poured more than $ 20 million into the fight to send Democrat Phil Arballo, who spent about a quarter of that amount and is now running in the new 13th District. In the latest state party registration analysis, nearly 39 percent of voters in the current 22nd District were registered as Republicans, 34 percent as Democrats and 20 percent as “no party preference.” During a Fresno County Republican Party forum earlier this year, Conway, Macher and Stoll all pledged to support Trump if he ran for president in 2024. Heng said he believed there were some “big” chances. Republican candidates, including Trump, but said he believed all candidates should “win the support” of voters through the qualifying process. All four GOP candidates said they would favor control of the 2020 presidential election during this recent forum, although Conway said her support would depend on which entity controls it. There is no evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 elections and even party “checks” led by the GOP have confirmed Biden’s victory. The Republican inclusion in the constituency did not stop the Democrats running for Nounes – Garcia and Lurin Hubbard – from defending some progressive policies that even go beyond what was proposed by Vermont Sen. Vermont. Hubbard told CNN he was in favor of abolishing all federal overtime taxes to help low- and middle-income families. He advocates debt relief for student loans, favors tuition-free community college and would also like to see a “debt-free public college” where the state and federal government cover the costs of four years of public university. He also wants the federal government to guarantee that every individual in America earns a union job that pays at least $ 20 an hour. A director of the state council for water resources control, Hubbard said that he is formulating a proposal that would ask the government to pay for the existing medical …