On paper, Republican Rep. David Valadao should be at a disadvantage, running for re-election in a U.S. House district that is 57 percent Latino and where Democrats have a 17-point advantage in voter registration. Yet, in the Central Valley of California, “the nation’s most productive agricultural region, the drought drives everything,” says the Los Angeles Times.
“No matter what I do, what event I do, if it’s a tele-town hall, if it’s a door knock, doesn’t matter where I’m at, water is the first thing you hear about,” Valadao told the newspaper. Some towns in the district have to truck in fresh water. Farmers blame cuts in irrigation water deliveries on inflexible federal mandates. Valadao sponsors bills to send more water to San Joaquin Valley farms and to scale back on water for endangered fish. The bills pass the House and stall in the Senate.
Running against Valadao is Emilio Huerta, a Democrat and a son of farmworker labor leader Doris Huerta. He told the Times that the district needs a representative who is willing to seek a bipartisan compromise with other stakeholders in the water dispute. Huerta said he did not have a water plan of his own.
A Democratic Party activist told the newspaper that Huerta’s family ties may help him with farmworkers but the farmers “are writing big checks to Valadao.” Political handicappers tab Valadao as the likely winner. He renounced Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump early in the campaign “and has been able to keep his re-election campaign local,” says the Times.