POLITICAL NOTEBOOK New Dem steps in to vie for Central Valley seat
In a key Central Valley congressional seat, it’s one leading Democratic candidate out and another in, as the names and numbers shift before Friday’s statewide filing deadline. Bakersfield attorney
Emilio Huerta said last weekend that he won’t challenge GOP Rep. David Valadao of Hanford (Kings County) for the 21st Congressional District seat that includes all of Kings County and pieces of Fresno, Tulare and Kern counties. Valadao beat him badly in 2016, 57 percent to 23 percent.
On Tuesday, T.J. Cox, a businessman and founder of a development group that works with disadvantaged communities, announced that he would shift his campaign from the 10th Congressional District, where he was challenging Republican Rep. Jeff Denham of Turlock (Stanislaus County), and run against Valadao.
“Right now, a Democrat is well-positioned to defeat Jeff Denham in CA-10,” Cox said in a letter to supporters. “But in CA-21 — where I have deep roots — I refuse to let David Valadao off without a fight.”
Cox, who was born in Walnut Creek, moved to Modesto from Fresno to run for Denham’s seat. He’ll now return to Fresno to challenge Valadao. Rumors about his possible shift have been flying ever since Michael Eggman, who has run twice against Denham, jumped back into that race last month.
Democratic Party leaders were quick to thank Huerta for his efforts, with New Mexico Rep.
Ben Ray Lujan, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, saying: “Emilio Huerta and his family have made immense contributions to the Central Valley and our country as a whole.”
Those kind words likely came with a long sigh of relief, since Democrats inside and outside of California saw Huerta as a likely repeat loser for a seat Democrats desperately want to win. At the end of 2017, Huerta had about $96,000 in his campaign account, compared with $981,000 for Valadao. But Huerta is the son of
Dolores Huerta, a Latina labor leader who’s a key figure in Democratic politics, both in the Central Valley and nationally. Given Dolores Huerta’s place in California Latino history — and her continuing political clout — no one was eager to possibly earn her enmity by challenging her son.
With Emilio Huerta out, however, the door opened for Cox, who already has $280,000 cash on hand from his planned race against Denham.
Valadao is anything but an easy target, however. Despite living in a heavily Latino and strongly Democratic district where Democrat Hillary Clinton beat Republican Donald
Trump by more than 15 percentage points, the Hanford-born dairyman remains popular.