CNC Stands With Randy Villegas for Congress

Here in the Central Valley, we know the difference between a politician who shows up for a photo and a neighbor who shows up for us. That's why Communities for a New California Action Fund is proud to endorse Randy Villegas for California's 22nd Congressional District.

This district is home to more than 318,000 voters across Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, and Tulare counties. Nearly two in three of us are Latino. Our median age is just 31. And too many of our families are doing everything right, working long hours, raising kids, caring for parents, and still coming up short when the rent, the grocery bill, and the electricity bill all land in the same week. We don't need representation that forgets us the moment it reaches Washington. We need one of our own.

Randy Villegas is one of our own. He was raised in Bakersfield by Mexican immigrant parents who worked hard and still leaned on Medi-Cal and food assistance to get by, the same programs keeping thousands of Valley families afloat today. He worked in his family's auto shop, became the first in his family to go to college, earned his Ph.D., and now teaches political science at the College of the Sequoias. He didn't parachute in to run for Congress. He has served on the Visalia Unified School Board since 2021, where, according to his campaign, he helped expand tutoring and arts programs, modernize classrooms, and refinance school bonds, saving local taxpayers about $6 million. In 2025, the American Political Science Association honored him with its national Community College Faculty Award for his teaching, mentorship, and creating opportunities for students to understand their basic rights under the U.S. Constitution and civil rights laws.

Just as telling is who stands behind him, and who doesn't. Unlike Valadao, Randy has not taken a single dollar from corporate PACs. No Big Oil, no Big Pharma, no utility companies writing the checks. Instead, he is backed by the people who actually hold our communities together: families like ours, teachers, nurses, firefighters, labor unions, and leaders like Dolores Huerta. When a candidate owes nothing to corporate donors, he has the freedom to do what is right for us.

Now, look at the record of the man who has held this seat for twelve years.

David Valadao told us he would protect our health care. Then he voted for H.R. 1, a law that cuts Medi-Cal in a district where more than half a million people depend on it, one of the highest rates in the entire country. An estimated 157,000 adults here now face losing coverage, and our rural hospitals and clinics are left to absorb the blow. The same law hands its biggest tax breaks to the roughly 476 people in this district who earn $1 million or more, while 100,000 local children, nearly half the kids in CA-22, come from families too low-income to receive the full Child Tax Credit. That was the choice David Valadao made: millionaires first, our families last.

It did not stop there. A surge of ICE raids has hit the Valley, decreasing our public safety. While our families are suffering as their loved ones are being taken and are fearful of the disruption to our workplaces and our neighborhoods, Valadao voted to pour billions of additional dollars into immigration enforcement. He has voted over and over again with his party, even when it drives up the cost of gas, groceries, and utilities right here at home. For twelve years the pattern has held: when corporate interests and party leaders ask for something, he delivers; when Valley families ask for help, we are on our own.

We can change that, but only if we show up to vote.

This race is close. In the June 2026 primary, only a few thousand votes separated the candidates, and turnout among Latino, women, and young voters is climbing. In a district like ours, where elections are decided by a few thousand votes, your vote is not a drop in the bucket. It is the bucket.

So here is what you need to do. Every active registered voter will receive a ballot in the mail. You can return it by mail, drop it in an official drop box, or bring it to any polling place or vote center. After October 20, return it in person or via drop box to be safe. Election Day is November 3. Put your plan in effect, and talk with the people you love about theirs.

Randy Villegas is running to put our families first and fight for the resources and opportunities we have always deserved. We believe in his commitment to make life a little easier for the families who make this Valley work. He has earned our trust the honest way: by already doing what he said he would. Join us in sending him to Congress.

Vote. And add your granito de arena or grain of sand to CNC Action Fund so we can reach every voter before November 3.

CA-22 could help determine control of Congress, and many organizations are working to reach its voters. CNC's program adds reach where others may fall short: conversations with Spanish-dominant Latina voters, carried out by bilingual callers from the community.

Map of Congressional District 22 (Source: BallotPedia)

Paid for by CNC Action Fund. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.