KINGS COUNTY, Calif. – Charles Meyer grows a cornucopia of crops on his 1,500 acres in Stratford, a rural community about 10 miles outside of the city of Hanford.
“We're growing wheat, we're growing alfalfa, we're growing almonds, we're growing pistachios,” he said on a recent autumn morning, gazing out of a trailer on his property.
But this third-generation farmer has a clear favorite. He plucks an airy white ball of fluff off a brown stalk about the height of his knees.
“This is Pima cotton,” he said. “This is very high quality fiber.”
Kings County is one of three agricultural counties that make up District 22, represented by Republican Congressman David Valadao.
Dairy farms, vineyards and tidy rows of tomato plants, orange trees and corn stalks bring in billions of dollars a year to this region and provide tens of thousands of jobs.
That’s a point of pride for Meyer.
“You become attached to the ground,” he said. “It's like our boys in the military, they give their life for the country. We feel about our ground about like that.”
Meyer wants elected leaders who feel that way, too — like Valadao, who used to be a dairy farmer. He was first elected to Congress in 2012 and has been reelected in almost every election since then.
But now Valadao is in danger of losing his seat. On Tuesday, California’s voters will decide whether to support Proposition 50, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to counter surprise redistricting in Texas and other red states.
It’s a gerrymandering attempt by the state’s Democratic leaders to flip five Republican seats — including Valadao’s — for Democrats.
If voters vote “yes” on Prop 50 next month, District 22 would stretch out — almost twice as long — in order to gain Democratic voters from neighboring counties and give Democrats a better shot at winning.
And that worries farmers in Valadao’s district, including Meyer.
“I don't want anything that would help Democrats gain power,” he said.
Democrats have lost favor among Valley farmers
In the last few decades, California’s legislators, mostly Democrats, have pushed a slew of environmental regulations aimed at protecting resources like air, water and ecosystems — but they also restrict the use of groundwater, fertilizer and pesticides.
Meyer considers that regulatory overreach, and he blames Democrats for rising farming costs and slumping profits.
“When they gain power, negative things happen,” he said.
It’s a common opinion. Signs reading “Vote No on Prop 50” line highways in Kings and neighboring counties, alongside banners urging Newsom to be recalled.
A few miles away from Meyer, in Hanford, Doug Verboon doesn’t support Prop 50, either.
He’s a walnut farmer and a Kings County supervisor. Earlier this fall, the Republican and his fellow supervisors formally opposed the partisan redistricting plan that would change district maps through the next three election cycles.
Supervisors have passed similar resolutions in many other San Joaquin Valley counties — including Tulare and Kern counties, which also constitute parts of Valadao’s district.
Verboon said gerrymandering isn’t just about the existential question of who controls the House of Representatives. He also said Congress matters here. Federal legislators pass laws that can influence exports, trade decisions, and water flows that determine farmer incomes.
“We want our congressmen and our senators to promote agriculture in Central California. And when it comes to our congressman, we need someone that understands it that doesn't have to have it explained to him,” he said.
Verboon isn’t unilaterally opposed to a representative who’s left of center. In fact, he once endorsed a Democratic challenger of Valadao. But he wants redistricting to be done according to law.
One of his arguments is that this measure, which is happening in an off-year and requires voter approval for a map that was produced by a private consultant, unfairly bypasses the independent state commission that was created to draw district lines.
“We do it every 10 years and we have a process in place that works,” he said.
Valadao appeals to voters on both sides of the aisle
At first glance, Republicans would appear to have the upper hand in District 22. Valadao has held onto his seat almost continuously since 2012 — except for the 2018 midterms, when Democrat TJ Cox was elected for one term — and Republican-registered voters outnumber Democrats in the three counties that make up the district.
By the numbers, however, District 22 actually has a Democratic advantage already.
According to state voter registration data, Democrats make up nearly 40% of the district’s registered voters, compared to 28% Republicans and 24% who chose No Party Preference.
That’s what makes this seat such a target for fundraising, said Blake Zante, Executive Director of the Maddy Institute, a non-profit public policy institute based at Fresno State University.
“It's one of the most highly targeted races by both Republicans and Democrats right now,” Zante said. “Democrats have been targeting the seat for well over a decade ever since David Valadao was elected.”
If prop 50 passes, Democrats here are expected to move from a slightly favorable to moderately favorable.
Zante agrees that agriculture and water access remain some of the more important local issues determined by Congress — and that Valadao has a track record of supporting a lot of them.
Since 2012, the Congressman has sponsored or co-sponsored more than 100 pieces of legislation related to ag and water infrastructure.
He was also involved in a bipartisan push to support the sweeping Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act of 2016 — which was also supported by nearby Congressman Jim Costa, Senator Dianne Feinstein and many other Democrats and Republicans from both chambers.
“That's a perfect case study as to how important it is to have a Valley voice representing at the table when it comes to agriculture,” Zante said.
As for how Valadao has held on to his seat for so long, Zante points to relatively low recent voter turnout, as well as Valadao’s appeal to No Party Preference voters and even moderate Democrats.
For instance, many still remember that Valadao was one of only 10 Republican Representatives who voted to impeach Trump following the Jan. 6 riots in Washington, D.C. Valadao has also spoken out against immigration raids at workplaces and has co-sponsored legislation supporting permanent residency for DACA recipients.
Whether Valadao is truly a moderate is up for debate. But Zante said the appearance of being a moderate is strategic.
“David Valadao needs Democrats to elect him,” he said. “It's just simple math.”
Many Democrats support the new maps
Publicly, Valadao has been mum on the issue of redistricting. A spokesperson also declined to make him available for an interview or answer multiple questions asked by KVPR.
The Democratic base, however, supports the redistricting measure–including Karla Orosco of Hanford. On a bright Friday morning earlier this month, the retired science teacher was holding up a sign in nearby Lemoore.
“My sign says ‘yes on prop 50, temporary maps,’” she said.
Orosco helps organize a “bridge brigade” of volunteers from the Kings County Democrats organization who meet weekly to hang signs on overpasses throughout the county.
None of the dozen volunteers here today are farmers. They’re angry that Valadao hasn’t hosted an in-person town hall in more than a year, and that he voted to cut Medicaid earlier this year as part of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
That’s despite the fact that two-thirds of Valadao’s constituents rely on Medicaid, and in the weeks leading up to the vote, he had even said publicly that he wouldn’t support major cuts to the safety-net health insurance program.
“That’s going to hurt a lot of people and that's going to wake a lot of people up when the healthcare premiums go up,” Orosco said.
Bridge brigade volunteer Rebecca Camarena of Lemoore, in Republican Congressman Vince Fong’s district, said signs here run the gambit of Democratic priorities.
“Our main message this week is ‘stop the shutdown, release the [Jeffrey Epstein] files,’” she said. “We have ‘wake up before it's too late,’ we have signs about ICE following the laws, ‘I love due process,’ it's all sorts of issues.”
Despite Kings County’s Republican plurality, she said drivers have overall been supportive of their demonstrations.
“I had somebody pull off to the side last week and say ‘God bless you,’” she said. “Occasionally we get a middle finger raised…but we’ve never had any pull over and yell at us.”
She and Orosco hope voters will come out and do the right thing in the election on Tuesday. There’s just no clear consensus here on what the right thing is.
