HANFORD, Calif. – A new poll out from Emerson College showed the race to replace Kevin McCarthy in Congress has a leading candidate.
While most voters in District 20 remain undecided, California Assemblyman Vince Fong leads with a quarter of likely voters just over a month away from the state’s primary on March 5.
The same poll found Republican Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux is a distant second to Fong, and he is tied with Democrat Marisa Wood.
Boudreaux and businessman David Giglio were among the congressional candidates vying for District 20 who addressed voters on Feb. 1 at a forum held in Hanford by the organization 1776 Sons of Liberty. Fong did not attend the event.
Boudreaux and Giglio shared views on issues like protecting the 2nd Amendment and restricting abortion.
A third congressional candidate who appeared at the forum was Chris Mathys. He is trying to unseat David Valadao, the current Republican holding District 22 and who also did not attend the forum.
Mathys has attacked Valadao for voting to impeach former President Donald Trump and for sending aid to Ukraine. The district in recent elections has been a closely watched toss up, and has flipped between Democrat and Republican.
In the last election, Mathys came close to beating Valadao in the primary. And several Democrats are also aiming to squeeze out another win in the same race. One of those is Valadao's last Democrat challenger Rudy Salas.
The Blue Dog Pac, a coalition that supports moderate Democrats, endorsed Salas over other candidates. The chair of the Blue Dog Pac says Salas is among candidates who have shown a record of putting partisan politics aside and “getting things done.”
The coalition also announced its support for Democrat Adam Gray, who is running against Republican John Duarte in District 13.
