California Democrats fighting to oust vulnerable Republican congressional incumbents from the House of Representatives are distancing themselves from Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA).
While Newsom has stumped extensively for top Democrats including President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, two Democrats challenging vulnerable Republican incumbents in critical Central Valley races have done little to no campaigning alongside California’s Democratic chief, per an analysis by the Sacramento Bee. Coming under two weeks before Election Day, the report indicates Newsom’s California colleagues have moved to disassociate themself from Newsom as he holds particularly high disapproval ratings in California’s Central Valley region.
Knocking Central Valley Rep. David Valadao (R-CA) out of office is critical to any hopes the Democrats hold of ousting the GOP from the majority in the lower chamber. The latest polls show Valadao in a dead heat with Democratic challenger Rudy Salas to win the 22nd Congressional District’s race with Election Day under two weeks away. This marks the second time the two have faced off after Valadao beat Salas during the 2022 elections.
But though he has endorsed Salas, Newsom hasn’t appeared alongside the congressional hopeful since March, days before California held the Democratic Party’s primary.
Meanwhile Democratic candidate Adam Gray has once again cornered Central Valley Rep. John Duarte (D-CA) into one of the closest congressional battles in the country. However, Gray hasn’t campaigned with Newsom even once this year. A vulnerable freshman lawmaker, Duarte also faced off against Gray during the 2022 election cycle, ultimately clinching the House seat by just 564 votes.
The two Democrats’ move to distance themselves from Newsom comes as a Public Policy Institute of California poll released last month showed 57% of Central Valley respondents disapproved of Newsom. As many residents express widespread dissatisfaction with Newsom’s job performance on crime and the economy, only 36% of voters expressed trust always or most of the time in the state government.
Tom Holyoke, a political science professor at California State University, Fresno, said he didn’t see Newsom as “much of a boost” in comments to the Sacramento Bee.
“Most Valley Democrats, I don’t think they love them particularly. They don’t hate him either. But I don’t think they really embrace him,” he noted.
“The people who would be most motivated by a Gavin Newsom ad are Democrats who are already going to vote for Adam Gray or Rudy Salas,” Holyoke added. “The undecided voters, the unmotivated voters there, they’re not going to be stimulated by Newsom.”
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Meanwhile, Republicans are hitting back on Salas’s apparent attempt to distance himself from the unpopular governor.
“Reminder: Salas said ‘I’m thankful’ for Newsom, claimed ‘he’s done a lot of good things. I’m saying nothing but great things about you,’ and called Newsom a ‘champion’ who will ‘help us control the U.S. House of Representatives,” the National Republican Congressional Committee, which operates as the House GOP’s campaign arm, said in a press release Wednesday.