GOP Rep. Valadao to face progressive Villegas in key California House district

Politics GOP Rep. Valadao to face progressive Villegas in key California House district, in defeat for moderate Democrats By Caitlin Yilek Caitlin Yilek Politics Reporter Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter at CBSNews.com, based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked for the Washington Examiner and The Hill, and was a member of the 2022 Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship with the National Press Foundation. Read Full Bio Caitlin Yilek June 9, 2026 / 9:11 PM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google Republican Rep. David Valadao will run against progressive Randy Villegas in the general election in California's 22nd Congressional District, CBS News projects.Last week's primary pitted the Republican incumbent against two Democrats, with the top two vote-getters advancing to November. Villegas was projected as the second candidate to advance on Tuesday, a week after the election, after a close contest.Moderate Democrat Jasmeet Bains did not advance, in an embarrassing defeat for establishment Democrats amid an intraparty feud about the party's future. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the race as a toss up after California voters approved a new congressional map last year to counter Texas' redrawn districts. A late intervention by the House Democrats' campaign arm added some last-minute drama to the race when the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee offered support to Bains, a state assembly member. The intervention became the latest fight in the broader debate within the Democratic Party over how well progressives can perform in competitive races. It's playing out in a district that is heavily Hispanic — a key constituency that shifted away from Democrats in 2024. "The Democratic Party has taken Latino communities for granted," Villegas, who is Latino, recently told CBS News. "Far too late, far too little for Latino communities. And this is just another example of that." Valadao was first elected to Congress in 2012 b...