Another DCCC Disaster In The Making— Why Are They Sabotaging CA-22 Again?

Meet Jasmeet Bains— The DCCC’s Latest Gift To Big Oil, Cops & The DC Republicans

The DCCC never learns its lesson. Here in California, it looks to the state legislature to recruit candidates in districts its managers have no relationship too. That’s not them worst idea... except that the DCCC always— like 100% of the time, not 99% of the time— looks for a mirror image in DCCC managers, who are corporate conservatives. So they sniff around Sacramento looking for corporate conservatives to run. When it came to CA-22 in the Central Valley, a blue-leaning, super-Latino district, they found the worst member of the legislature, corrupt to his fingertips and conservative as a Republican Rudy Salas to run. Over the course of the last two cycles, the DCCC and House Majority Schmucks spent $19 million and lost both times. 

They toyed with running him again but decided they should give another corporate conservative from the legislature a shot this time. So they dug up Assemblywoman Jasmeet Bains. I just want to reiterate the CA-22 is one of tech most Hispanic districts in America— 74.1% Hispanic. 64% of the registered voters are Hispanic. The DCCC has been unbelievably ineffective in registering and turning out Hispanic voters. In the 2022 midterm, just 28% of Latino registered voters in CA-22 bothered to go to the polls.

Jasmeet Bains was elected to the Assembly that year— where she began running up her Republican-lite, corporate-aligned voting record. More about that in a second. First, I should mention that about 2% of the voters in CA-22 are of Indian-America ethnicity.

An American-born daughter of wealthy Sikh immigrants, she studied medicine at a diploma mill in Antigua and became a physician in 2013 but was soon looking to jump from medicine to politics. Once she got into the Assembly, she quickly began voting with the Republicans on key issues, which is why the Courage Campaign has rated her “F” and why Speaker Anthony Rendon kicked her off the Assembly Business and Professions Committee after she was the only Democrat to cross the aisle and vote against a bill targeting oil companies over gas gouging. She also votes with the Republicans on over-the-top “law and order” proposals. Sounds perfect for the DCCC, always on the hunt for garbagecrats who will join the New Dems and Blue Dogs.

The Courage Campaign noted that “as a healthcare professional, Bains has seen firsthand the disparities and destruction our for-profit healthcare system imposes on Californians, but she voted against AB 3129, which would have given the Attorney General oversight of private takeovers of health facilities and providers. Despite representing a community at the heart of the climate crisis, Bains seems to have embraced the ‘Big Oil Bains’ moniker foisted on her by environmentalists, because the one issue you can trust Bains to actually vote on is the climate crisis— unfortunately, always the wrong way. Bains concludes another disappointing year in the legislature choosing the profits of her corporate donors over the safety and wellbeing of the Central Valley voters who elected her.

Among her biggest donors are law enforcement, gas and oil, insurance and real estate. And she repays them— always— with her votes. I’m certain Suzan DeLBene and the other New Dems who run the DCCC must have been drooling when they saw Bains was rated “F” by California Environmental Justice Alliance and a 41% by California Environmental Voters. The only Democrats with worse scores are notorious corporate shills Esmeralda Soria (40%) and Carlos Villapadua (39%). She was also rated one of the half dozen worst Democrats in the Assembly by the United Food & Commercial Workers Western State Council, one of the most important labor unions for her district. Putrid? Yes, exactly what the DCCC is looking for, especially in a blue wave cycle when even the worst crap can be elected.

Yesterday, Ally Mutnick rewrote some DCCC talking points for them. Punchbowl always strives to stay on the good side of the party committees. “Democrats,” she wrote— without using a modifier like “corporate,” “conservative,” “establishment” or “loser”— “are excited about recruiting Bains, who has a resume tailor-made for the political moment. Bains is a doctor who specializes in family medicine and addiction. Valadao, despite his vocal reservations, just voted for Trump’s signature legislation that will enact roughly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts. This is a vote that shocked even some Republicans. California’s 22nd District is agricultural-heavy and low-income. It is exactly the kind of district that relies greatly on rural hospitals and will be hit hard by reductions to Medicaid funding. The district spans from Bakersfield into Kings and Tulare counties and has more than 60% of its population on Medicaid.”

Although she never mentions a word about Bains’ horrendous record in Sacramento or that she’s known as a fossil fuels flunky, she did mention that she “is the first South Asian woman elected to the state legislature, where she has represented Kern County since 2023… California’s jungle primary system makes the contest trickier for both parties. Randy Villegas, a school board trustee in Visalia, is also running as a Democrat. Valadao frequently draws primary challengers.”

Blue America has endorsed Villegas, a proud progressive and nothing like Bains or Salas... and, if you're in the mood, you can contribute to his campaign by clicking on this graphic:

Click on Randy to contribute to his campaign