In Search Of The DCCC’s Worst 2026 Candidate— Like In 2022 & 2024, Let’s Start In The Central Valley

GOP corporate shill David Valadao was first elected to Congress in 2012. He was defeated for reelection, narrowly (50.4% to 49.6%), in the 2018 blue wave, by TJ Cox who ran on a progressive platform well suited for the working-class district. That was the last time Cox ever pretended to represent working families and he immediately joined the corporate-aligned New Dems and was promptly defeated in 2020 by the same (reverse) margin. The DCCC recruited the worst California Assemblymember— both conservative and egregiously corrupt— Rudy Salas to oppose Valadao in 2022 and 2024, loing both times in a district that was won by Hillary and then Biden.

CA-22 is one of the 5 congressional districts, California Democrats are targeting to make up for Trump’s Texas mega-gerrymander. But Democrats don’t need a counter-gerrymander in that district— just a great candidate… which they finally have in Randy Villegas. Unfortunately, the DCCC couldn’t leave well enough alone— despite Villegas being endorsed by all 3 country party chairs. So Suzan DeBene had her team sniff out a state Capitol officeholder as bad as Salas, Jasmeet Bains, and then recruited her to run against Villegas. Here’s her Courage Score, exactly the kind of “F” you would expect from a DCCC recruit:

A couple of weeks ago, Bains distinguished herself as the only member of the Assembly to vote against fighting Trump's attempt to steal the next election, “the lone Democrat to vote against the gerrymander,” reported Rob Pyers. If you follow Sacramento politics you don’t have to ask “whose side is she on anyway?”

Despite being well aware of her GOP-lite voting record, Villegas seemed stunned: “That's not good enough. In this moment, the Democratic Party needs real fighters who will never back down to Trump and put working families first. I'm a fighter, I'm relentless, and I'm ready to lead.”

The DCCC’s Bains problem is the same old disease: they’d rather parachute in a pliable hack with an “F” Courage Score than trust the judgment of the local party, activists, or— heaven forbid— the voters. California Democrats already lived through this disaster twice with Salas. He was the model DCCC candidate: corrupt, conservative, allergic to working-class issues. We all saw the results. You’d think that kind of performance would earn the DCCC, which keeps mistaking corruption for electability, a lifetime ban from meddling in the Central Valley. Instead, they’ve doubled down with Bains, a candidate who managed to brand herself as a Democrat while voting like a Republican. Let’s not forget, in the Central Valley, Democrats don’t lose because the voters are conservative— they lose because the Democrap candidates are.

Bains’ record speaks volumes. Voting against protecting democracy itself? The lone “Democrat” to side with Trumpism on a resolution meant to prevent the next coup? That’s not centrism. That’s collaboration. And the fact that she’s the kind of candidate Suzan DelBene’s DCCC dreams about tells you everything you need to know about the rot in the party’s campaign machinery.

Meanwhile, the alternative couldn’t be more obvious. Randy Villegas isn’t some Beltway concoction. He’s a local, he’s authentic, and he’s already secured the support of the party grassroots. He’s talking about real issues— working-class wages, healthcare, climate resilience in an agricultural economy— that actually resonate with the voters. In other words: he’s exactly the kind of candidate Democrats need if they want to stop hemorrhaging winnable seats in working-class, majority-Latino districts. But to the DCCC, that’s the problem. Grassroots progressives like Villegas can’t be controlled. They won’t kiss the ring of corporate donors. They won’t vote “the right way” when Pelosi or Hakeem Jeffries tells them to. So instead of backing the obvious winner, the DCCC is once again trying to snuff out a progressive before he can even reach Congress.

It’s a grim but familiar lesson: the DCCC would rather lose with a corporate shill than win with a progressive. CA-22 could be the seat that flips the House in 2026. Or it could be another cautionary tale about how conservative Democrats sabotage their own party’s majority to keep power in the hands of lobbyists, consultants, and corporate donors. Please consider helping Randy flip Congress by contributing here.