Rep. David Valadao (R-CA) has won reelection in California’s 22nd congressional district, moving Republicans closer to 218 seats, the number they will need to hold the majority.
As of midnight November 8 Eastern time, Republicans needed just two more seats to win the majority.
Democrats tried to defeat Valadao by highlighting his vote in favor of Donald Trump’s second impeachment in 2021, which they themselves had pushed.
As Breitbart News reported:
An ad run by Democrats in California’s hotly contested 22nd congressional district knocks incumbent Republican Rep. David Valadao for voting to impeach President Donald Trump, hoping to suppress GOP turnout in the district.
The ad, the Wall Street Journal notes, is “sponsored by the Democratic group Voter Protection Project, which is funded by House Majority PAC, which is associated with the House Democratic leadership,” which pushed impeachment.
Voters did not seem to care. Valadao is popular in his Central Valley district, where agricultural issues are paramount. He has focused on securing water rights for farms and municipalities in the area. Crucially, Valadao has won there with support from the Latino community — even before Hispanic voters began trending Republican.
He was ousted for one term in 2018, after Democrats pioneered the use of “ballot harvesting,” which was legal for the first time in that election. He came back in 2020 to reclaim his seat.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.