Votes are still being counted, but the blue wave may have reached California's District 22.
Amaray Alvarez is the Kern County reporter for KVPR, and called in from La Movida nightclub in Bakersfield.
ALVAREZ: So, one of the big races I've been following here is the congressional race for District 22 and the two candidates are David Valadao, the incumbent, and Randy Villegas is the newcomer. I'm here at a Randy Villegas election night party. So the party started at eight o'clock, and people are starting to trickle in. There was a line outside when I arrived, so people are really excited. Early polling results are showing Villegas is ahead.
People are lined up for drinks. There's a big disco ball in the middle. There's music playing. I think people are really excited to celebrate all of this hard work. A lot of people here are from his campaign or are union workers who have been following the campaign.
The popularity of Villegas as, you know, a populist Democrat in this district is kind of unusual, right?
ALVAREZ: Right. That's correct. David Valadao, who is the incumbent, has won, I believe, six of the last elections, and he is a Republican, and people were more Republican leaning, but this district was redistricted as part of the Proposition 50 to be more Democratic, like they did in Texas, California responded. And so now it's a bit more purple, where there's more people from both sides. One of the main things that has swayed voters here is Medicaid and Medicare. This district, I believe, is the highest district in the whole nation with people on Medicaid. The current congressman, David Valadao, he voted for the one big beautiful bill which cut money to Medicaid. So I think that's really what the shift is. People are upset. People here depend on things like Medicaid and also, like, affordability, other issues that are concerning people across the nation, and they're just ready for a change. And a socialist populist Democrat is someone who they feel is able to make that change for them.
