Already a ripe target for Democrats in the next election, Central Valley Rep. David Valadao put his political future in deeper peril this week by voting in favor of legislation that slashes the Medicaid coverage essential to roughly two-thirds of his constituents.
The Republican dairy farmer from Hanford said that despite his concerns about President Trump’s megabill, he voted to support it because of concessions he helped negotiate that will help his district, such as an additional $25 billion for rural hospitals, $1 billion for Western water infrastructure, and agricultural investments.
More than a half-million residents in Valadao’s district are covered by the program known in California as Medi-Cal — the most of any district in the state — according to the UC Berkeley Labor Center. While preserving tax breaks benefiting the wealthy, the bill passed by narrow Republican majorities in both the House and Senate would reduce federal Medicaid spending by $1.04 trillion over 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Valadao said his constituents would directly benefit from several provisions in the legislation, including the extension of the tax breaks, the elimination of taxes on tips and overtime, and the expansion of the child tax credit.
“These are real wins that will put more money back in the pockets of hardworking families throughout the Valley,” he said. “No piece of legislation is perfect, but this bill ultimately reflects the priorities of [my district] — lower taxes, stronger farms, better infrastructure, and a commitment to protecting access to healthcare for Valley residents.”
Democrats vowed to use Valadao’s vote to oust him from office in the 2026 election. His district, which includes swaths of Kern, Kings and Tulare counties, is among the most competitive in the nation.
Valadao has repeatedly vowed to oppose legislation that would cut healthcare for his constituents, most recently on Monday when he posted on X: “I’ve been clear from the start that I will not support a final reconciliation bill that makes harmful cuts to Medicaid, puts critical funding at risk, or threatens the stability of healthcare providers across” his district.
After his vote Thursday, Valadao said that he did so because it preserves Medicaid “for its intended recipients — children, pregnant women, the disabled, and elderly.”
“David Valadao just sealed his fate by voting for a bill that will rip health care away from tens of thousands in his district, where more than two-thirds of his constituents rely on the very program he’s gutting,” said Anna Elsasser, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, in a statement. “He lied to their faces, and then tried to sweep it under the rug. We all knew he’d fold when it mattered most. It’s spineless, it’s dishonest, and next November, it will cost him his seat.”
A billboard proclaiming “David Valadao Lied. He voted to gut Medi-Cal, giving CEOs a tax break. We’ll pay with our lives” was erected Thursday near State Route 99 in Valadao’s district by Fight for Our Health, a nonprofit coalition of health, labor, senior, disability and other groups.
Gilbert Garcia, 68, of Bakersfield warned that the coming cuts “will be absolutely devastating.”
The retired grant writer for a nonprofit that serves adults with developmental disabilities is a member of the California Alliance for Retired Americans and lives in Valadao’s district.
“With the cuts that are taking place, I think community-based programs are just going to dissolve, which means these individuals and all the programs and employees associated with them will disappear off the map,” he said.
He also is worried that the sole trauma center in the region, which saved his 10-year-old son’s life more than three decades ago, will probably be shuttered because of the legislation.
In critical situations, people “have minutes to reach a trauma center that has the equipment to be able to stabilize them and keep them alive,” Garcia said. “There’s no time to get to L.A. There’s no time to get to Fresno. People will be dead on arrival.”
Democrats also plan on targeting Reps. Ken Calvert (R-Corona) and Young Kim (R-Anaheim Hills) for their support of the bill. Hundreds of protesters descended Tuesday on Kim’s Anaheim field office to urge the congresswoman to oppose the legislation.
Trump’s proposal narrowly passed the Senate on Tuesday. Vice President JD Vance cast a tiebreaking vote because of the defection of three GOP senators who joined every Democrat in voting against it.
The legislation will dramatically overhaul the nation’s tax code by making tax cuts approved during the president’s first term permanent, a major benefit to corporations and the nation’s wealthy, while slashing funding for historic federal safety-net programs including Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which helps provide food to low-income Americans.
A Congressional Budget Office analysis released Sunday estimated that the Senate version of the proposal would increase the national deficit by nearly $3.3 trillion from 2025 to 2034 and would result in 11.8 million Americans losing health insurance in less than a decade.
The legislation created a rift among Republicans, with some opposing the amount of money it would add to the deficit while others expressed concerns about how it would affect their constituents. But ultimately, GOP members of Congress put aside their differences to get the bill on the president’s desk by the Fourth of July, as Trump demanded.
In a marathon session that ended early Thursday morning, members of the House of Representatives voted 220 to 212 — largely along party lines — to approve a procedural rule that allowed the legislation to be considered by the full body, a victory for Trump and GOP legislative leaders.
Valadao’s vote in support of the procedural vote before midnight Wednesday raised eyebrows, given the number of his constituents who rely on Medicaid, his previous willingness to oppose Trump and GOP concerns about retaining control of his seat.
Cal State Fresno political science professor Tom Holyoke noted that the only time Valadao lost reelection to Congress was in 2018, the middle of Trump’s first term.
Democrats have been targeting Valadao’s district for several election cycles because of their party’s voter registration advantage in the region. His vote “certainly gives the Democrats something to run on, which they haven’t quite had in the past,” Holyoke said. “Especially since Valadao said he was going to vote against the bill and then voted for it.”
More than 40% of the district’s voters are Democrats, while 28.3% are Republicans and 23.3% registered as having no party preference, according to the nonpartisan California Target Book, which handicaps congressional races.
Valadao, 48, served one term in the state Assembly before being elected to Congress in 2012. He was reelected twice before narrowly losing reelection in 2018. He retook the seat in 2020.
He drew the ire of fellow Republicans as one of 10 GOP members of Congress who voted to impeach Trump in 2021 after a violent mob of the president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in the aftermath of Trump’s 2020 election loss. However, Valadao did not face the same retribution from Trump that the others did, reportedly because of the congressman’s long-standing relationship with former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday told reporters that Valadao should leave office if he votes for the bill.
“It’s the ultimate betrayal,” he said during a news conference in Burbank. “This is one of the most calamitous and devastating bills of our lifetime.”
Newsom predicted that the bill’s passage would mean hospital closures, loss of access to healthcare and food stamps for Californians, and higher student loans.
Valadao “might as well resign early and I can call a special election, if he supports it,” Newsom said. “What basis do you have of trust in your own district if you would betray your own constituency to such an extraordinary, extraordinary degree. It’s one of the poorest districts in the country.”
