Voter turnout leaps in the Central Valley
Hooray! Voter turnout rose sharply in one of the Central Valley’s key districts in last month’s primary race for election to Congress. Thank you for supporting our effort to make it happen!
The heartening results came from California’s Congressional District 22 (CD-22), where
Central Valley Matters raised over $400K in April for our six grassroots groups.
That’s good evidence that the support you give to the groups vetted by Central Valley Matters has a positive impact on voter turnout. And look at the results: Democratic voters accounted for almost 60 percent of all votes in the district.
The November election for CD-22’s seat in Congress is one of the closest races nationwide that will decide whether Republicans or Democrats control the House.
The primary election, held in June, produced two top vote-getters who will run in the November general election: Democrat Randy Villegas and incumbent Republican David Valadao. A second Democrat, Jasmeet Bains, did not make the cut.
| Candidate | Vote Count | % of vote* |
|---|---|---|
| Villegas – D | 25,808 | 32.4% |
| Bains – D | 21,458 | 26.9% |
| Dems combined | 47,266 | 59.3% |
| Valadao – R | 32,491 | 40.7% |
CVM’s Bob Deutsch has compared the district’s turnout in last month’s (2026) primary election to the 2022 primary and found:
Democratic turnout increased by 7 percentage points in 2026 compared with the 2022 primary; Republican turnout increased by 2 percentage points.
Turnout among younger Democratic voters (age 18-34) rose 7.7 percentage points, more than among younger Republican voters (1.7 percentage points).