On a scorching summer day in Fresno County, Representative John Duarte (R-Modesto) stood in the shade of Axel Gomez’s yard, making his pitch for a second term.
As Gomez’s representative in Congress, Duarte said, he had partnered with housing groups to bring more affordable housing to the area to help attract families. More households would mean a stronger tax base to support towns like Coalinga, where just two years ago it nearly ran out of water because its primary source — piped from a federal reservoir 90 miles away — ran out during a severe drought. It was formally closed. The city had to buy water from the open market at exorbitant rates to keep residents’ taps running.
Gomez, who works on a farm, spoke about Coalinga’s need for housing and police accountability. He told Duarte that his employer and his father had set limits on his work hours to circumvent a state law that required farm workers to be paid overtime if they worked less than a week. Work more than 40 hours.
“This is the first time I’ve had a congressman come up to me and be interested in people,” said Gomez, 28.
A few minutes later, his mother, Patricia, came out of the house and joined the conversation. She shared a copy of her latest electric bill: $1,270.96. He said, if Congress can do something about reducing the rates and prices of everything, they will get their votes. Although Duarte did not give a clear answer, she was impressed that he was talking to voters on foot.
“Pa Delante,” he said, giving a thumbs up. “Moving forward,” Gomez translated.
“I want to do a job. I am not a career politician. I won’t always be here, but when I’m here, we’re working,” Duarte told them.
Rep. John Duarte (R-Modesto), left, talks with farmworker Axel Gomez in Coalinga.
(Gary Kazanjian/For The Times)
The conversation lasted about half an hour – one of four he had during an hour when he knocked on the doors of voters to put his case to their vote in late August.
Here in Congressional District 13, Duarte, 58, faces an uncertain path to re-election against his Democratic challenger, 47-year-old former state Assemblyman Adam Gray. Both have raised millions of dollars to boost their campaigns in one of several California districts considered crucial to Republicans. After November, the US has been able to secure a slim majority in the House of Representatives.
In 2022, Duarte defeated Gray by only 564 votes. A recent survey Cal State Long Beach, USC and Cal Poly Pomona found Gray holding a 2-point lead over Duarte, a margin small enough to fall within the poll’s margin of error.
On October 25, the two will take the stage for a debate held in Modesto Madi Institute,
Adam Gray points to a former cow pasture in which a new medical education building will be built because he helped obtain funding while in the California Assembly.
(Paul Kuroda/For The Times)
The district he is vying to represent is 67% Latino and covers a large portion of Central Valley agriculture. It includes all of Merced County and parts of Fresno, Madera, San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties, and also includes the cities of Merced, Los Banos and Coalinga, as well as parts of Modesto and Turlock.
Duarte, a Central Valley native and fourth-generation farmer, bills himself as a moderate Republican who will break with his party to represent the interests of his constituents. In contrast to the deep blue congressional districts that surround the Bay Area and Los Angeles, the Central Valley often registers purple. This is the state house highest concentration of conservative Democratic voters. In Congressional District 13, about 42% of voters are registered Democrats, while 29% are registered as Republicans and 22% are registered with no party preference.
Being a Republican congressman in a Democratic-leaning district can be a delicate dance. While Duarte has largely voted along Republican Party lines in his new term, he has expressed more liberal views on issues such as abortion and immigration, two topics that animate his party’s base.
In 2023, House Republicans push Secure Our Borders ActWhich, among other provisions, would have imposed tighter limits on asylum eligibility, revived construction of the US-Mexico border wall, and required companies to verify that their employees are in the US using the federal E-Verify system. Were legally eligible to work.
Duarte was one of only two House Republicans to vote against the bill, citing concerns The measure regarding the E-Verify program ultimately failed to pass the Democratic-led Senate.
Duarte has also broken with GOP leaders to support immigration reform proposals that would create a path to citizenship for participants in Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, a federal program that comes to the U.S. as children. Provides eligibility to eligible undocumented immigrants. Live and work here legally through a renewable permit.
On the issue of abortion, Duarte describes himself as pro-choice. but he said He opposes a federal authority For abortion and instead supports leaving abortion policy up to individual states. He voted with House Republicans last year to support a bill threatening medical providers Failure to resuscitate babies born alive during an attempted abortion resulted in prison sentences – an extremely rare occurrence that abortion rights supporters said was intended to discourage doctors from performing the procedure. The measure has yet to pass the Senate.
“A lot of people, they grew up working hard in the valley. Democratic candidate Adam Gray for Congressional District 13 says, Many of us worked on farms, either as farm workers or farmers, or maybe as truck drivers.
(Paul Kuroda/For The Times)
His opponent, Gray, describes himself as a centrist who worked his way across the aisle as a state assemblyman to pass bipartisan legislation. He founded the Problem Solvers Caucus and quickly said that both parties are at fault when it comes to Congress not doing enough to help Americans.
Gray was born and raised in Merced and grew up working in his family’s dairy supply and feed store. He makes his living by working in a construction company and as a lecturer at UC Merced, teaching a course on state legislature.
Gray, who served in the state Assembly for 10 years, said he decided to run for re-election when he saw “complete dysfunction, chaos and an inability to get anything done” in the Republican-led House.
He says voters are concerned about the cost of living and housing and are frustrated with partisan politics. He said his work in the state legislature reflects his ability to get results: he helped fund $3 billion to build new water storage projects in the Central Valley and establish a medical school at UC Merced.
He has faulted his own party on water conservation issues, opposing various Democratic-led efforts to reduce the amount of state and federal water flowing into San Joaquin Valley irrigation districts.
“A lot of people, they grew up working hard in the valley. Many of us worked on farms, either as farm workers or farmers, or maybe as truck drivers,” he said.
And just as Duarte won a district where voters lean Democratic, there are staunch Republicans who appear willing to cross party lines to support Gray.
Sheriff Vern Warnke, one of Merced County’s more well-known conservatives, said that his working relationship with Gray during Gray’s time in the Assembly convinced him that Gray would be an advocate for law enforcement and the Merced County communities.
“Yes, I’m a cowboy, redneck, right-wing conservative, Republican, all of it,” he said. “I went to the party in person, and I’m sure it would be perfect for Adam to be there. “It will be another voice to connect with in Washington.”
Rep. John Duarte (R-Modesto), left, talks with cattleman Matt Toste before a town hall meeting in Coalinga.
(Gary Kazanjian/For The Times)
In his own campaign, Duarte has emphasized his personal experience as a farmer who understands the burden of environmental regulations imposed by many locals when it comes to farming. In 2017, federal regulators Duarte fined $1.1 million For violating the Clean Water Act after clearing protected wetlands on his property in Tehama County to plant wheat. The case made him a hero among property rights activists.
During his visit to Coalinga in August, Duarte held a town hall to update constituents about his work in Congress and what else he hoped to accomplish. He talked about working with local mayors to ensure that their cities have access to “abundant, reliable, affordable” surface water. And he said he hopes to pursue immigration reform that includes amnesty for DACA recipients.
He criticized the rising costs of the high-speed rail project running through the Central Valley. And he talked about successes: securing $5 million to rebuild roads in Mendota.
When it came time for questions, Coalinga City Council member Nathan Vosburg told Duarte he was concerned about the congressman’s support for amnesty for undocumented residents and his no vote on the Secure Our Borders Act.
Would the Congressman not agree that employers should face criminal penalties for hiring immigrants who do not have legal status and that illegal immigration negatively impacts all families in the Central Valley, Vosburg said .
Duarte explained that the amnesty he supports would be a path to specific citizenship for DACA recipients and undocumented individuals who have worked in the US for several years and have no criminal record.
“I’m grateful for my district’s vote,” he said. “This is a swing district if there ever was one, and I’m going to take advantage of it, which means I can step into the middle of these issues.”
Vosburg, a Republican, dissented. But he said he would reluctantly vote for Duarte, because “you’re the only one we’ve got.”
City Council member Manny Ramirez chimed in, saying that his parents, immigrants from Mexico, never took a cent from the state. Ramirez, who is also a Republican, said that as a child he watched his parents be taken away by Border Patrol agents, and he appreciated Duarte’s support for a path to citizenship for undocumented residents. of.
Duarte has earned his vote, he said.
“It’s not about Republican or Democrat,” Ramirez said of District 13 voters. “We know what’s right, and we know what’s wrong.”
