Calif. Dems want to flip this district. A progressive has the edge.

It’s a key California congressional district that national pundits have targeted as one that could flip from red to blue in the November general election. Now, there are signs that a progressive Democrat — against the national party’s wishes — may be the one to take on a Republican incumbent.

Read more Despite Calif. redistricting, rural voters stick with familiar names

This is in spite of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s last-minute efforts to push for the moderate candidate in the suddenly up-for-grabs District 22 in the Central Valley. 

If his slight lead holds, Randy Villegas, a professor at the College of the Sequoias, will likely find himself in a race against incumbent Republican Rep. David Valadao. 

But Villegas, a progressive, wasn’t the DCCC’s first choice to take on Valadao. 

Just weeks before Tuesday’s primary, the DCCC endorsed physician and state Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains, a moderate. The endorsement came after the DCCC, the official national campaign wing and House fundraising arm of the Democratic Party, initially said that it would not get involved with the District 22 primary.

The endorsement was a surprise, one that caused Villegas supporters to react strongly: “They lied to all of us,” Christian Romo, the chairperson of the Kern County Democratic Central Committee, told CalMatters in May. 

Romo and other Democratic organizers in the district “denounced the DCCC’s move to add Bains to their priority list of flippable districts,” CalMatters reported.

However, Villegas has powerful backers of his own. “I am proud to endorse Randy Villegas because we need more working-class people in Congress who are not beholden to the corporations and special interests that have rigged our political system in favor of the billionaires,” Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said in a statement. “Randy is an educator and small business owner from a working class family who understands the struggles that so many millions of Americans are facing everyday.”

The district has garnered national attention following last November’s voter-approved redistricting of California under Proposition 50. 

Some predicted this rise of the progressives: “Republican strategists say Democratic efforts to retake the House will be complicated by the rise of left-leaning candidates in key districts such as California’s 22nd District and Colorado’s 8th District, where progressive insurgents are threatening to topple more mainstream candidates favored by the Democratic Party establishment,” the Hill reported last November.

Read more Republican wins California district left empty by LaMalfa’s sudden death

The new district includes parts of Kings, Kern, Tulare, Madera and Fresno counties, and it also includes East Bakersfield; parts of Tulare and Hanford; and all of the cities of Shafter, Porterville, Wasco, Delano, McFarland, Arvin, Lamont and Corcoran. The district also has more representation from both metropolitan and Hispanic voters.

On Tuesday night, Villegas hosted a watch party at La Movida nightclub near downtown Bakersfield.

“I’m feeling incredibly proud of the campaign that we’ve put together and run here in the Central Valley,” he told members of the media after addressing the crowd gathered at the event. “I think we’ve shocked a lot of people across this country, I think we’ve shocked a lot of people in power, and I think that’s a good thing.”

Bains was also set to host a watch party in downtown Bakersfield, but she canceled it in response to the bank hostage situation taking place nearby. A representative from Bains’ office who was reached by SFGATE on Wednesday said that they couldn’t comment on the election results.

With a little more than half the votes counted Wednesday, incumbent Valadao is posting strong results against the split vote that the Democratic candidates share. 

With 55% of the votes in as of Wednesday morning, Valadao, with 44.5%, will advance to the general election. The vote between the two Democratic candidates, Villegas (29.8%) and Bains (25.7%), is still too close to call.