Impeachment-Backing GOP Rep. David Valadao Loses California House Seat

Democrat Randy Villegas has defeated Republican Rep. David Valadao in California's 22nd Congressional District, CBS News projected Wednesday, flipping a key Central Valley seat and ousting one of the last House Republicans who backed Donald Trump's second impeachment.^[1]

The projection means national Republicans will lose an incumbent in a district they had treated as a must-hold in their fight to preserve the House majority, after House Speaker Mike Johnson personally campaigned with Valadao and called the race one of the GOP's most important contests this cycle.^[1] With Valadao's loss, and Washington Rep. Dan Newhouse already set to retire, none of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump over the Jan. 6 Capitol attack will remain in the chamber next term.^[1]

Valadao, a dairy farmer and relative moderate, has long been a political outlier in the heavily Hispanic, working-class Central Valley, surviving multiple cycles in a district that leans Democratic at the presidential level and where Republicans have struggled with Latino voters.^[1] He was first elected in 2012, lost his seat in the 2018 blue wave, then clawed it back in 2020 and held on again in 2022, even after his impeachment vote made him a target for both the Trump-aligned right and energized Democrats.^[1]

Villegas, a college professor and community organizer who ran as a progressive, first had to get through California's top-two primary, where he faced a more moderate Democrat backed by elements of the party establishment concerned about losing a swing seat.^[1] His primary win signaled grassroots appetite for a more left-leaning candidate even in a centrist-tilting district, and his general-election victory now gives Democrats a fresh face in a region where they have invested heavily in turnout operations and Spanish-language outreach.^[1]

The end of Valadao's tenure closes a five-year chapter in which the 10 Republican impeachment backers became symbols of internal party dissent and then, one by one, were purged by retirement decisions, primary defeats, or general-election losses.^[1] Several, including Wyoming's Liz Cheney and Illinois' Adam Kinzinger, became outspoken Trump critics and exited Congress earlier, while others tried to keep a lower profile but could not outrun the backlash in an increasingly Trump-dominated GOP.^[1]

For Democrats, Villegas' win offers both an ideological and demographic marker: a self-described progressive capturing a largely Hispanic, rural-urban district that national Republicans believed they could hold even after the impeachment furor faded.^[1] For Republicans, losing a relatively moderate incumbent in such a seat underscores the risk of a shrinking tent and raises fresh questions about their path to a durable House majority once Trump-loyalty litmus tests collide with swing-district math.

1. CBS News