Political Breakdown
Is Congress About To Get Younger?
6/12/2026 | 27m 4sVideo has Closed Captions
Can new candidates help Democrats rebound? Mai Vang and Randy Villegas make their case.
After the Democrats’ 2024 losses, the party is debating how to rebuild ahead of the midterms. Should it embrace more progressive candidates or focus on a new generation of leadership? Scott and Marisa speak with two candidates running on change: Sacramento City Councilmember Mai Vang, who is challenging Rep. Doris Matsui, and Randy Villegas, who is taking on Rep. David Valadao
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Political Breakdown is a local public television program presented by KQED
Political Breakdown
Is Congress About To Get Younger?
6/12/2026 | 27m 4sVideo has Closed Captions
After the Democrats’ 2024 losses, the party is debating how to rebuild ahead of the midterms. Should it embrace more progressive candidates or focus on a new generation of leadership? Scott and Marisa speak with two candidates running on change: Sacramento City Councilmember Mai Vang, who is challenging Rep. Doris Matsui, and Randy Villegas, who is taking on Rep. David Valadao
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship- I have to say, you look at how the primary turned out there.
Forget the democratic side.
Valadeo is at 41% of the vote, the Republican vote share in that district.
If you go back through the last few primaries, it's been consistently at about 55%.
- Interesting.
- So that to me, that's beyond like a five alarm fire.
That's the sprinklers are going off.
Angela is throwing the cat in the ceiling.
Kevin's has a chair through the vending machine like this is, that's a huge, that's a major red flag if you're Republicans looking at that district in November.
- Hey, everyone from KQED in San Francisco.
This is Political Breakdown.
I'm Marisa Lagos.
- And I'm Scott Shafer.
Today on the Breakdown, despite low approval ratings for President Trump and congressional Republicans, the Democratic Party also remains deeply unpopular with voters prompting soul searching among Democrats about what they need to do to win back the hearts and votes of the electorate.
- For some, it's a question of ideology and policy.
Should Democrats embrace more populous, progressive, and ambitious candidates, or is the real need more about generational change?
Today we're joined by two candidates who are running on a change message.
Mai Vang is a city council member in Sacramento who just clinched a spot in the November runoff against sitting Democratic Congress member Doris Matsui Matsui has held the seat for 20 years.
Welcome Mai Vang.
- Thank you so much for having me today.
- Thanks for being here.
We also have Randy Villegas.
He's a progressive Democratic college professor.
He will be facing off against a Republican incumbent, David Valadao in the fall.
This is for a seat in California's Central Valley.
Randy Villegas, thanks to you two for being here.
- Glad to be here.
- And we should note, we have invited both congress member Matsui and Valadao on the show as well, and we hope to make that happen in the coming weeks.
But Randy Villegas, let's start with you.
You did beat out a more moderate Democrat in this primary.
You've been endorsed by Senator Bernie Sanders, and you ran on a pretty progressive populous platform, right?
Single payer healthcare, no PAC money.
What were you hearing from voters on the campaign trail as you talked about that message?
- Yeah, we heard that message resonating, and I think our results reflect that.
You know, I talked to Democrats, independents, and Republicans, and I would also note we are endorsed by Senator Bernie Sanders, lots of democratic leaders, but I'm also endorsed by a local Republican mayor showing people that this isn't a fight about left versus right.
It's us versus them, - You - Know, politic Central Valley families who've been left behind by politicians in both parties that have sold them out to corporate interests and to billionaires.
And so we're here to put Central Valley families first.
I talked to Republicans at the doors who agreed that we shouldn't be spending a billion dollars a day.
And this war in Iran that's driving up fuel prices, independents and Republicans who agree with me that corporations shouldn't be buying single family homes, and those homes should be for our young families.
And so, again, these aren't, I would argue, even progressive ideas.
These are just popular ideas that, you know, resonate across the political spectrum.
- And Mai Vang, you are 40 years younger than the incumbent.
You're running against Doris Matsui.
So did you see this race about changing generation or changing direction and, you know, how did you make that case with voters?
- Yeah, I mean, this is about new generational change for leadership, but it's also a new direction.
I think what's really important is that for the past 20 years since Doris Matsui has been in office, our families are still living paycheck to paycheck.
And people of my generation are no, no closer to owning a home.
And millennials and Gen Z and folks who are younger will have to inherit a world that they didn't create.
And that means they should be at the table shaping those decisions.
We also know that right now, it doesn't matter if you're a Democrat, republican, or a no party preference, that so many of our families are struggling in this moment, and we're not gonna wait any longer.
And this fall, we're gonna carry that same message to every doorstep in the district and and to win and to make it across the finish line.
- Following up with you Mai Vang, I mean, it is a delicate thing to make the case for generational change without, you know, saying anything or accusing your opponent of just being too old for the job.
How are you talking about that and thinking about that?
And I mean, it is a tough job to be flying back and forth and doing all these things.
So tell us what your message is around that.
- Yeah, you know, I, well, let me just say first, I don't take running against an incumbent lightly, and the decision to even run against Doris Matsui you know, took a lot of conversations with family and loved ones because I too have deep respect and gratitude for the congresswoman who have served this region.
That said, though, I think it's so important that whoever we send to the halls of Congress needs to understand the day-to-day struggles of our working families.
That's literally understanding what it means to live paycheck to paycheck.
I am married to a son of Mexican immigrant who works 12 hour shifts in the auto industry.
I am someone with college student debt.
And I think that these lived experience are so important in the ways in which it informs the decisions that we make.
And that's a message that we've been focused on focusing on centering working families.
And now that we've made it to made it past the primaries, I think the critique out there from Washington consultants, you know, they'll say to us, Mai, you're gonna need to move center.
You're gonna need to move center.
And you know, my answer to them is, it's not about moving center from left or right.
It's about centering working families throughout this campaign, A campaign center on working families and human dignity.
And that's what we've done, and that's what we're continued to do.
- Randy Villegas, same question to you.
You said you were endorsed by Bernie Sanders, and I'm sure the Republican party is gonna make a big deal about that.
The DCCC, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee was helping your opponent Jasmeet Bains, because apparently they thought she would be a tougher opponent for Valadao in November.
So, you know, how do you make the case?
How do you respond to that concern that some Democrats have that a progressive can't win in a district like this one?
- Yeah, like I mentioned before, actually, you know, we have tried this formula time and time again of running a Democrat who takes the same corporate PAC money as Valadao.
And time and time again, those candidates have fallen short.
And though I have the deepest admiration for anyone who runs for Congress, yeah, I knew, I knew that we had to do things differently.
My mom always taught me growing up, which means, tell me who you're with and I'll tell you who you are.
And the same thing can be said about politics.
Tell me who you're taking money from, and I'll tell you who you're taking orders from.
And that's why I proudly declare from day one that we will never accept a dime of corporate PAC money because we wanna be accountable to our communities and not corporate interests.
And meanwhile, David Valadao is taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from the same corporations that are ripping us off.
He's taken money from PG&E, from Amazon, from United Health, a corporation using AI algorithms to deny elderly people's claims so that they could continue to profit while our family members suffer.
While I'm here to say that our Central Valley families shouldn't have to drive seven to eight hours to Tijuana to go get cheaper prescription drugs and cheaper dental work done, you know, we need to make sure that we're actually investing in prioritizing Central Valley families here.
And clearly that is a message that has resonated with voters and that has resonated across the country.
We need candidates who are gonna be accountable to our communities and not to corporate interests.
And I'm proud to say that, you know, despite all the outside interference, despite the fact that we had millions of dollars spent against us, we still manage to advance the general election and win this primary because we know that working families are ready for representatives who are actually gonna be representing them and not corporate sponsors.
- Yeah, I mean, Mai Vang, you also are, were up against in the primary and now heading into November, some democratic establishments, including the former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, who's pretty legendary, her endorsement of Matsui.
I wonder if you read that as sort of, you know, her just backing in an incumbent that's been pretty standard practice.
Do you think it's about loyalty and do you think it helped or hurt you in this primary?
- You know, at the end of the day, the only way to beat the establishment is to have organized people.
And I always knew walking into this race that I may not have the endorsement of the local establishment.
It's kind of the unspoken role in Sacramento among electeds that you don't do what Mai Vang is doing.
You don't take on an incumbent, you wait your turn.
Although I wasn't waiting my turn, I wasn't even thinking about running for Congress, but I don't have a luxury of of waiting on the sidelines.
And we knew going in that we were going to be outspent with, with money, but also with, with the establishment, with the endorsement, you know, corporate Pac, the Wealthy food.
I mean, we were, we were outspent three to one, and we ran just like Randy without taking a dime from corporate PAC money, but we knocked on thousands of doors.
We spoke to thousands of voters who are ready for change.
And so this is really about a, a movement.
And, and in the midterm election, this is more than just one congressional seat or two congressional seat.
It's really about the future of this country.
Where do we wanna go?
The Matsui has held a seat for 47 years, almost four, almost half a century.
And it's so important right now to have a new generation of bold, bold and courageous leaders in the halls of Congress.
And I can't wait to be joining Randy when we get there after.
- And I will add just briefly, you know, we just yesterday were added to the D CCCs Red to Blue program and, you know, earned the endorsements of several folks who are even behind my opponent in the primary, because we know how important it is to flip the seat and take back the house in November.
- The - Path to taking back the house runs through the Central Valley, and we welcome the support of anyone and everyone who's interested in fighting for a better future for all of our families.
- Randy, I wanna ask you about a question that looms large in the valley.
I mean, typically in pa in the past, water has been a big issue, the environment, sometimes agriculture interests don't look kindly on things about like climate change policy that Democrats promote.
How are you thinking about that issue, especially since you're gonna have to appeal to more conservative democrats and maybe some independents and maybe even some, you know, more liberal Republicans if there are any of those out there?
- Yeah, we need to continue to center our working families when it comes to all these issues, right?
The fact that we have had so many small and medium farmers shut down over the last year as a result of, you know, corporate agribusiness, taking up these smaller family farms, putting small farmers out of business, I wanna make sure we're actually fighting for our communities.
I'm a small business owner myself, and I wanna make sure that we're supporting small businesses and not giving tax breaks to multinational corporations.
But, you know, let's talk about water for a second, right?
Why is it that people across this country know about Flint, Michigan, but they don't know about Arvin California or Porterville California, or the fact that where I was growing up, I couldn't drink the water coming outta my faucet because it had high levels of 1, 2, 3 TCP and carcinogens and cancer causing agents.
It is really, really frustrating that we are in 2026 and we don't have communities that have access to safe, affordable, and clean drinking water because David Valadao doesn't care about that issue for our communities.
- Right?
But what, what about climate change, though in particular?
I mean, I realize there's some, they're connected in some ways, - A hundred percent.
And we're on the front lines of climate change here in the Central Valley.
When we talk about the pesticides that are sprayed near our communities, the fact that we have among the highest rates of childhood asthma, we have high rates of cancer, all these, all these issues intersect with one another.
And I wanna make sure that we have safe drinking water, that we have clean air, and we can do these things together.
Right?
Let's talk about farming.
The fact that the US had this year became a net importer as opposed to exporter the fact that Valadao likes to call himself a dairy farmer.
But when Trump, you know, quadrupled our beef imports from Argentina, undercutting our own ranchers and American farmers here in the Central Valley, he was silent.
- Hmm.
These - Tariffs that are hurting not just our farmers, but our communities.
I wanna make sure that we're actually fighting to put the Central Valley first and our country first.
The fact that, you know, we're spending billions of dollars a day, you know, sending our tax dollars to countries that have things like universal healthcare and universal higher education for all their, you know, people while we do not here in the Central Valley.
I think that's a problem, and I think it's a time that we actually invest in our own communities.
- My thing, I'm curious, I mean, it's a very different proposition to run against a fellow Democrat, right?
And a lot of what we're hearing in terms of excitement on the democratic side is a sort of anti-Trump message.
I'm sure you and your opponent share that anti-Trump sentiment.
So talk about what you see as the biggest policy sort of gaps and, and what are you gonna lean in on besides, you know, the generational issue and, and sort of the message that you feel like she's not as in touch with, with folks struggling.
Like is it around, you know, foreign policy?
Is it around climate change?
What are you looking at there?
- Well, I, I would say we can't just be anti-Trump.
I think we're both Democrats, but we have to be able to offer voters more than just being anti-Trump.
And there's a reason why the Democratic party lost to Trump two times.
It's because, you know, we are incredibly, we meaning the Democratic party is incredibly out of touch with working family, and I think it's really important, right?
Like why, why is it that that we in one of the bluest seats that we don't have a champion for Medicare for all, right?
And a big part of that is 'cause Congresswoman George Matsui takes money from insurance companies and big pharma, and so she's not gonna move with a sense of urgency.
A lot of these races, when you look at it, the new kind of emergent candidate, like Randy and myself, we don't take any corporate PAC money because we can champion issues like abolish ICE.
We can champion issues on Medicare for all, but we're not able to move the needle on things because a lot of these politicians are actually bought by corporate PAC.
And so I often have shared on the campaign trail that when you, when your campaign is funded by a corporate credit card, you do have debt to pay, you won't move with a sense of urgency.
And so I think what Randy and I both bring to voters is this sense of independence and that we are censoring our families who, who we all should be working for when we get to the halls of Congress.
- Randy, the issue of immigration, the ICE crackdowns really looms large in the Central Valley.
So many farmers rely on immigrant labor, migrant labor.
How are you thinking about that and talking about that and you know, maybe distancing yourself a little bit from some of the democratic policies that many people, including some Democrats feel went, you know, off the tracks.
- Yeah, I'm the son of immigrants from Mexico and this is an issue that's deeply personal to me.
So in Congress, not only do I want to fight to, you know, have comprehensive and humane and just immigration reform, so our neighbors no longer have to live in the shadows, but we have to address the root cause of this immigration system, the corporate corruption that exists, the fact that you have corporations like Geo and CoreCivic who profit off the separation of our families.
So we also need accountability.
I believe that we should prosecute any ICE agents that has violated the constitution or done harm to our communities.
And to the other point around the corporate corruption, I will fight in Congress to ban these private detention centers across our country because I don't believe that any corporation should be profiting from the separation of our families here in the Central Valley or across the country.
- Yeah, I mean, my bang, I see you nodding along here.
It sounds like you line up from a policy level with a lot of these things.
Are I I, is that issue immigration something you're hearing from constituents?
- Absolutely, and it's actually one of the main reasons why I also ran.
I mean, the fight is deeply personal for me.
I have family members who are dreamers, DACA's, my husband, a son of Mexican immigrant.
I'm a daughter of Hmong refugees.
And I know what so many of our families are facing, waking up every morning afraid if they're gonna be separated from their loved ones.
And I have called for the abolishment of ICE.
And a big part of this is because ICE, this is not really about enforcement, it's about terrorizing our immigrant and refugee communities.
And ICE didn't exist before 2003.
There are some key policies that I would push for and that's making sure that we continue to establish a stronger and accessible pathway to so many of our TPS residents.
For our dreamers and DACA, we need to end all inhumane deportation detention programs.
I would champion very similar to Randy Villegas, right?
Closing these detention centers that profiting off of the pain and suffering of our immigrant refugees and families.
And so I think we have to be bold and unapologetic about these issues in these positions and not just wait until it pulls well, but that it actually impacts our families on the ground.
- Yeah.
Randy, your district has some of the highest percentage of people that are on Medicaid, very, very high rates of poverty.
How are you gonna address that particular issue and the fact that Congress has just made major cuts in Medicaid funding?
- Yeah, well, as I'm sure you know, Congressman Val voted for this big BS bill that is going to gut Medicaid in our communities, in a district where two out of every three of our residents relied on Medicaid.
I grew up on Medicaid.
My mother grew up, you know, used WIC to make sure she had baby formula for myself and my siblings.
And Val thought it was more important to go give tax breaks to billionaires instead.
And I tell people the most ironic part about that is that he has a government sponsored healthcare plan as a member of Congress.
And personally I think he needs to use that plan to schedule a physical because he needs to look for the spine that he's been missing these last few years.
But to that point, you know, one of my priorities is gonna be to reverse this big BS bill to make sure we fight to restore that funding for Medicaid and all these programs.
But let's talk about where we are right now, where two out of every three bankruptcies in this country are tied to medical debt where every year over 66,000 people die because they don't have health insurance or because they're underinsured.
Not because we couldn't treat them, not because we couldn't save them, but because of a system that denied them care.
And so that is why I will be a proud co-sponsor on day one of Medicare for All, because I believe that healthcare is a human right.
I don't believe people should have to choose between rationing their insulin and buying their groceries.
People should have to choose between, you know, paying their rent or, you know, going to a doctor.
And I'm here to say that nobody should have to fight cancer and their congressman at the same time.
- All right, we are gonna have to leave it there.
I will note as I did at the top, we have invited David Valadao and Doris Matsui to come on the show and respond to some of this.
And we'd love to get you both back in here in person as this campaign progresses to talk a little bit more about your stories and, and, and your vision.
Council member Mai Vang, Randy Villegas.
Thank you both so much for joining us.
Well now we're gonna welcome our KQED politics correspondent Guy Marzorati to help us make sense of all this.
Hey guy.
- Hey.
- So we just heard from these two candidates, these kind of upstarts.
Obviously this is a year in which the congressional districts were scrambled by Proposition 50 this fall, this redistricting measures.
Guy, just big picture, like what do you see as the outlook for Democrats hoping to flip, especially those 5G OP held seats, including Valadao's?
- I think really positive coming out of this primary.
I mean they, they've made it to the general election on the Democratic side, where in a lot of cases they have candidates they feel good about.
And then when you look at, I mean the Valadao districts, there's some that Democrats simply kind of gerrymandered themselves into the victory column through map redrawing.
The Valadao district was still seen as one in which it was going to be a competitive campaign.
I have to say, you look at how the primary turned out there, forget the democratic side, Valadao is at 41% of the vote, the Republican vote share in that district.
If you go back through the last few primaries, it's been consistently at about 55%.
- Interesting.
- So that to me that's beyond like a five alarm fire.
That's the sprinklers are going off.
Angela's throwing the cat in the ceiling, Kevin's has a chair through the vending machine.
Like this is, that's a huge, that's a major red flag if you're Republicans looking at that district in November.
- Yeah.
So, you know, we just heard Randy Villegas, you know, really sticking with his progressive message and it's gonna, those two have very different races, right?
Yeah.
I mean my van is running against a well-known Democrat and you know, in a - District that's actually a little bit more red under Prop 50, right?
Than - Yeah, yeah.
A little more.
So you, it's gonna be interesting to see in all these cases, where do these voters who were for, you know, Jasmeet Bains, where do they go?
And then where do all the other, you know, voters in that district between, you know, how do they settle out between Matsui and Mai Vang?
I mean, it's interesting.
- And what issues kind of like shape those?
Race, race?
I mean it's a fascinating split screen.
You had both of them on, I think in Marisa you asked about like in these progressive districts, what are gonna be the policy issues that actually divide Democrats And you think about something like single payer healthcare that could easily, I mean we've seen this in Democratic primaries - Yeah.
- Throughout the country.
That would probably not be something Randy Villegas is thrilled to talk about.
He'd much rather be talking about what he ended the conversation on the Medi-Cal cuts.
So that kind of split screen for Democrats about what you have in Intraparty races in a top two versus these districts where the party's hoping to flip a seat from Republicans are very different.
- It's hard to, sorry, I was gonna say, like I hearing him talk about prosecuting ICE agents, you know, like I could see Mai Vang talking about that in Sacramento, but I feel like that's gonna land very differently in the valley, - Maybe, but that's like one of the most Latino districts in the nation, right?
So I think on those sorts of issues, it will be interesting how Trump may have flipped things for Democrats because I think that a lot of people in the Latino community in general, but just writ large are really upset about that.
I mean, what's fascinating to me though is like how little continuity there was across the state when we talk about this generational change message, right?
You saw down South Brad Sherman just route his opponent who had challenged him kind of from the left, but but not even that far from the left really with this general generational change message here in San Francisco for Nancy Pelosi's seat, Choco Chakrabarti, the kind of a OC Bernie Sanders type candidate out.
So there isn't like a mandate in that sense, right?
Among Democrats.
I think it is very district dependent.
- Yeah.
And candidate dependent too, I think.
- Yeah.
Yeah.
But I also would say it's like given where the starting point where we really felt like, oh, our Democrats in this Tea party moment where they feel like the establishment, it's like anti incumbent Yeah.
In the house is, is not responding to where voters are at.
And we, you know, after the Joe Biden years where his age was such a central issue, I think you have to look at this as somewhat underwhelming in the sense of like, there was not, voters didn't simply just say anyone over the certain age of X throw 'em out.
Right?
You know, it was much more complicated than that in some of these districts.
And maybe that will happen as we see these campaigns extended.
If someone like Eric Jones makes it into the top two against Mike Thompson, if Mai Vang has this extended campaign against Doris Matsui, like maybe we ultimately end up in that place.
But that wasn't the resounding answer - In June.
- No.
- Well, and I do think too, if you're an incumbent and you're older, but you're, you've been seen in the district, you're present, you know, they see you at town halls, whatever, I think that helps, right?
- Yeah.
I mean, I think it is though a very different thing to be challenging an incumbent head to head in a November election where you do tend to have a bigger electorate.
Sometimes it's more liberal in California.
And you know, to your point, Scott, like where do some of these Republicans go?
Do they sit it out?
Do they jump in?
Who knows?
- But you know, guy's point about the five alarm fire with Valadao.
I mean, Matsui got what, 30% of the vote for an incumbent?
That's terrible.
Yeah, that's terrible.
But it, but still to your point, Marisa, like, okay, so where do those Republican voters go?
Where do the moderate Dems, I mean, presumably it's gonna be a much higher turnout.
Maybe that helps bang.
Yeah.
You know, - Perhaps.
- Yeah.
And I think in that case you'd have to see like, what does the campaign look like?
Are they debating?
I mean, is there, is there like that I think would all be open questions.
I think that's who we got a lot of heat for avoiding some of, you know, interviews.
And with the Sacramento Bee, does that just change become amplified as it's the, the field is an neur candidates?
I mean, - Yeah, I guess I wonder like if you guys both think that my theory that in some cases the incumbent or establishment support could help these sort of more insurgent candidates.
Like in the Central Valley, Randy Villegas, you know, the National Democratic Congressional caucus came in and spent for Bains.
It didn't work.
And it really kind of angered some of the local Democratic party chairs who were like, Hey, this is our district.
- I think, you know, we pay attention to that stuff.
Yeah.
I'm not sure the average voter does.
I'm getting, but - The guy's point, people are mad about some of this stuff, - Right?
They they are.
But if people are mad in general, you know, I think Viegas had a message that was, you know, kind of speaking to those folks on affordability and healthcare and budget cuts, all those things.
So it's, I think it's hard to disentangle all of that.
- Yeah.
And I think it's also, you see through these primaries oftentimes, like the, the person, you know, there's all this argument like, who would be best set up to win in November?
Well, oftentimes it's like the person who runs a campaign that is of a win, a winning nature.
Like the way that Bains, I mean, I know that sounds stupid, but like Bains, I think the way she ran that campaign, you have to wonder if, like did, was she really someone who put forward a, a record of success for November?
She was like often seemed on the defensive.
You know, we talked to folks who were like reporting on that race.
She was not very accessible.
Vegas was out knocking on doors.
- Well, didn't Maya tell us constantly Yeah.
That she kind of almost ran it like she was the incumbent.
Yeah.
And that's not especially like, you know, it's one thing if you're running in the exact same sort of footprint, like thinking about Scott Wiener, right?
Like he didn't have to introduce himself in San Francisco because the district was very similar to his senate district, whereas baes was running in a different district than her assembly district in part.
Right.
So you're not like, you can't just sit back and be the incumbent there.
Yeah.
- We all know that the electorate's gonna be different in November.
It always is.
But I'm just wondering, you know, one of the theories behind Randy Villegas' campaign was he's gonna draw out voters that don't vote.
And, and the turnout in that district historically has been pretty low.
Right?
- Well, here's the question.
Is there a Becerra bump In November?
You know, I think when we've talked about Latino voters, maybe of Latino voters specifically Yeah.
In nationally and also in California the last few years it's been through the lens.
And our guy Mike Madrid, has detailed this better than anyone suggest you check out his substack.
But like the, the trend has been Latino voters moving away from voting along an ethnic block, ethnic lines, honestly dividing between along the lines that divide white voters.
What's your educational attainment?
Do you have a degree or not?
Is there, and this will be something interesting to unpack in the June results too.
How did Becerra perform in like heavily Latino precincts, but is there any kind of move back towards more ethnic polarized voting given that we are about to see someone probably undertake a historic campaign to become the first Latino governor in modern history?
Does that move Latino voters in any way?
And and honestly that was not part of his campaign.
No, no.
But in a large part in the primary.
But does, does that in any way mobilize or move Latino voters?
Or have we simply moved on to a new kind of more stratification of voting along different - Lines?
I mean, not super scientific, but I did a, an event with a group of Latino activists in Sacramento speaking to them along with Mike Madrid.
And in that casual poll there, everyone was for Becerra, right?
Because that, there was this sense of pride and of excitement.
I think, you know, for Villegas can he use that but also use this message of Yeah, the healthcare cuts, the immigration attacks.
Does that all, you know?
Yeah.
We'll be watching guys.
We gotta leave it there.
- Okay.
I, yeah, real quick.
I, when he was attacking of Bains for taking all that corporate money, I was thinking, well, that you could say that about Becerra too.
That's what Steyer was saying.
Oh wow.
So I don't know.
We'll see how that works out.
- Don't think he's gonna be picking a fight with Becerra come November.
Guy, Thanks for joining us.
We'll see you back here tomorrow for the round table.
- Will do.
- And that is a wrap for Thursday, June 11th.
Political breakdowns of production of KQED.
- Our engineer today is Christopher Beale.
Our producer is Izzy Bloom.
Our video team includes Alex Tran, Jim McKee, Hazel Tesoro, Matt Morales, Kate Lowpensky, and Vivian Morales.
I'm Scott Shafer.
- And I'm Marisa Lagos.
We'll see you next time.
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Political Breakdown is a local public television program presented by KQED















