Rudy Salas has become a key file for the Democrats to regain control of the US Lower House by competing for an agricultural district of California, Hispanic and in which his party has surpassed in recent years the Republican in the voter registry.

Salas, 47 years old and who seeks to make history as the first Hispanic elected to the country’s Congress by District 22, told EFE that he hopes to give his community a leader who fights for their true needs.

The candidate faces for the second time the Republican congressman David Valadao, who won the elections in 2022 by just 4,000 votes, in a district where about 60% of eligible voters are Latinos.

“The inhabitants of this area have many concerns that can be addressed from Congress and I will work from there to improve their situation,” Salas said in a telephone interview.

The electoral contest has drawn attention at the national level because the Latino has the possibility of obtaining a victory in this agricultural area of the San Joaquín Valley, which has been a republican bastion, dominated by the interests of the great ranchers.

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However, in this district, which covers the counties of Kern, Kings and Tulare, the majority of registered voters are now Democrats (41.2%), while Republicans represent 27.3% and independents 23.1%.

Rudy Salas, the Latino who wants to leave a mark

Salas said he was prepared to reach Washington after a decade in the California Assembly, where he supported laws in favor of working people like his father, with whom he cultivated in the countryside.

He had already marked a milestone before by being the first Latino member of the Bakersfield City Council, the city where he was born and the most important in the district.

When asked about the difference between this campaign and the last one, the candidate explains that the low participation in 2022 put him at a disadvantage compared to his opponent, so in this cycle he has dedicated himself to “educating voters why this election is so important for them and their families.”

The Hispanic started this process last year, which has led him and his collaborators to knock on more than 150,000 doors, make more than a million calls and dozens of forums with the community.

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70% with Latin roots

In that tour he found that the greatest concerns of the inhabitants of this district, where seven out of ten have Latin roots, focus on health, education, access to drinking water, the economy, affordable housing and immigration.

“I have heard many stories of families with mixed immigration status that have been waiting for an immigration reform for ten, twenty years or more,” says the candidate, who received the support of the Agricultural Workers’ Union (UFW).

Salas supports a path to citizenship for the long-standing undocumented and opposes the proposal for mass deportations and the expansion of migrant detention centres.

But his campaign has also focused on bringing to light the contradictory positions of Valadao, who will complete 12 years in the US Congress and is currently a member of the powerful Committee on Allocations and the Budget Committee of the House.

Key to the control of the Camera

He criticizes the Republican’s votes against the laws to reduce the cost of medicines, the Affordable Health Care, better known as Obamacare, and the Infrastructure, which had bipartisan support, among many others.

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The Democrats need to turn around for the least four seats of the Lower House – currently controlled by the Republicans with 221 seats – so the Salas contest has gained relevance.

Apart from the 22nd district, California has four other tight contests where the Democratic Party has its hopes to achieve a victory and regain control of Congress.

Agreass of the responsibility he carries on his shoulders, the Latino has called on voters to help him “make a difference in people’s lives.”