On the issues: David Valadao and Rudy Salas on immigration, abortion and agriculture

Republican Rep. David Valadao, left, and Democratic Assemblymember Rudy Salas.

(Related Press)

Republican Rep. David Valadao and Democratic Assemblymember Rudy Salas are battling to characterize California’s closely agricultural twenty second Congressional District, which incorporates parts of Kern, Kings and Tulare counties, in what is taken into account one of many nation’s best races.

The race is considered one of 10 key California contests within the Nov. 8 midterm election that might decide the steadiness of energy within the Home of Representatives.

Salas’ solutions are drawn from a questionnaire despatched to candidates in aggressive California congressional races, in addition to his voting report. His responses have been edited for readability and size. Valadao didn't reply, so details about his views had been collected from his marketing campaign web site, voting report, debates and information protection of the race.

Expertise and priorities

UPDATED Oct. 24, 2022 | 5:04 PM

Why do you imagine you have to be elected to Congress?

Salas
“I’m proud to be born and raised within the Central Valley. I attended public faculties and labored within the fields with my father, studying the worth of a tough day’s work. As an assemblymember, I get up on daily basis serious about the best way to enhance the lives of Central Valley households,” Salas stated. He highlighted his work within the Meeting on water for farms, healthcare and prescription drug prices, and votes “in opposition to elevating fuel taxes and in favor of suspending the fuel tax.”

“I’ve delivered lengthy overdue extra time pay for farmworkers, clear water for our communities, invested in neighborhood faculties and elevated funding for legislation enforcement. I’ve by no means been afraid to take a troublesome stand, even when my celebration disagrees.”

Valadao
Valadao’s marketing campaign web site calls him a “proud son of the Central Valley” who has “at all times fought to do what’s proper for the Valley.”

“We have to defend our water, put an finish to out-of-control inflation and outrageous fuel costs, work to deliver new jobs and job coaching to the Central Valley, and rise up for seniors and veterans to make sure they get the advantages they deserve,” the web site says.

What about your experiences make you most certified?

Salas
Salas pointed to investments for which he advocated within the Meeting, together with for enhancing water high quality, training, public security and combatting valley fever. He additionally highlighted laws that allowed farmworkers to earn extra time pay in addition to his work on clear ingesting water for Valley households and water for farmers.

“I've been a steadfast watchdog of your hard-earned tax dollars, holding public officers accountable once they misuse your cash,” he stated. “I used to be the one Meeting Democrat to vote in opposition to elevating the fuel tax. Valley households can’t afford an additional $1.19 per gallon in taxes and costs.”

Valadao
Valadao’s web site says his work on his household’s farm, which consists of two dairies in addition to farmland in Kings County, and his involvement in agriculture and dairy business teams give him perception into points necessary to the area.

If elected, what can be your prime legislative priorities?

Salas
Salas stated he’d work to move laws reducing prescription drug prices and insurance coverage premiums nationwide. “I’ll combat to carry companies accountable for worth gouging, and I'll cease any cuts to Medicare or Social Safety. In the end, this district has by no means gotten again from the federal authorities what it places in. Altering that can be my first precedence.”

Valadao
On his marketing campaign web site, Valadao mentions serving to Central Valley farmers, enhancing advantages for veterans and army servicemembers and sustaining the Valley’s water provide as priorities. The web site says Valadao desires to decrease the unemployment charge and healthcare prices within the San Joaquin Valley, reform immigration coverage, give educators and fogeys “assets and adaptability” and facilitate the manufacturing of oil and pure fuel in California in addition to renewable vitality.

Coverage

UPDATED Oct. 24, 2022 | 5:08 PM

On what subject would you'll work with the opposite celebration?

Salas
Salas stated he's “somebody who will get issues finished regardless and regardless of partisan politics.” He added that 82 out of 83 payments that he’s helped get signed into legislation within the Meeting had bipartisan help.

“I'll work with anybody of any celebration who’s keen to strengthen households right here within the Central Valley. It received’t be on only one subject — I imagine that we will get issues finished on all the things from reducing drug costs to enhancing our water assets to strengthening our financial system,” he stated.

Valadao
Throughout a televised debate in October, Valadao stated partisanship is without doubt one of the greatest points going through Congress and the U.S.

“I’m pleased to say it’s not as dangerous as what you see on TV,” he stated. “However if you get into a variety of the extra necessary subjects, that’s the place it will get actually ugly. I imply for us, particularly, water is a really divisive subject and we’ve had a variety of fights and that’s why these debates are necessary....”

He added that debating “with individuals we disagree with is a core perform of what we do” in Congress.

On abortion:

Salas
“That may be a resolution that needs to be left for a lady to make along with her doctor, her household and inside her religion — no native, state or federal politician ought to have any say.”

Salas co-sponsored Proposition 1, a measure on the Nov. 8 poll that will reinforce the state’s abortion protections underneath the state Structure.

Valadao
Valadao is a co-sponsor of the Life at Conception Act, which as written would ban abortion nationally with no exceptions. The invoice, which was launched within the Home, says “the best to life assured by the Structure is vested in every human being in any respect phases of life, together with the second of fertilization.”

Earlier than the Supreme Court docket’s resolution this summer season reversing Roe vs. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling guaranteeing a nationwide proper to abortion, Valadao signed on to an amicus transient asking the justices to overturn Roe.

Valadao stated throughout a Q&A with Bakersfield’s KGET-TV on Oct. 12 that he helps exceptions in abortion bans for rape, incest and to guard the lifetime of mom, a departure from the Life at Conception Act.

On LGBTQ rights:

Salas
“I've at all times opposed discrimination in opposition to LGBTQ Individuals and can proceed to take action,” he stated.

Valadao
Final yr, Valadao voted in opposition to the Equality Act, which gives LGBTQ individuals with specific safety in opposition to discrimination underneath federal civil rights legal guidelines.

In July, he was amongst 47 GOP members of the Home who voted for a invoice to guard marriage equality in response to an opinion from Supreme Court docket Justice Clarence Thomas that known as for reversing selections that enshrined LGBTQ rights.

On the Jan. 6 Capitol assault, election integrity and accountability for the rebel:

Salas
“The Jan. 6 rebel and assault on the Capitol was an outrage, and people accountable — together with those that aided and abetted the assault — should be held accountable,” Salas stated. “It is usually important that we defend the best to vote for all Individuals. Whereas we should stop voter fraud, it additionally can't be used as a bogeyman to make it tougher for sure individuals to vote.”

Valadao
Valadao was considered one of 10 Republicans who voted in 2021 to question Donald Trump over the violence on the Capitol on Jan. 6. On the time, Valadao stated, “President Trump was, with out query, a driving pressure within the catastrophic occasions that occurred on Jan. 6 by encouraging plenty of rioters to incite violence on elected officers, workers members and our consultant democracy as a complete.”

What's the federal authorities’s function in making an attempt to cease mass shootings?

Salas
“I'm happy that there was bipartisan progress made in June and supported the gun security invoice negotiated by each Republicans and Democrats to avoid wasting lives. I'm extremely disillusioned that it took extra youngsters’s lives misplaced to make that occur.”

Salas is commonly extra skeptical of gun laws proposed in California than others in his celebration. In September, he voted in opposition to a invoice that will have rewritten state laws on hid carry licenses.

Valadao
Valadao in June voted in opposition to the Defending Our Youngsters Act, which made a number of modifications to federal firearms legal guidelines together with establishing new felony offenses for gun trafficking and increasing the varieties of weapons and gadgets which might be regulated. He was considered one of 43 Republicans who voted in help of a invoice to increase coordination of alert networks for energetic shooters.

What's your opinion about efforts to overtake police funding?

Salas
Salas stated he helps funding legislation enforcement and reforming use-of-force insurance policies.

Valadao
Valadao co-sponsored the Make investments to Shield Act of 2022 to determine a grant program by the Justice Division to fund coaching for de-escalation, home violence response and officer security in cities with small police departments. The invoice additionally gives grants for physique cameras and psychological well being companies for officers.

“Police departments in small communities, like many within the Central Valley, wrestle to have sufficient funding to correctly recruit, prepare and supply assets for his or her officers,” Valadao stated on the time.

On healthcare:

Salas
Salas stated he helps making farmworkers eligible for advantages underneath the Reasonably priced Care Act. He stated the Farm Labor Modernization Act, which handed within the Home final yr, can be the “finest first step” to creating that a actuality.

Extra broadly, Salas writes on his marketing campaign web site that he’ll increase Medicare and “combat to defend the Reasonably priced Care Act in opposition to makes an attempt to intestine its advantages or enable insurance coverage firms to disclaim protection to Californians with preexisting situations.”

Valadao
In 2017, Valadao voted for a Home GOP invoice that sought to repeal and substitute the Reasonably priced Care Act. (The invoice didn't move.) He writes on his marketing campaign web site that he “believes the most effective healthcare is a market-based method to healthcare reform that gives people with aggressive decisions and addresses the wants of these unable to afford healthcare insurance coverage.”

On immigration:

Salas
“Repeatedly, Congress has failed to repair our damaged immigration system. Members of Congress have spent years placing their very own private political pursuits forward of outcomes for our communities. And our households and our financial system right here within the Central Valley are paying the worth,” stated Salas, whose dad and mom immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico.

“I imagine that we'd like a pathway to citizenship. There are lots of people within the Central Valley who've labored and lived right here for over 5-10 years and paid their taxes and are in good standing, law-abiding and needs to be afforded the chance to be a citizen of the USA.

“On the similar time, we should deliver our border safety into the twenty first century to make sure we've got protected and safe borders.

Valadao
Valadao, whose dad and mom immigrated to the U.S. from Europe, coming from the Azores, says on his marketing campaign web site that he helps reforming the immigration course of and “an inexpensive and accountable pathway to citizenship for these wishing to enter our nation and people already right here.”

“Relatively than concentrating on these merely making an attempt to lift their households, we must always equip legislation enforcement with the instruments to give attention to undocumented immigrants who've dedicated critical crimes,” he stated.

What's the federal authorities’s function in coping with the homeless disaster?

Salas
“We have to work to finish homelessness right here within the Central Valley, and that begins by each investing in inexpensive housing and likewise making certain native governments have the assets to assist individuals off our streets. In Congress, I’ll be a accomplice on this subject to make sure we're getting the assets we'd like, but in addition intently finding out the outcomes to verify this funding is getting used successfully.”

Valadao
Valadao has not spoken publicly just lately about homelessness. In August, he wrote on Twitter that he had a “productive dialog” with Delano Police Chief Tyson Davis about tackling homelessness and medicines.

“We want to verify our legislation enforcement are properly outfitted to deal with these challenges,” he wrote.

In April, Valadao requested $1.5 million in federal funding for an emergency homeless shelter in Tulare. It's not clear whether or not any federal dollars have been allotted to the challenge. Voters in Tulare in November will think about whether or not to approve a tax on hashish companies. A portion of the cash from the tax would go towards the shelter, officers say.

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