WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. David Valadao and former California Assemblyman Rudy Salas clashed over their records since entering public office in Wednesday’s debate for one of the nation’s most hotly contested 2024 congressional races.

The debate largely focused on lowering costs — on groceries, gas, housing and health care — in the San Joaquin Valley, also touching on high-speed rail, immigration, homelessness, water and abortion.

The November rematch between Valadao, R-Hanford, and Salas, D-Bakersfield, in California’s 22nd Congressional District is a tossup— and one of several in California that could help decide whether Democrats or Republicans control the House of Representatives in 2025, nonpartisan analysts say. Democrats need to flip just four seats to take a majority.

The hour-long debate, hosted by Nexstar’s KGET and KGPE, took place in the KGET TV studios in Bakersfield. It is the only debate that has been scheduled between Valadao and Salas in the lead up to November’s election.

Three takeaways from the debate:

—Both went over the others’ legislative record, or where they thought each other lacked one, when it comes to reducing costs in the district. Valadao tied opponent to the Democratic supermajority in the state legislature, where Salas served for a decade. Salas countered by bringing up legislation Valadao voted against during his decade in Congress, and noted that federal law trumps state.

“The issue that we’re dealing here is we’ve got a person who’s been in office for 10 years in a supermajority and has the ability to pass anything he wants to solve our problems,” Valadao said. “But instead of fixing the problems of the state, he wants to now run for Congress and pull up those problems in the rest of the nation so people don’t have a place to flee to.”

“Mr. Valadao continues to bring up Sacramento when he’s been in Congress. He’s been elected longer than I have,” Salas said. “Congress can overrule anything that the states do, but he’s failed to do that.”

—Almost every question related directly to issues within California. But moderators also asked each their views on Israel and Gaza, specifically, “where is your red line on Israel when it comes to Israel defending itself, and how far would be too far?”

“It’s not my place to make a decision on what their red line is or what is too far,” Valadao said. “My responsibility is to make sure that our ally, our greatest ally in the region, has the ability to defend itself.”

“Israel needs to defend itself,” Salas said. “You know, they need to be given the tools to do so. I can tell you: Look, I’m just a Central Valley guy. My dad, my grandfather just told me: Look, you stick with your friends, you stick with your family. Israel is our friend in the region.”

—Absent from either candidates’ remarks: The names “Donald Trump” and “Kamala Harris.”

Valadao went after “our president” on some policies, referencing the Biden administration, but did not mention the Republican or Democratic presidential candidates — even when moderators pressed on who he was voting for in November. Valadao was one of 10 House Republicans in 2021 to vote to impeach Trump over the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

“I’m going to let history decide how that vote plays out,” Valadao said. “And so I’ve taken a position where I’m not going to get involved in the presidential and I’m not going to pick or announce who I’m voting for, just for the sheer purpose of any mention of who I’m voting for is going to be perceived as an endorsement. And so I’ve chosen to run my own race, focus on the 22nd Congressional District and not get involved in the presidential race. I’m going to stick to that.”

Moderators did not ask Salas who he was voting for president, and he did not bring up the top of the ticket himself.

San Joaquin Valley rematch

In 2022, Valadao beat Salas by just 3 percentage points.

Valadao, 47, has faced several tough races since he was first elected to Congress in 2012. He lost his seat in 2018 and won it back in 2020.

Salas, 47, served in the Assembly from 2012 to 2022, leaving through his failed congressional bid that year.

The 22nd is one of two 2024 congressional tossups in the San Joaquin Valley, California’s politically purple agricultural center.

This Latino-majority voting-age district has more registered Democrats than Republicans, includes parts of Kings, Tulare and Kern counties. The 22nd would have picked President Joe Biden over former President Donald Trump by 13 percentage points in 2020 had current congressional maps been in place (legislative districts were redrawn based on 2020 census data).

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