There is little doubt that Bakersfield Republican Congressman Kevin McCarthy will be up for re-election in November in what will then be the 20th District. His challenger, Democrat Marissa Wood, is a Fairfax High School English teacher and political newcomer.

Despite the support of the California Democratic Party in the June primary, Wood received only 25.1 percent of the primary vote to McCarthy’s 58.7 percent.

If McCarthy gets his way, the results of November’s national elections will return control of the House to Republicans and make McCarthy speaker, the most powerful member of the House and second in line for the presidency.

It’s a pretty heady thing for McCarthy, and even for Kern County, to see a native son rise to such political prominence.

But it came at a high price. Even among some McCarthy supporters, there is frustration with the congressman’s steadfast and controversial support of former President Donald Trump.

Of course, The Californian will recommend McCarthy’s re-election. Obviously, this is the most experienced and capable candidate. He has represented Kern County well over the years, first in Sacramento and now in Washington. The results of the national election will determine whether he succeeds in achieving his personal political goal of becoming speaker. Time will tell if he can rise above mere party politics. Vote for Kevin McCarthy.

Let’s talk about “political courage”. Despite what you see in the flurry of recent political ads, both candidates for the 22nd congressional district are.

In 2017, Bakersfield D-Rep. Rudy Salas was the only Democrat in the Legislature to vote against a gas tax increase. He said his poor south valley constituents simply can’t afford to pay. Both the “Valleycrat,” or conservative, bills he introduced and the votes he cast benefited Kern’s agriculture and business, but made him an outlier in the left-leaning state.

Incumbent Rep. David Valadao represents a predominantly poor, Latino and Democratic district, which is surprisingly fitting for a Republican. However, with the exception of the 2018 election, Valadao managed to get re-elected. That’s because he supported issues like immigration reform and DACA.

But for some Republicans, Valadao went too far when he voted last year to create a commission to investigate the January 6 uprising. And he was one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump.

In the June primary, two Republicans challenged Valadao’s re-election based on his impeachment vote and perceived disloyalty to the former president. Of the 10 Republican members of the House of Representatives who voted to impeach Trump, only Valadao and Rep. Dan Newhouse, D-Washington, survived the former president’s primary challenges and wrath.

But aside from a few glimpses on the political screen, Valadao was a staunch Republican. According to political data website FiveThirtyEight, Valadao voted in line with Trump’s stated position 96.8 percent of the time. In 2017, the Congressional Quarterly reported that Valadao voted for his party 92 percent of the time. This includes his 2017 vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act, oppose Congressional attempts to see Trump’s tax returns, and pass the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

And perhaps more than any lawmaker, Valadao truly understands the struggles of small business owners. Valadao was a general partner in his family’s Triple V Dairy when it was sued in 2018 for defaulting on nearly $9 million in loans and failing to pay a supplier.

“Like many family dairy farms across the country, onerous government regulations have made it impossible for the operation to remain open,” Valadao told the Roll Call newspaper on Capitol Hill at the time. The bank seized the dairy and sold it to pay off debts. Left unpaid in the bankruptcy case is a settlement by Triple V Dairy to pay $350,000 to its workers who claimed they were denied breaks, minimum wage and overtime.

Valadao and Salas’ legislation includes many bills to fund valley fever research, water projects, veterans benefits, LGBTQ+ rights, and law enforcement initiatives. Both focused on local issues for the benefit of the residents of their districts.

But with Republicans likely to regain control of the House in the midterm elections, Valadao’s willingness to occasionally cross party lines to vote will be critical to representing his Kern district. For this reason, vote for David Valadao.

In November, Californians will vote in the US Senate. They will vote twice — first, in a “special election” to fill the unexpired term of former U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, who was elected vice president in 2020; and second, to elect a candidate for a full six-year term.

The good news is that both races feature the same candidates — incumbent Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla and Republican challenger Mark Meiser. In June, they became the top two candidates in both Senate primaries.

Padilla received 58 percent of the vote in the special primary election, while Meiser received 18.8 percent. In the regular primary election, Padilla received 54.1 percent of the vote to Meuser’s 14.9 percent. Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Padilla as secretary of state to fill Harris’ unexpired term. He is now seeking the full six-year term.

Padilla was elected secretary of state in 2014 and re-elected in 2018. Before that, he was a state legislator representing the 20th Senate District from 2006 to 2014. He served on the Los Angeles City Council from 1999 to 2006.

Meiser is a lawyer who has worked in conservative politics. After earning a law degree from Oak Brook Christian, he worked briefly for a Missouri Republican state senator before joining a private law firm, focusing on challenging California’s purportedly liberal laws, including public health restrictions related to COVID and Newsom’s order to mail a ballot to every registered voter in 2020.

This isn’t the first time Meiser has fought Padilla. He unsuccessfully challenged Padilla’s re-election as secretary of state in 2018. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the 7th State Senate District in 2012. In 2008, he unsuccessfully led an anti-abortion campaign to change the Colorado Constitution to define a fertilized egg as a legal entity.

California was long overdue for its first Latino senator when Newsom temporarily appointed Padilla to the position last year. Podilha is also clearly more in tune with the state’s voters than Meiser.

As California’s secretary of state and chairman of the election committee, Padilla has done a solid job protecting voter rights and the integrity of the state’s election system. As California’s junior senator, he was a leader in advancing the interests of Californians and helped guide the nation through a pandemic-ravaged economy. Vote for Alex Padilla.