David Valadao


David Goncalves Valadao is an American politician and dairy farmer serving as the U.S. representative for California's 22nd congressional district since 2023. His district comprises part of the San Joaquin Valley. A member of the Republican Party, Valadao first won election in 2012 in California's 21st congressional district. He narrowly lost in 2018 to TJ Cox, but was reelected in 2020. Before his election to Congress, Valadao served one term in the California State Assembly, representing the 30th district from 2010 to 2012.
Valadao was one of ten Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump during Trump's second impeachment and one of two of those Republicans to be renominated and reelected, along with Dan Newhouse.
Valadao defeated Democratic nominee California assemblyman Rudy Salas for the 22nd congressional district in a rematch in 2024.

Early life and education

Valadao was born and raised in Hanford, California. His parents are Portuguese immigrants; his father grew up on the Azores Islands. In a 2013 interview, Valadao said his parents were initially registered Democrats but later switched to the Republican Party.
Valadao graduated from Hanford High School in 1995. From 1996 to 1998 he attended the College of the Sequoias in Visalia as a part-time student but did not graduate.

Agriculture career and bankruptcy

Valadao's father established a dairy farm in Kings County, California, in 1969. Valadao and his brother became partners in Valadao Dairy in 1992. He has been a member of the California Milk Advisory Board, Western States Dairy Trade Association, and Regional Leadership Council chairman for Land O' Lakes.
In March 2018, Valadao, a general partner of Triple V Dairy, was named in two lawsuits against the dairy for defaulting on almost $9 million in loans and failing to pay a supplier. In June 2018, a bank seized the dairy and sold it off to pay its debts. Valadao said, "Like so many family dairy farms across the country, burdensome government regulations made it impossible for the operation to remain open." After a lawsuit in 2019, Valadao agreed to pay $325,000 to former employees who claimed they had been denied breaks, minimum wage, and overtime pay. The settlement was not paid due to Valadao and Triple V Dairy filing for bankruptcy.

California State Assembly

Valadao announced his candidacy for California's 30th State Assembly district after the 2010 retirement of Republican assemblyman Danny Gilmore. He defeated Stephanie Campbell in the Republican primary, 78%–22%. In the general election, he defeated Shafter mayor Fran Florez, 61%–39%.

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

2012

In August 2011, Valadao announced that he would seek the Republican nomination for. The district had previously been the 20th District, represented by four-term Democrat Jim Costa, but redistricting had shifted most of the district's share of Fresno to the new 16th District, and Costa sought reelection there.
In the June 5 open primary, he ranked first with 57% of the vote, ahead of Democrat John Hernandez – the head of the local Hispanic Chamber of Commerce – and Fresno City Councilman Blong Xiong. In the November 6 general election he defeated Hernandez, 58%–42%. A Wall Street Journal op-ed cited his victory in a district that had long been held by Democrats as a potential template for the GOP, while other analysts cited his opponent's "weakness as a candidate and a campaigner" as playing a major role.

2014

Valadao ran for reelection in November 2014. His challengers were Democrat Amanda Renteria, a former political aide to Dianne Feinstein and Debbie Stabenow, and John Hernandez, the Democratic nominee Valadao defeated in 2012. In the June 3 primary Valadao finished first once again with 63% of the vote, and received majorities of 60% or higher in every county except for Kern. In the November 4 general election, he was reelected with 58% of the vote.

2016

Valadao ran for reelection to a third term in 2016. His first challenger was Democrat Daniel Parra, the mayor pro tem of Fowler, California. Another Democratic challenger was Connie Perez, an accountant in Pasadena, California, who grew up in Tulare, but due to issues regarding her residency outside of the district, as well as an alleged recent change in party affiliation, Perez dropped out less than a month after announcing her candidacy. In January 2016 Emilio Huerta, son of United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta, announced his candidacy in the race as a Democrat. In the June 7 primary Valadao finished first with 54% of the vote and Huerta finished second with 24.2%. In the general election Valadao was reelected with 56.7% of the vote to Huerta's 43.3%.

2018

In 2018, Valadao was initially set to face Huerta again in a rematch, with Huerta announcing his bid in May 2017. However, in March 2018, Huerta suspended his campaign for lack of funds. After Huerta's withdrawal, engineer TJ Cox of Fresno announced that he would challenge Valadao. Cox had previously announced a challenge to Republican congressman Jeff Denham in the 10th district before switching to Valadao's seat.
Valadao declared victory on November 6 after the Associated Press initially called the race in his favor, but a large number of mail-in ballots gave Cox a very narrow lead. Cox officially won the race on November 28, and Valadao conceded on December 6. The final count showed that Cox won by 862 votes. It was one of the last U.S. House races to be decided in the 2018 cycle.

2020

Valadao ran for and won his former seat in 2020, defeating Cox in a rematch by 1,754 votes, 51% to 49%. This occurred even though Joe Biden carried the district by ten points.

2022

In June 2022, Valadao placed second in the open primary for California's redistricted 22nd congressional district, advancing to the November general election. Despite Valadao's vote to impeach President Trump, Trump did not involve himself in Valadao's primary and House minority leader Kevin McCarthy endorsed Valadao. According to the Los Angeles Times, the GOP declined to support a challenger because Valadao holds a seat in a Democratic-leaning district that "can't be won by any other Republican". Far-right Republican Chris Mathys ran in the primary. A Democratic campaign ad criticized Valadao for his impeachment vote, as part of a larger strategy of helping Mathys to make for higher chances of a Democratic candidate winning the seat.
Valadao faced state assemblyman Rudy Salas, a Democrat, in the November general election. Valadao defeated Salas in the general election, 52% to 48%. Valadao's victory made him one of just two House Republicans who supported impeaching Donald Trump to remain in Congress after the 2022 election, alongside Dan Newhouse of Washington.

2024

In the March 5, 2024 open primary, Valadao received approximately 33% of the vote to secure a place in the general election in November 2024. Rudy Salas received the next highest percentage of votes, with approximately 31%, and will again be Valadao's challenger. On November 12, 2024, the Associated Press declared Valadao the winner, winning approximately 53.5% of the vote.

Committee assignments

For the 118th Congress:

Donald Trump

After Donald Trump became the presumptive Republican presidential nominee in May 2016, Valadao said he would support his candidacy. He rescinded his support in June 2016, declining to endorse Trump and saying he could not support a candidate who "denigrates people based on their ethnicity, religion, or disabilities."
In February 2017, Valadao voted against a resolution that would have directed the House to request ten years of Trump's tax returns, which would then have been reviewed by the House Ways and Means Committee in a closed session.
On January 13, 2021, Valadao was one of ten Republicans who voted for the second impeachment of Donald Trump for inciting the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Valadao later said that despite misgivings about the process that the Democrats used to send the impeachment article to the floor, he felt he had to "go with my gut and vote my conscience" and vote to impeach. He called Trump a "driving force" behind the riots and concluded that his rhetoric at the rally preceding the riots was "un-American, abhorrent, and absolutely an impeachable offense."
On May 19, 2021, Valadao was one of 35 Republicans who joined all Democrats in voting to approve legislation to establish the January 6 commission meant to investigate the storming of the U.S. Capitol.

Environment

In response to President Barack Obama's repeated assertion that the 2011 California drought was caused by global warming, Valadao said that "climate change has nothing to do with the drought" and that Obama administration regulations had worsened the drought.

Foreign policy

In 2017, Valadao was blacklisted by Azerbaijan for taking part in a visit to Armenia and a disputed, breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is populated and governed by ethnic Armenians.

Health care

Valadao favored repealing the Affordable Care Act. On May 4, 2017, he voted to repeal it and to pass the American Health Care Act. He was one of three co-sponsors of a last-minute amendment that added $8 billion to fund high-risk pools for patients with pre-existing conditions. The revised version of AHCA allowed states to get waivers to allow insurers to charge individuals with preexisting conditions more if the individual has had a gap in insurance coverage.
In 2017, Valadao introduced H.R. 299, the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act, "to grant presumptive Agent Orange exposure status to U.S. service members who served in the territorial seas of Vietnam during the Vietnam War. This would enable eligible veterans to receive expedited consideration for Veterans Affairs benefits if they suffer from any of the diseases the U.S. Government has linked to Agent Orange." In August 2017, Valadao and Representative Joe Courtney sent a letter urging the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to ensure that Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans have access to medical care from the VA. That same year, Valadao and Representative Jeff Denham introduced the Assessing Critical Care Efforts to Strengthen Services Act. It would correct California's Medicaid reimbursement method to encourage physicians to operate in the Central Valley and ensure patient access to doctors and specialists. Also in 2017, Valadao and five other members of Congress introduced the Training the Next Generation of Primary Care Doctors Act of 2017, which would reauthorize the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education Program. It would expand existing programs at health centers and establish new teaching health centers.
In 2025, Valadao withheld his support for a House resolution to cut at least $1.5 trillion from the federal budget, citing concerns about Medicaid reductions. He was one of eight House Republicans to publicly push Speaker Mike Johnson not to slash the benefit. Valadao ultimately voted for the budget resolution after winning reassurances from House leadership that cost savings "would focus on Medicaid fraud, while not touching benefits for those eligible for the program."
In a May 2025 article entitled "The key Republican warning about a megabill Medicaid fallout", Politico profiled Valadao's behind the scenes efforts "to rein in his party's ambitions to cut Medicaid spending." Valadao's congressional district has more Medicaid beneficiaries than any other Republican-held district. Valadao spearheaded a letter signed by a dozen vulnerable Republican members urging House leadership not to make major cuts to Medicaid. Valadao said "We're going through this partisan exercise to do what is supposed to be a tax bill, and it's becoming a health care bill, which is what we're trying to avoid, on an issue that desperately needs reform to make it better." In July 2025 Valadao voted in favor of the budget reconciliation bill, cutting funding to Medicaid, saying "It was not an easy decision for me, but I voted yes on the budget reconciliation bill."