Community college professor unseats incumbent Republican David Valdao in seat redrawn under Prop 50

Democrat Randy Villegas, a community college professor with major progressive endorsements, has won the race for California’s 22nd congressional district. He unseats the six-term, incumbent Republican congressman, David Valadao, in a district that was considered the only true toss-up across the state of California after being redrawn under Proposition 50.

Valadao and Villegas are both Central Valley natives from immigrant families with working class or agricultural ties, roots that reflect many of the constituents in California’s 22nd district, which stretches from Bakersfield to just west of Fresno.

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Affordability and small businesses’ economic woes feature heavily in the House race for Wisconsin’s third district

After 18 years in business, Erin Klaus is closing her storefront, a handmade artisan market in downtown Eau Claire, Wisconsin, at the end of the year.

She opened Tangled Up in Hue amid a recession, during a time when downtown was “kind of a ghost town”, weathering construction and the pandemic. But the current economic crisis proved too much. She’s seen a downward trend in sales for two years, and was dipping into her own pocket from her other job, as the executive director of business non-profit Downtown Eau Claire Inc, to pay staff.

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