David Valadao held the CA 21st District House Seat from 2013-2019. He lost his reelection bid in2018 but regained the seat in 2020. In addition to voting for President Trump’s 2021 impeachment, his own political ads touted him as “one of the most bipartisan members of Congress”. At this time he has one Republican primary challenger for his district which covers sections of Fresno, Kent, Kings, and Tulare counties. There is considerable anger among Republicans in his district over his antics in January. As Clayton Campbell, a member of the Kern County Republican Central Committee, stated, “That gut feeling Kern County Republicans are experiencing right now is from the sucker punch Valadao just gave us. He blindsided and disappointed the people who worked hard and voted to get him elected. This particular gut feeling won’t go away any time soon.”
Chris Mathys, who describes himself as a conservative Republican is a 63 year old veteran; he served in the US Army Southern Command from 1985-2005. He received his BA in political science from Fresno State and his MBA from the University of the Southwest in New Mexico. As a single parent, he raised his son and credits his parents with helping guide him through the process. In addition to being the owner of Mercey Ranch in Firebaugh, CA, he runs Oro Financial of CA, a commercial lending firm. He is a real estate broker in California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming and is currently the chairman of the Valley Taxpayers’ Coalition.
Mathys served on the Fresno City Council from 1997-2001 and was the subject of a related lawsuit in 2001 brought by Ashwood Construction and the Affordable Housing Development Corporation. A low-income housing plan was not approved and the area was instead rezoned into single family housing sites and a separate commercial zone. Mathys and the city of Fresno were charged with violations of the Fair Housing Act and related state laws, conspiracy to deprive people of their civil rights, and discriminatory interference with a contract. He was found not guilty by a federal jury and Fresno was ordered to pay $2 in damages to the plantiffs.
In 2018 Mathys ran for the Republican nomination for New Mexico’s Public Regulation District 5 but lost in the primary. He also ran in 2020 for the US House Seat for New Mexico’s 2 nd Congressional district but finished third in that primary. Since then he has returned to CA.
Mathys is pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, and an advocate for secure borders while opposing big government and socialism. He supports prohibiting illegal immigrants access to federal benefits and requiring all areas of the United States to follow the country’s immigration laws. In the area of healthcare, he has cost cutting proposals to encourage competition in the healthcare market while limiting malpractice punitive damages. He recently sent a letter to the US Fish and Wildlife Service in CA telling them that he intends to petition to declare the delta smelt fish extinct. He notes that CA agriculture’s access to surface water is currently limited by measures to protect the delta smelt, a species whose population recovery he describes as “highly unlikely”. His campaign website is mathyscongress.com and there is a link there to rinohuntersclub.us, a group seeking to remove the ten impeachment supporting Republicans from office.
sarahconnor21