Lawmaker and farmer call each other extreme in Central Valley Congress race. They’re not
Adam Gray and John Duarte both drive heavy-duty pickup trucks.
Duarte, a white Ford F-350; Gray, a Black GMC Sierra. Gray’s is spotless, inside and out. Duarte’s is littered with boxes of campaign flyers, bumper stickers, a cooler and heavily-used gardening gloves. Dust hangs on the trunk cover.
Much like their vehicles, the differences between them are pronounced. But at the end of the day, they both operate with the same machinery.
They are campaigning on their differences but, when it comes to issues most present in this farming-heavy Central Valley congressional district, they have a lot in common.
They hate to admit it. Both preach that they are moderates and that the other is not. But when asked, they have worked together on some issues central to the Central Valley — a farming-reliant purple stretch at the heart of California.
The biggest concerns for Central Valley voters are affordability and water access.
Gray and Duarte agree on water, and admitted that is a point where they generally concur at The Bee’s congressional debate in late September. They also agree on affordability issues, such as lowering the cost of housing through different measures and pumping the brakes on some green energy moves that affect the wallets of low-income families.
They have stood side by side over the last 10 years, when they were both engaged from their respective positions to fight the state water board to prevent them from implementing the Delta tunnel plan that would take half of the scarce water from the region, they said.
“When we did the biggest rally Sacramento had seen on water, and we brought up thousands of folks from this community, John was right there, and he’ll tell you about it,” Gray said. “He rented buses, and folks from the Nursery came up. And he was side by side with a lot of the good people in this community protecting agriculture.”
Different backgrounds
Still, there are differences. Such as how they arrived at this moment and now find themselves political opponents in a battle that resonates well beyond the vineyards, orchards and fields of the Central Valley.
Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, took a mock Congress class at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he studied political science. Inspired by the simulation, Gray and a former college classmate of his now teach a mock Legislature class at UC Merced. The university was not there when he was growing up; Gray has continued to push investments for its classes, including a medical school program.
Elected to the Assembly in 2012, he had served as a legislative aide to several California lawmakers, including Dennis Cardoza in the Assembly.
He drives to and from his home in Merced, a few doors down from the house he was raised in, most days when the Assembly is in session in Sacramento. Gray, 45, was rated as a moderate Democrat in the Assembly by CalMatters.
John Duarte, operator of Duarte Nursery outside Modesto in Hughson, “grew gray hair” to run for Congress. He started working at his family’s plant-sapling organization when he was 23 as a field representative who walked and talked with patrons. Now he runs the family company that’s based in a neighboring congressional district.
For years, Duarte, 56, was in a legal fight with the federal government over plowing wetlands on his property. They settled in 2017, but not before Duarte gained a massive following of farmers and local owners who were fed up with regulations.
Campaign accusations
Gray calls Duarte a MAGA Republican. Duarte says Gray is in Nancy Pelosi’s pocket.
And there is some truth to each of those statements.
Duarte does not jump to diss Donald Trump, the former president who campaigned on the “Make America Great Again” slogan. Duarte does not find Trump complicit for the actions of Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol, and will support the Republican candidate for president no matter who it is (including Trump). He has the endorsement of House Minority Kevin McCarthy, Trump’s ally.
On top of a “buck federal regulations” appeal, Duarte’s seeing help from McCarthy’s interest in Central Valley races “given that these are in his backyard,” said Dave Wasserman, editor of The Cook Political Report, which analyzes elections.
Gray has been well-connected in the Democratic Party, given his extensive experience in the Assembly and before. He has the financial backing of Democratic super PACs who hope to hold any toss-up district in a desperate bid to retain control of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2023.
Or at least keep the margin of loss slim.
The 13th Congressional District
The 13th Congressional District is a stretch of farmers, local business owners, and homegrown professionals who miss what they had in the 1990s, before new state water laws inhibited their ability to grow their crops and drink clean water.
The district, formed through the once-a-decade redrawing of legislative boundaries, encompasses all of Merced County. It takes parts of Modesto and Turlock in a stretch from Lathrop through Coalinga. It has a Hispanic majority voting age population; Latino voters will have a huge sway in November.
Forty-three percent of voters are Democrats. But the new congressional district would have voted to recall Newsom last year by a point. Following the primary election, in which Duarte scored the most votes and the GOP overall took almost 52% of the votes, analysts shifted their view on the district as one that leans for a Democrat to a toss-up race.
“I don’t see a favorite there yet,” Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, which rates elections, responded simply.
Still, Democrats do better in the fall, analysts said. Valley Democrats tend to lean more moderate, too, as Democrats there, Wasserman noted, tend to be more “culturally conservative.”
The problem will be turnout.
In California, the top of the ticket is almost decided, with spots certain for statewide races such as in the case of Gov. Gavin Newsom and Sen. Alex Padilla. That does not help Democratic turnout in the fall.
Midterm elections are historically harder for the party of the president.
With Democratic President Joe Biden’s national approval rating underwater, that trend is almost certain to ring true in November. People in California, however, have a more positive take; according to a Berkeley IGS poll conducted in late September, 52% of people approve of his work.
Abortion
But Democrats hope that the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the precedent that set federal abortion rights nearly 50 years ago, will inspire voters to show up in November. It’s encouraged women to register to vote around the country.
In California, however, the right to an abortion is on the precipice of becoming part of the state constitution through a ballot initiative. The broad text in Proposition 1 would preserve that reproductive health decisions remain between a patient and their doctor, not to be inhibited by state law.
California already has some of the most open abortion laws in the country as Newsom pledged to make it a “reproductive freedom” state. Currently, people in or coming to California can seek an abortion without restriction until about 24 weeks, or the general view of when a fetus could presumably survive outside of the womb. After that point, someone can still have an abortion if they and their doctor concur that their health is endangered.
In the Central Valley, a lot of people are not as keen on abortion access, citing religious (predominantly Christian) beliefs.
In any case, for Valley voters, the abortion decision does not necessarily directly affect them now. Gray, who helped craft Prop. 1, backs abortion access as is covered by the state. Duarte, who said he would not back any federal abortion ban, said he thinks abortion should be accessible for any reason through three months of pregnancy, with exceptions thereafter.
Green energy
In examples of the same feelings, different solutions, Gray and Duarte each think green energy investments should not be on the “backs of working families.” Gray thinks more of handling climate change through large projects, while Duarte is concerned about energy independence and drilling oil simultaneously.
“We’ve got to stop having the only thing we agree on be ‘not building stuff,’” Gray said, “and get back to a country that actually does invest in these big infrastructure projects that can help us adapt and solve the climate change crisis.”
“America has done its share for green energy,” Duarte said. “Until the world catches up, America cannot allow ourselves to become less competitive, pursuing green energy fantasies on the backs of working families.”
At the end of the day, many people will come down to voting with party alignment. And that might be especially so in a race in which the candidates share similar views — and kindness toward one another.
Asked to say something nice about each other, the words came easily for each.
“John’s a friendly guy,” Gray said. “We’ve known each other most of the last 10 years I’ve been in office and as I said, on water issues, he’s always been there to help. And I think his heart is in the right place.”
“Adam is a respectable, pleasant guy,” Duarte said. “He’s worked hard for the community. I think I’m gonna go back there and work harder and take a different tack and deliver different results. But Adam’s been a good legislator and he wants to do what he thinks is best the way he thinks he can deliver. And I think he’s sincere in that.”
This story was originally published October 19, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
