Why are Republicans the talk of the Vang-Matsui congressional race? | Opinion
The 7th Congressional District race is shaping up to be a classic duel between two Democrats, the veteran Doris Matsui and the upstart from Sacramento City Council, Mai Vang. So why is this campaign becoming so much about two Republicans?
Vang is pitching the similarities between Matsui and the Republican everybody knows about, President Donald Trump.
And now Matsui is doing her best to elevate a Republican few know about, Sacramento State student Zachariah Wooden, who is an also-ran in this race and apparently hasn’t raised a penny in support from his party or anyone.
Vang and Matsui have been revealing their political playbooks through their websites. It’s a perfectly legal way to signal to others, particularly independent expenditure campaigns, what the strategy is. For both Vang and Matsui, Republicans are coming in quite handy, just in different ways.
Vang tries to connect Matsui to Trump
The challenger’s campaign against the 20-year incumbent mentions how Sacramento could use a new generation of leadership back in Washington. But it is centered on the idea that Matsui and Trump have too much in common.
“When it mattered most,” Vang says on her website. “Doris Matsui didn’t stand up for Trump and even voted for key parts of his agenda…”
An example is how Matsui voted in 2019 to fund the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Sure enough, Matsui did. But so did two-thirds of her fellow Democrats in the House of Representatives.
Vang’s right-wing depiction of Matsui promises to get more intense as the June 2 election approaches.
“In the closing weeks voters need to see and see on the go purely negative messaging against the incumbent,” says Vang on her website. In this district, Donald Trump isn’t about to go away.
Painting Matsui as farther to the right than Trump may backfire. But now, so could Matsui’s equally dubious strategy.
Matsui tries to elevate a little-known Republican
The 81-year-old incumbent has easily won re-election year after year because she has always faced a Republican come November that has no chance of winning. The emergence of the progressive Vang threatens her traditional path to victory, for under California’s “jungle primary” system, two Democrats could advance to the runoff come November.
The 7th Congressional District has nearly 30% Republicans, 42% Democrats and 21% independents with no party preference (NPP), according to the latest statistics from the California Secretary of State. Are the Republicans in this district going to bother to vote in this blue-leaning district, and for whom?
Two Republicans are on the ballot and are threatening to split the vote of the party faithful. That would make the math easier for both Vang and Matsui to make the runoff. One Republican is attorney Ralph Nwobi. The other is Wooden, whose self-described ballot title is “advisory councilman.”
Regardless, Matsui finds Wooden highly qualified. On her campaign website, Matsui describes Wooden as “the candidate for Republican and Republican-leaning voters,” ignoring Nwobi’s very existence. “Republican and Republican-leaning NPP likely primary voters need to see, read, and absorb on the go that Zachariah Wooden is the strongest Republican in the June 2 primary.”
In other words, Matsui is hoping enough right-leaning voters coalesce around Wooden so that a Republican, once again, makes the November runoff.
Vang professes outrage, a campaign press release blasting Matsui for “openly working to boost a MAGA Republican.” But this is politics, something that both Vang and Matsui are clearly engaging in, in their different and creative ways.
Doris Matsui, despite what Vang says, is no closet Trumper.
Zachariah Wooden has no money, no ballot statement, and isn’t a strong Republican nominee, despite what Matsui says.
Don’t expect much about the real issues from the candidates in the final stretch. In the 7th Congressional District, this appears to be a strange race to the bottom.