| Randy Villegas’ firsthand experience as a son of immigrants who grew up on Medi-Cal and WIC and working in his family’s auto shop in Bakersfield is shaping his fight to give working people of the Central Valley real relief, while David Valadao chose to sell out his constituents for his billionaire backers.
Bloomberg caught up with Randy where he got his start, elbow-deep in an oil change:
“People here are much too concerned with whether they’re going to be able to pay their mortgage at the end of the month, whether they’re going to be able to afford the rent, whether they’re going to be able to make it to work with the gas they have left in their tank, as opposed to specific labels or some of the ideological fights.” – Randy Villegas
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- Two days later and nearly 300 miles south, Randy Villegas is changing his oil.
- An “Angel’s Independent BMW” sign hangs behind him on the back wall of the open garage. Around him, other mechanics work quietly on cars, some on lifts. His family opened this auto shop in 2006, when he was in middle school, and he’s helped out ever since.
- “We’d drive around every Saturday and Sunday morning, like to the Valley Plaza Mall or to any very busy parking lot that we could find, and just any BMW Mini Cooper we could find, just throwing business cards on there,” Villegas recalls during an interview in a small breakroom.
- It’s not hard to see why Democrats would like him. The party has struggled for years to convince working-class voters it actually gets them, and Villegas actually works.
- Outside the auto shop, Villegas… talks about economic issues with ease and clarity…
- Bakersfield currently has the highest Medicaid enrollment rate of any Republican-held seat. Villegas gets that.
- Most hands went up at a health care town hall last week when Villegas asked participants if they or someone they love rely on federal health programs.
- At least a dozen attendees raised their hands when he asked if they or someone they love drive to Tijuana, Mexico — a four-hour drive if they’re lucky — for cheaper dental or health care.
- That’s the thing, Villegas said…“People here are much too concerned with whether they’re going to be able to pay their mortgage at the end of the month, whether they’re going to be able to afford the rent, whether they’re going to be able to make it to work with the gas they have left in their tank,” Villegas said, “as opposed to specific labels or some of the ideological fights.”
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