On the Issues: 21st District: Rep. David Valadao and TJ Cox
California’s 21st Congressional District is somewhat anomalous: It’s represented by a Republican even though Democrats have a 16-percentage-point voter registration advantage and nominee Hillary Clinton won the district by more than 15 percentage points in the 2016 presidential election.
Rep. David Valadao of Hanford has won his previous three elections with more than 55% of the vote, and the nonpartisan handicapper Cook Political Report has the district in the “likely Republican” column.
That hasn’t prevented Democratic challenger TJ Cox from pushing Valadao on his voting record and what Cox calls inaction on local issues. An engineer by training, Cox ran into some trouble when a tax form showing primary residency in Maryland surfaced. He later explained the house was purchased as a temporary home for his wife, an intensive care physician who was studying at Johns Hopkins University.
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