Rep. David Valadao's Democratic challenger drops out of debate at eleventh hour

Juliegrace Brufke

October 11, 11:08 PM October 12, 12:11 AM

California GOP Rep. David Valadao is slated to be the only candidate in attendance at Wednesday’s scheduled debate right after Democratic state Assemblyman Rudy Salas unexpectedly pulled out of the celebration, stating he would not look onstage with the California Republican owing to his frustrations around a marketing campaign advertisement alleging he supported elevating prescription drug costs.

Salas informed KGET 17 News, the Bakersfield-dependent NBC affiliate station that was established to keep the discussion, he felt Valadao should apologize for a Countrywide Republican Congressional Committee advert that targets his vote on a invoice inserting a charge on opioid makers prior to him participating, arguing that the criticism is misleading, in spite of getting agreed to the debate two months in the past.

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Valadao, a top centrist Republican who defeated Rep. T.J. Cox (D-CA) in 2020 following dropping the seat he held for a few phrases in 2018, declined to apologize, blasting Salas for opting not to debate ahead of Election Day.

“My argument is, well, no, you are taxing men and women who need to have this drug for excellent-of-life issues, most cancers sufferers and others, and you happen to be taxing them to fork out for other people's errors, and that is not ideal,” he informed the Washington Examiner in an interview.

“We were being supplied other debates, and every single time, as soon as we get to the position where by we say 'yes' to a discussion [following a discussion of terms with the respective stations], inside of hours, his team would be, like, 'OK, no, we're not executing it.' It is virtually like they hold out for us to say, they are hoping we would say no 1st.”

In lieu of the preliminary discussion options, the station is now scheduled to keep a 30-minute dialogue with the GOP congressman, with the station leaving the doorway open up for Salas to improve his mind.

Valadao extra that when he and his opponent fulfilled with a community paper’s editorial board around Zoom, the footage has not been unveiled to the community, incorporating that he feels voters deserve to listen to them protect their positions in a community forum.

“We did a forum, which was with one particular of our regional editorial boards, and that forum was on Zoom, and we had been each on with each other. I consider they recorded it, but they said that wasn't heading to be launched,” he claimed. “They recorded it for their have notes so that they would have the prices accurate when they wrote up their endorsement.”

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Valadao went on to consider intention at the amount of votes that Salas has missed for the duration of his time in the state legislature, noting that the method is less difficult for point out lawmakers in comparison to the limited time supplied for congressional lawmakers in Washington.

“Well, the state of California, you stroll on the ground, let us say at 10 a.m., you happen to be there until 2 o'clock in the afternoon, you can walk on the flooring at 1:30 soon after all the votes that happened and stroll in excess of to the pc in the again and incorporate your votes to just about every single just one that you missed," he reported. "And he even now even with the technique as straightforward as it is, he is now even now skipped 450 votes for a ton of votes."

The GOP incumbent took to social media to blast Salas above the missed votes, tweeting: “If he cant clearly show up to vote and just cannot demonstrate up to discussion, how are we intended to feel he’ll present up for the Central Valley in Congress?”

Salas’s campaign has not responded to a request for remark.

The race for California's 22nd Congressional District has develop into 1 of the most viewed in the region as Valadao, just one of the only GOP lawmakers to vote for impeachment and endure the primary, fights to keep the swing seat.

Outside teams in equally parties have seriously invested on advertisements in a drive to enhance their respective candidates. Nonpartisan political handicapper Prepare dinner Political Report prices the race as a “toss-up.”