In a purple California district, Democrats vie for a chance to flip a House seat

KVPR | By Kerry Klein

Published May 27, 2026 at 4:16 PM EDT

Next week's primary in California includes a closely watched race between two Democrats in the state's Central Valley competing to unseat GOP Rep. David Valadao.

Kerry Klein

Support nonprofit, fact-based public service journalism

WEKU depends on support from those who view and listen to our content. There's no paywall here. Please support WEKU with your donation.

Contribute now

Related Content

A National Spelling Bee champion shares what it takes to win

Hosts, Gabriel J. Sánchez, Tinbete Ermyas

The 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee champ shares what it takes to spell it right in 2026.
Visual impairments don't keep these birders out of the hobby

Nancy Eve Cohen

The phrase "bird watching" does not take in the full range of people who love searching for wild birds. We meet a few of the many visually impaired birders who use their ears.
Checking in with swing state voters on how gas prices are affecting them

Tamara Keith

The price of a gallon of gas is up well over a dollar from where it was a year ago and these swing voters are feeling it.
A wildfire off the California coast threatened one of the world's rarest pines

Scott Detrow, Gurjit Kaur, Christopher Intagliata

NPR's Scott Detrow talks with Heather Schneider of the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden about the garden's efforts to conserve seeds of rare plants from Santa Rosa Island, where a wildfire just burned.
A high-stakes U.S. Senate Race in Texas is expected to be a bitter contest

Blaise Gainey, Scott Detrow

A U.S. Senate race in Texas is now set with the state's Attorney General Ken Paxton winning the GOP nomination in a primary runoff Tuesday. He'll face Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico.