AOC, Newsom and Jeffries swing through California to help Democrats in tight races – Los Angeles Times

AOC, Newsom and Jeffries swing through California to help Democrats in tight races  Los Angeles Times

Top Democratic and Republican leaders are sweeping through California as the Nov. 3 election approaches, evidence of the state's pivotal role in deciding which party will control the U.S. House of Representatives and the fate of President Trump's final two years in office. Seizing on their party's momentum nationwide, Democrats rallied crowds from Orange County to the Bay Area this past week. They blamed Trump and the Republican-led Congress for rising gas and food prices, massive cuts to healthcare funding, deceitful attacks on the elections process and the vilification of immigrants. In the Central Valley, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Friday evening appeared alongside Randy Villegas, a Democrat challenging Republican incumbent David Valadao of Hanford in a Latino voter-heavy district in the state's agricultural heartland.

The population of the district is one of the youngest in the country, Ocasio-Cortez told the crowd, and Gen Z and millennial voters are expected to play a pivotal role. “We have the opportunity to take the reins,” said Ocasio-Cortez, one of the nation's most well-known progressive leaders. “And to give direction to where our future will be headed. And I got to tell you, folks, the future is not with David Valadao.” Recent polls show Democrats may retake control of the House in the Nov. 3 election, and they may have a chance