Backlash against Trump, ICE raids, gas prices fuels changing political tide in California heartland

This is read by an automated voice.Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.

See more from the L.A.Times in Google Search.

Set us as preferred DELANO, Calif. — While cutting men’s hair in his barbershop, Jorge Navarro has been hearing the same concerns over and over: The prices of gas, food and housing are going up.Immigration agents are lurking outside stores and schools.

And President Trump and the Republicans are to blame.Widespread dissatisfaction with the decisions being made in Washington, he said, helped Democrat Randy Villegas trounce Republican incumbent David Valadao to take his congressional seat in Tuesday’s election.“We want a change,” Navarro said, speaking in Spanish.“We hope for a change.”Villegas won in a region of the San Joaquin Valley that has been dominated by Republicans for two decades.

The majority Latino district stretches from western Fresno to Bakersfield, an agricultural area with dairy farms, grapevines and vast orchards of almonds, pistachios and oranges.That Valadao lost to Villegas, a community college professor who ran on a populist message, was not a major surprise, given the gains Democrats made nationwide.But Villegas’ margin of victory left both Republican and Democratic leaders and operatives stunned.

The progressive challenger has maintained a lead of roughly 30 percentage points since election night.Although votes still are being counted, the Associated Press has declared Villegas the winner.

“It was remarkable,” said Christian Romo, chair of the Kern County Democratic Party.“I knew we would win but didn’t expect this margin, and I didn’t think that we would have the turnout we did.”Even Paul Mitchell, the redistricting and election data consultant who drew the reconfigured map to favor Democrats, was surprised by Villegas’ performance.“We drew the district to be three points more effective for Democrats, and I was off by a factor of 12,” he said.Though Democrats had ...