Kevin McCarthy’s protégé Vince Fong wins the ex-speaker’s vacant seat in a victory that could be a warning sign for Matt Gaetz-type GOP insurgents
- Fong will now serve in Congress for the next seven months
- He will have the incumbent advantage for a full term in the November election
Kevin McCarthy-backed Vince Fong has defeated a Republican challenger to take the former chairman’s seat in Congress, which has been vacant since last year.
Fong will now serve in Congress for the next seven months and have the advantage in the November elections.
He will strengthen the razor-thin Republican majority in the House of Representatives, which allows only one Republican defection to pass party-line legislation.
The Bakersfield Assemblyman is a former top aide to McCarthy who retired in December after being ousted from the speakership, a role he has worked on throughout his career and held for nine months.
McCarthy’s endorsement proved a victory for establishment Republicans over burnt-out types like Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz, who spurred the movement to oust McCarthy.
Kevin McCarthy-backed Vince Fong has defeated a Republican challenger to fill the former chairman’s seat in Congress
Fong, 44, served as McCarthy’s district director for more than a decade.
McCarthy had taken the seat in 2007 after the retirement of his former boss, Rep. Bill Thomas, then chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. Fong worked with McCarthy for Thomas for a while.
The full force of McCarthy’s campaign dollars, fundraisers, consultants and affiliated PACs made the race against local sheriff Mike Boudreaux less than exciting.
Fong also won the support of former President Donald Trump, with help from McCarthy, in a district where 47 percent of registered voters are Republicans and 27 percent are Democrats.
Boudreaux acknowledged the forces that worked against him before the election.
“I’m the underdog,” Boudreaux told a crowd of supporters. ‘I’m opposing a machine that is so powerful that it is quite a challenge to say the least.’
Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux lost to Fong
“The McCarthy machine is huge,” Boudreaux said, adding that going against it is “disheartening, to say the least.”
The two candidates had very similar policy platforms: securing the border, lowering taxes and working on water improvements and energy production for the region.
Fong had nearly tripled Boudreaux’s fundraising numbers by May 1, from $1.5 million to $425,000.
McCarthy’s support turned out to be a victory for establishment Republicans over burnt-out types like Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, who sparked the movement to oust McCarthy.
Boudreaux, while not as far right as some already in the House Republican Conference, took on the Bakersfield political machine that has driven longtime political actors to Congress in Fong and McCarthy and ex-Rep. Bill Thomas before them.
Right between a McCarthy-affiliated PAC and the Nevada-based Conservatives for American Excellence, a pro-Fong PAC raised nearly a million dollars ahead of the race. Conservatives for American Excellence wants to give mainstream Republicans a boost to counter the anti-establishment Club for Growth and the far-right Freedom Caucus.
The top two vote-getters, regardless of party, advance to a runoff if neither receives multiple votes under California’s system. Fong and Boudreaux were the top two vote-getters in a special election in March.
Fong will compete again against Boudreaux for the full semester in November’s race.