California Democrats back establishment candidates despite progressive pushback

The California Democratic Party is betting that a tried-and-true playbook and standard-bearer candidates offer their best chance to take back the U.S. House in November’s midterms rather than fresh faces and more populist policy planks.

The country’s largest state Democratic party endorsed a slate of aging congressional incumbents at its convention in San Francisco after a weekend that illustrated the high stakes in this year’s midterms. In congressional districts without an incumbent, the party gave the nod to a handful of current state lawmakers who, while younger, are party insiders compared to the grassroots political outsiders who are running as Democrats in contested races.

Among the incumbents who sailed to endorsements were Rep. Mike Thompson of St. Helena, 74, who’s running for his 15th term, and Rep. Brad Sherman of the San Fernando Valley, 71, seeking a 16th term.

In the open race to succeed the late Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfa, who represented the state’s rural north for more than 13 years, state Sen. Mike McGuire overwhelmingly won the party’s endorsement despite an internal spat with party leadership that almost forced a vote of the entire convention floor.

At right, actor Sean Penn watches U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell, candidate for California governor, speak during the afternoon general session at the California Democratic Party convention in San Francisco on Feb. 21, 2026.

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Jungho Kim

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CalMatters

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The outcome, while not surprising, disappointed several grassroots political outsiders who sought to give their party a facelift and push beyond the anti-Trump rhetoric that its leaders have relied on since President Donald Trump was first elected in 2016.

“This weekend just reaffirmed why we need to push the Democratic Party for new leadership. It also reaffirmed to me why people are leaving the Democratic Party,” said Mai Vang, a progressive Sacramento city councilmember.

Vang is the first elected official to challenge Rep. Doris Matsui in the 20 years since she took over her late husband’s Sacramento-area seat in the 7th Congressional District. Matsui, 81, ultimately won the endorsement despite a challenge from Vang. She argued the endorsement caucus had unfairly allowed Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who was not a delegate for the 7th District, to give a speech in support of Matsui, a 10-term incumbent.

Jake Levine, a former Biden White House aide who’s running against Sherman, argued that Democrats can’t keep beating the same anti-GOP, anti-Trump drum without also outlining a clear vision for addressing young voters’ anxieties on issues like the high cost of housing and a scarcity of good-paying jobs.

“Yes, we need to flip the House, but we also need to put a new generation of leaders in the House when we take it over,” Levine said. “In order to sustain a party that can keep winning for many more years, we need a new message. And the people who have gotten us to where we are today are still stuck in the politics of yesterday.”

The weekend also served as a swan song for Pelosi, the San Francisco political titan and first woman speaker who announced last year that she would retire after her current term. Pelosi was repeatedly lauded for cultivating generations of elected officials, including Sen. Adam Schiff. His uncharacteristically fiery and profanity-laden speech on the convention floor spoke to the pent-up anger and frustration with the Trump administration that has turned even the party’s mellower figures into all-out fighters.

Schiff bellowed from the stage that the massive turnout for Proposition 50, which redrew congressional districts to favor Democrats, sent a resounding message to the Trump administration: “When you poke the bear, the bear rips your f—ing head off!”

'We need people who know what they’re doing'

In their own defense, time-tested incumbents argue that now is not the time to bring in an entirely new class of lawmakers as House Democrats try to reign in a rogue second Trump administration.

“This is not the time to wimp out,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, chair of California’s Democratic congressional caucus and a close friend and supporter of Matsui. “We need people who know what the heck they’re doing. And she does.”

Still, Levine and others lamented that recently, the party has mostly paid lip service to uplifting the next generation of leaders rather than actually giving younger voters a voice in elected office. Failing to tailor the party’s message to younger voters and instead doubling down on the party’s historic deference to seniority, he argued, will continue to drive voters away.

One potential bright spot for progressives and the anti-establishment wing of the party was in the endorsement race for the 22nd Congressional District, a Central Valley seat that Democrats hope to flip from moderate Republican Rep. David Valadao.

Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains, candidate for California’s 22nd Congressional District, speaks during a caucus meeting at the California Democratic Convention at Moscone West in San Francisco on Feb. 21, 2026.

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Jungho Kim

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CalMatters

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Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains, a physician and political moderate from Bakersfield, had been heralded as the Democratic frontrunner and boasted endorsements from the powerful Service Employees International Union of California, a labor group, and a swath of state and federal elected officials. But she still failed to capture the party endorsement after her Democratic opponent, Visalia educator and college professor Randy Villegas, built a groundswell of support and also raised more than her last quarter. The party did not endorse a candidate in the race.

Villegas said several delegates told his campaign they wanted to support him, but “there's been intimidation, outright coercion,” by Bains’ camp.

Bains, through a spokesperson, denied that she or any of her supporters coerced or intimidated any delegates into voting for her.

Jeanne Kuang and Juliet Williams contributed reporting.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.