Indian American California state lawmaker Dr. Jasmeet Bains seeks to topple Republican Rep. David Valadao in a Congressional race in 2026 that Democrats hope to win on their quest to take back the U.S. House.
In a post on X, Bains, 40, who was elected to the state Assembly in 2022, emphasizes her career as a family doctor, directly calling out Valadao for voting yes on the “Big, Beautiful Bill” and “for the largest cut to health care in history.”
“That vote was really a betrayal,” Bains said in an interview with CalMatters. “I did not envision ever running for Congress. But this is a matter of a doctor upholding her Hippocratic Oath that she took to protect her patients.”
Bains, a moderate Democrat known for sometimes opposing her own party in the Legislature, has for months dropped strong hints that she might take on the five-term House member in the swing district, The Californian reported.
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In May, she starred in an ad campaign that urged viewers to call Valadao and tell him to vote against the Republican megabill.
“My community overwhelmingly elected me to office to fight for them because they know I am not afraid to go to any length to protect them,” Bains wrote on X the day after the megabill passed. “It might be time to call in the doctor!”
Since first winning her Assembly seat in 2022, Bains has earned a reputation as a moderate who frequently breaks ranks with her party. She was the lone Democrat to vote against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to penalize oil companies that exceed a certain profit margin set by state regulators.
As punishment, former Speaker Anthony Rendon temporarily stripped Bains of her post on the Business and Professions Committee, a desirable committee, according to the newspaper.
“My constituents have seen me take on my party when it comes to having their back,” Bains said, emphasizing that she often pushes back on issues of affordability. “I could not believe that there was someone that was representing this district that could not do the same.”
The daughter of Indian immigrants, Bains grew up in Delano and returned to the Central Valley after graduating from the Illinois Institute of Technology. As the Great Recession hit and friends and neighbors lost their jobs and health care, Bains quit her job at her father’s Chevrolet dealership in Taft to pursue medical school in Antigua.
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She returned to Kern County for her residency and still sees patients on the weekends. In April she showed up to a Business and Professions Committee hearing dressed in scrubs after working a late night at the clinic.
Bains joins fellow Democrat Randy Villegas in opposing Valadao. The one who prevails in the June 2 primary will have the chance to take on Valadao.
Local Democratic leaders cited by the Californian said Bains will likely be the front runner to challenge Valadao, given her name recognition as an assemblymember and doctor in an election cycle that will likely be dominated by health care.
But the local Democratic Party chairs in Kern, Kings and Tulare caution that Bains is in no way a shoo-in, especially since she has positioned herself as a political outsider who bucks party leadership.