Mai Vang advances to November ballot for California US House seat, will face fellow Democrat Matsui

Sacramento City Councilwoman Mai Vang has advanced to November’s general election for a California congressional seat, setting up a Democrat-on-Democrat clash against longtime incumbent Rep. Doris Matsui.

The 81-year-old congresswoman has held the Sacramento-based seat since the death of her husband, former Rep. Bob Matsui, in 2005. Bob Matsui represented the district since the 1970s.

Vang, 41, is one of a slew of Democrats across the nation mounting an explicitly generational challenge in the wake of Joe Biden’s presidency.

Two other veteran House Democrats in California also made it past younger challengers to the November ballot. Rep. Brad Sherman, 72, a 15-term congressman representing part of Los Angeles, will face a Republican in the fall. Mike Thompson, 75, is seeking his 13th term in a Northern California district.

In San Francisco, a wealthy progressive challenger was unable to crack the top two slots to fill retiring Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s seat. Instead state Sen. Scott Wiener and city Supervisor Connie Chan will face off to replace the former House speaker.

The 7th District seat held by Matsui is considered a safe one for Democrats, but was redrawn as part of the party’s bid to add five more U.S. House seats elsewhere. Voters signed off on the changes with a constitutional amendment last year.

Democrats initially were concerned about getting locked out of the general election in a San Diego-area seat under the state’s primary system, which sends the top two vote-getters to the November ballot regardless of party. But San Diego City Councilwoman Marni von Wilpert managed to emerge from a large field of other Democrats and will face Republican Jim Desmond, a San Diego County supervisor.

The party got a scare in a redrawn district near Sacramento when an independent and a longshot Republican candidate shared the top two slots after the initial ballot count. Later results showed one of the Democratic candidates, former state lawmaker Dr. Richard Pan, leaping into the top two.

And in the Central Valley, Republican Rep. David Valadao, widely considered one of the most vulnerable House Republicans, is waiting to see if he will face centrist Democrat and Assemblywoman Jasmeet Bains or progressive political science professor and school board member Randy Villegas in November.