What Bay Area congresswoman had to say to Modesto, Merced residents on Senate campaign stops

U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, an Oakland Democrat campaigning for the U.S. Senate seat that will open when Dianne Feinstein’s term ends in early January 2025, is spending this week getting to know Central Valley residents she hopes will be her constituents.

The congresswoman representing California’s 12th District began her Valley visit with a meet and greet in Modesto and a town hall in Merced on Monday.

It often can feel to Valley residents like they get overlooked by elected officials, except during voting season. Lee assured that will not happen with her.

“When I win, there’s no way I could forget the folks of the Central Valley, running statewide,” she said in Merced on Monday afternoon. “I will be responsible for, and be accountable to, people all over the state — which includes the Central Valley.”

Sitting among the audience of around 60 people, Lee spoke on some of the issues she vows to champion should she be elected to the U.S. Senate: supporting health care and infrastructure and combating poverty and homelessness.

She knows, too, that agriculture is a key player in this area’s livelihood. Lee serves on the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration House Subcommittee.

“Last session, we put in $3 million for farmers — disadvantaged farmers, veteran farmers — who haven’t been in the mix and who needed a lot of support,” Lee said. “Farmers need a lot in terms of access to some of the loan guarantees, the California Farm Bureau, the Department of Agriculture, and so we do a lot of casework with farmers, also.”

Fellow Democrat Anna Caballero, the 14th District state senator, endorses Lee and was at the town hall to support her. “I’m on board because it matters to her to reduce youth violence, it matters to her to build up the community from the bottom up,” Caballero said. “And it matters to her to build peace in our community.”

The dominant issues in Lee’s campaign are poverty and homelessness. California’s minimum wage of $15 an hour needs to be the baseline, she said. Working people deserve a living wage and affordable housing — another subject she wants to focus on. Lee also said she wants to make permanent the Child Tax Credit she helped put together.

“It’s a comprehensive strategy, to lift people out of poverty, that we have to engage in,” she said. “And it’s not only urban, it’s in rural and urban areas.”

Lee also demands better access to medical care, and at a lower cost. “Healthcare is a basic human right. We have to put more federal resources out to communities that lack access,” she said.

For the Central Valley, she pushes for more infrastructure. She supports high-speed rail and said she believes the project brings “opportunities for small businesses, small minority owners, and veterans, businesses to benefit thousands of workers that have been trained as part of the program.

“And it’s one of the few places where people coming out of prison or out of jail have an opportunity to get a good job and training, because it focuses on taking the most vulnerable in our communities, and the most in need of work, and putting them to work.”

Before heading to Merced on Monday afternoon, Lee spent an hour talking with an audience of a couple dozen people at the Prospect Theater Project building in downtown Modesto.

On Independence Day, she will be in Fresno for a series of events and celebrations including a backyard barbecue and a meeting with local Black leaders. She will join Democratic Party leaders at 11:30 a.m. at the Fresno Democratic Party Headquarters, 1033 U St., for a discussion of her U.S. Senate campaign.

And on Wednesday morning, Lee will visit the Allensworth Historic Town Site — the first town in California established by African Americans — in Earlimart. Wednesday also includes visits to Delano and Bakersfield.

Visit barbaraleeforca.com for more information.

This story was originally published July 3, 2023 at 8:54 PM.