Endorsements can be an extremely powerful thing during election season. They can be especially formidable if they come from someone within the opposite party. This was obvious during the DNC when prominent Republicans like John Kasich, Christine Whitman and Susan Molinari endorsed Joe Biden.
David Valadao was a 3 term Congressman in California’s 21st district who’s run overlapped with Barack Obama’s Presidency. The Republican is seeking to regain his seat. In a recent campaign ad, Valadao makes it seem like he might have the endorsement of the 44th President.
During the spot, a voiceover reads, “An independent problem solver, (Valadao) worked with President Obama to bring more water to the Central Valley, made health care more accessible, and stood up to his own party to reform immigration and protect Dreamers.”
David Valadao didn't work with Obama. In fact he voted to repeal Obamacare and take away healthcare from 60,000 Central Valley residents. Valadao doesn't care about the Valley, he wants to go back to Washington to do Trump's bidding. https://t.co/FWbJmvuE8m
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— TJ Cox (@TJCoxCongress) September 2, 2020
Obama responded to the spot through spokesperson Katie Hill. Hill said:
“We strongly condemn David Valadao for resorting to distortion to falsely suggest President Obama’s support – especially given that President Obama has endorsed his opponent, TJ Cox. Valadao typically opposed President Obama’s policies, even voting to repeal Obamacare and rip health care away from thousands of people in the Central Valley while turning his back on DREAMers.”
The Republican’s campaign, though, is not backing down from the spot. Spokesman Adam Renteria said, “David is proud of his bipartisan record in Congress and while he didn’t always agree with President Obama or President Trump on every issue, he always worked to find common ground when it was good for the Valley. As these campaign season attacks demonstrate, Washington D.C. suffers from a lack of compromise, not too much of it.”
Todd Neikirk is a New Jersey based politics and technology writer. His work has been featured in psfk.com, foxsports.com and hillreporter.com. He enjoys sports, politics, comic books and spending time at the shore with his family.
