California Judge Decides Vince Fong Can Run for Congress in 2024

Assemblyman Vince Fong, the Bakersfield representative who Congressman Kevin McCarthy endorsed to succeed him, got good news Thursday when a Sacramento Superior Court Judge ruled he can run for Congress.

The question of his candidacy arose when the Republican Assemblyman announced he would run to replace Kevin McCarthy in the U.S. House of Representatives, after only a few days before, declining to run, saying it wasn’t his time.

Assemblyman Fong, who is serving his fourth term in the California State Assembly, released the following statement December 7th on his plans for the 2024 election cycle:

“Representing the residents of the Central Valley is an honor and privilege. In the past 24 hours, I have been humbled to receive an outpouring of encouragement to run for Congress. I want to thank everyone who reached out for your kind words and offers of support.

“After giving it thoughtful and prayerful consideration, my family and I have decided that now is not my time, and I will not be running for Congress in 2024.

Following today’s ruling by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Shelleyanne Chang, Fong said:

“Today’s ruling is a victory for the voters of the 20th Congressional District, who will now have the opportunity to select the candidate of their choice in the March 5th election. I am grateful that Judge Chang upheld the integrity of our elections and sided with Central Valley voters against an overreaching Sacramento politician.”

“I look forward to getting back on the campaign trail and working as hard as I can over the next several months to once again win the trust of Central Valley voters and earn the right to represent them in Congress.”

The issue with Fong’s announcement to run for Congress was that Fong had already filed paperwork to run for the Assembly, and the deadline had passed to back out.

Secretary of State Shirley Weber announced Fong could not run for congress because California law does not allow candidates to appear on the same ballot twice for different jobs. The state also prohibits candidates from dropping out of a race after the filing deadline closes.

The California Secretary of State said, “no withdrawal is allowed, and a person cannot run for more than one office in the same election.”

The Globe reported that Fong would likely need to go to court and have a judge decide if he can decline the Assembly race in order to run for Congress. And he did.

The CAGOP defended Fong’s decision to run for Congress, claiming the Secretary of State’s decision was “egregious:”

Read CAGOP Chairwoman Jessica @MillanPatterson’s full statement on the @CASOSVote’s egregious decision on #CA20 pic.twitter.com/wOZyPkPfQ7

— CAGOP (@CAGOP) December 16, 2023

“Today’s ruling was a victory for the voters of Congressional District 20 who will now get to decide who can best represent them from a full slate of candidates. The Sacramento Democrat machine tried and failed to interfere in a district that heavily favors Republicans, but the court rightly saw the legitimacy of Assemblyman Fong’s candidacy and put an end to Democrats’ political games. We look forward to a robust campaign in CA-20 as voters – not Sacramento Democrats – choose a leader to send to Washington on their behalf.”

The Globe spoke to political legal experts and reported:

“The law is very clear on this,” said Mark Georgiou, a legal advisor to political campaigns in several western states, to the Globe on Monday. “What happened is Fong wanted the Assembly again and assumed that McCarthy would just run again, or if he didn’t, that Grove would go in. That’s what that 7th announcement was all about. Then Grove bailed, and Fong saw an opening. He obviously wants the House seat, but he just didn’t foresee the race opening up this year. And honestly, an open year was his in, as strong GOP seats in California don’t open too often.”

“Honestly, he declared too early, especially with McCarthy facing all that heat earlier this year, and wanted to kind of reneg on it for the bigger seat. The law says differently. Bad luck, but he could still run for a higher office in the future. If he had grace, he could have played being too late to the punch with a joke, back a candidate, and then a higher office later on. He went this route instead though, and predictably, was stopped pretty quickly. Him and the CAGOP and McCarthy can go on about how unfair this is, but in all honesty, it’s just the law. It’s like getting mad at the tree when you veer your car off the road into it.”

Congressional District 20 is a safe Republican district, so is the real issue — is the Kevin McCarthy camp trying to maintain a hold on the district and power in Congress with a friendly? Fong worked as McCarthy’s district direct director for 10 years, and is assumed by all to be loyal to the McCarthy machine… especially after CD 20 candidate David Giglio’s tweet:

“Do you want to know why people don’t take Republicans seriously when we talk about election integrity? It’s because we have corrupt establishment Republicans out there who think it’s ok to ignore/violate election laws to benefit themselves while laughably claiming to be doing so out of concern for election integrity. The GOP has spent 3 years chastising Democrats for ignoring election laws during the 2020 election to benefit themselves and now here we are with Republicans doing the same thing. Behavior such as this makes us look like fools.”

Do you want to know why people don’t take Republicans seriously when we talk about election integrity?

It’s because we have corrupt establishment Republicans out there who think it’s ok to ignore/violate election laws to benefit themselves while laughably claiming to be doing so… pic.twitter.com/p7UzMxHzTa

— David Giglio (@DavidGiglioCA) December 29, 2023

Things are heating up…