Rep. John Duarte Narrowly Beats Former Assemblyman Adam Gray in Final 13th District House Debate

Congressman in John Duarte (R-CA) managed to beat former Assemblyman Adam Gray in a Fox/CBS 13th Congressional district debate in Sacramento on Thursday, despite Gray taking more moderate positions on issues than he has had in the past, in an attempt to shore up centrist voters.

The fight for the 13th Congressional district, which spans the San Joaquin Valley, covering, all of Merced County, most of Madera County, and parts of Stanislaus, Fresno, and San Joaquin Counties, has been one of the toughest in the country for both parties, as the district has been practically dead even on party support since redistricting three years ago. Duarte previously beat Gray by around 500 votes in 2022. The total was so close that it officially wasn’t called until late November.

This year, his challenger is Gray once again, still feeling the sting of the loss from two years ago. The race this year is once again tight, with every election prediction hub labeling it as a toss-up. According to the latest poll, Gray has a narrow 46% to 45% lead with a 9% undecided vote and 5.6% margin of error. However, the race is still very close, with both candidates virtually now neck to neck following Duarte having more to spend and a previous deadlocked debate in Modesto last month. Gray has been hit particularly hard in recent weeks following new information coming out that he had given around $40,000 to family members from previous campaign funds.

This all led to the debate on Thursday, where both candidates tried to make inroads with undecided voters. Gray went more moderate than before on multiple issues, including one of the largest in the district – water. There, he pointed out multiple times that he had fought against both Governor Gavin Newsom and fellow Democrats over environmental based water plans. Duarte had similar views on water as well.

In fact, many of the issues had the candidates all but agreeing with each other. On E-Verify, both came out against it, with both wanting to appeal more to Latino voters in the district. When it came to electric cars, both were against the 2035 mandate requiring all cars sold in California by then to be gas powered.

Gray responded that it should be left to the consumer to decide, saying that “No, I think it’s something that can be handled in the marketplace. What I think the government should do actually is invest in the infrastructure we would need if and when people choose to move to an electric vehicle.”

Duarte expanded on that, saying no working family in the district would be able to afford them: “None of the working families in the valley are choosing electric vehicles. This is coming out of Gavin Newsom’s crazy California politics. We’re a one party state and we’re doing silly things, and I’d like to use whatever federal power I have in Congress to stop it.”

The last Gray-Duarte debate

Not raising the minimum wage to $18 an hour was also an issue of agreeance between both candidates, with both coming out against Prop 32.

Gray focused more on a by-region minimum wage, saying that the economy in the district was different from larger cities in the state, and that inflation instead needed to be tackled.

“I think wages need to be appropriate for the regions,” explained Gray.

Duarte largely agreed, expanding on Gray’s remarks that high minimum wages actually chase away employers.

“I’d like to see everybody make $20 an hour or more, but is not realistic and if we pursue that through a minimum wage policy, we are gonna end up chasing jobs away and making matters worse,” added Duarte.

However, there were multiple splits on issues too. One of the most prominent was the issue of the High-Speed Rail network currently under construction. Gray said that he supports it, confusingly saying that he wants it on time and on budget, while also saying he would get more funding for it. He also ignored the fact that the system has been delayed by decades.

“High-speed rail has provided 14,200 families in the San Joaquin Valley with really good jobs,” noted Gray.” That helps them afford a home and raise their children. We don’t want to walk away from that but at the same time we need these projects to be on time and on budget.”

Meanwhile, Duarte said that he wanted to kill the project, and move funding towards other needed infrastructure projects and to local county governments.

“We have so many priorities that we could improve life with proper infrastructure investment,” said Duarte.

Another big difference was on affordable housing. Gray favored an approach mixing more federal spending on infrastructure in the district and new job training services increasing the number of electricians, plumbers, and other skilled jobs to build more homes. Duarte pushed for the lessening of regulations in California, such as solar panel mandates, to help lessen the cost of building new homes.

“So we can spend our infrastructure dollars and we can reduce our requirements on new home builders and we can get water where it needs to be, that is how we get homes affordable,” explained Duarte.

But for many voters, the issue of whom they were backing for President was the key tell, with both candidates backing their respective party candidates – Gray for Harris and Duarte for Trump.

Following the debate, post-debate polls found that, despite Gray inching more to the center, Duarte still came out on top with the majority of listeners and watchers.

“It’s close, but a thin majority went with Duarte on the debate because he wasn’t switching positions and because he had proven himself in Congress,” said a Merced County pollster who wished to remain anonymous on Friday. “Gray tried to appeal to people already voting for Duarte. He aimed for the center, but hit too far right. Missed the sweet spot.”

National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) spokesman Ben Petersen added that “Farmer John Duarte demonstrated he always puts Central Valley families ahead of partisan politics. Representative Duarte has led the charge to lower the skyrocketing cost of gas, groceries and food and stand up for the Valley’s water.

“Self-serving Sacramento politician Adam Gray failed to defend his failed record of driving up costs and corrupt self-dealing. Gray is good for nothing except constantly selling out the Valley to Gavin Newsom and special interests, raising the gas tax 43 percent and skipping work while still collecting a taxpayer paycheck.”