Boudreaux suspends campaign for McCarthy’s former seat in the House of Representatives

Mike Boudreaux, sheriff of Tulare County and an outsider candidate in the Central Valley race to succeed former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Congress, announced Monday that he is dropping out of the race and endorsing his opponent.

Boudreaux endorsed Rep. Vince Fong (R-Bakersfield), who defeated Boudreaux in a special election in May, ending McCarthy’s term, and was sworn into Congress last month.

The two men were scheduled to face each other again on November 5 for a full two-year term in Congress. The 20th Congressional District, the most conservative in California, runs through the agricultural San Joaquin Valley between Bakersfield and Fresno.

“We may be on different sides of this election, but at the end of the day, we are Republicans,” Boudreaux told his supporters in a Facebook video. “We are family men and fighters committed to protecting individual freedom, lowering the cost of living and maintaining safe communities for our neighbors.”

Boudreaux, who has been Tulare County sheriff for more than a decade, said he has no plans to leave politics. On Monday, he announced the formation of Golden State Justice, an organization he said “will help rally support for candidates and common-sense leaders committed to a safer, stronger and more vibrant Central Valley and California.”

McCarthy, Fong’s former boss, resigned from Congress last year after being voted out as House speaker. He was highly influential in the race to succeed him, lending his connections and considerable fundraising skills to support Fong.

Fong raised $1.7 million and also received nearly $1 million in support from a McCarthy-linked political action committee. He also secured an endorsement from former President Trump that is widely seen as being orchestrated by McCarthy. The endorsement was a coup for Fong, who has largely avoided the culture wars that dominate the GOP caucuses and sought to win over right-leaning Republicans skeptical of the political establishment.

The Bakersfield political establishment that helped elect Fong, Boudreaux told his supporters in May, is “a machine so powerful that it is a major challenge, to say the least.”

The 20th District race was marred by months of legal confusion over whether Fong was even allowed to run, given that he had already filed for re-election to the state Assembly. Fong said he was blocked from withdrawing his candidacy by Democratic Secretary of State Shirley Weber, who said the deadline to do so had already passed. She also said state election law prohibits candidates from running for two offices at the same time.

Fong’s campaign sues Weber and won in Sacramento County Court and again in the 3rd District Court of Appeals.