Representative Doris Matsui, 81, and her Democratic challenger, Mai Vang, 41, have won the top two spots in Tuesday’s nonpartisan primary, according to The Associated Press. That sets up a fierce intraparty generational battle for a Sacramento-area House seat.
Ms. Matsui, a Democrat, is facing the toughest re-election campaign of her 10 terms in Congress. Ms. Vang, a progressive member of the Sacramento City Council, is attempting to oust an incumbent twice her age as the party seethes with generational upheaval. The two Democrats vanquished Zachariah Wooden, a Republican college student, who came in third.
Sacramento, California’s capital city, has sent a Matsui to Congress for the last 47 years. Robert Matsui represented the region from 1979 until his death in January 2005. Two months later, his widow, Doris Matsui, was elected to fill his seat. She has won with ease ever since.
But a generational rebellion took root in the Democratic Party after Republicans swept to victory in 2024 amid concern that President Joseph R. Biden was too old to seek re-election. Ms. Vang was one of several younger Democrats who challenged older members of their party in this year’s primaries. She was endorsed by several national groups that back progressive candidates and ran an energetic campaign that included a fundraiser at a rock concert.
Ms. Matsui sensed a serious threat. She loaned her campaign $1.4 million, a step she had never taken in her 10 prior re-election campaigns, according to campaign finance reports. She won a tough fight for the endorsement of the California Democratic Party at its convention earlier this year. But the battle revealed Ms. Matsui’s vulnerability, as she received help from Representative Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker from San Francisco who remains a force in the state party as she prepares to retire, at age 86, at the end of her term.
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