Full Breakdown
Randy Villegas’s Congressional Bid Highlights DEI-Driven Academic Activism in California’s 22nd District
8/16/2026, 7:15:08 AM
Core Event
Bernie Sanders-backed political science professor Randy Villegas is challenging Republican Rep. David Valadao for California’s 22nd Congressional District, a seat the Cook Political Report lists as a “toss-up” with a razor-thin D+1 partisan lean. Villegas’s campaign emphasizes his record of promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in community-college classrooms and organizing student-led activism.
Academic Advocacy and Community Organizing
Villegas co-authored a 2022 paper published by the American Political Science Association that frames DEI as a “social-justice-driven duty” of community-college educators. In the paper he wrote, “At the heart of community college teaching is diversity, equity, and inclusion, and culturally responsive teaching” “At the heart of community college teaching is diversity, equity, and inclusion, and culturally responsive teaching,” — Randy Villegas.
Beyond scholarship, Villegas helped launch the Central Valley Freedom Summer (CVFS) in 2018, linking students with community groups for voter outreach, LGBTQ rights, immigration, environmental justice and racial-inequality work. CVFS alumni have formed organizations such as LOUD for Tomorrow, a queer- and trans-BIPOC youth-led group that hosts drag events across the Central Valley.
Official Statements & Responses
A spokesperson for Rep. The spokesperson also declined to comment on the allegation that “domestic abusers” fund Valadao’s campaign.
Villegas’s campaign did not return Fox News Digital’s inquiries about his claim that educators should also serve as “social activists.”
Verbatim Quotes
- “At the heart of community college teaching is diversity, equity, and inclusion, and culturally responsive teaching,” — Randy Villegas, political science professor
