Ro Khanna’s Bakersfield town hall reveals voter frustration with Democrats and Trump | Opinion

What happened when a Silicon Valley Democrat traveled to a Republican-held Congressional district in Bakersfield?

Rep. Ro Khanna learned that voters were just as frustrated with Democrats as they were with the Trump administration’s chainsaw approach to gutting government programs. He was told that the leaders of his party were too old the party’s messaging is awful, and too few are standing up to President Trump’s overhaul of government to reward billionaires.

Only 48, sometimes mentioned as a presidential hopeful in 2028, and highly active on social media and a favorite of cable news programs, Khanna saw for himself that neither Trump nor congressional Republicans ceding their authority to him is as all-powerful as they think.

Voters in the heartland of California may have voted Republican in the last election, but they aren’t liking what they are seeing since Trump was inaugurated in January. There are opportunities to turn the tide, but Democrats have to listen first and learn.

“In World War II, the Navy realized that their peacetime captains were very bad as wartime captains and they didn’t want to risk their ships,” said a man who identified himself as Darren Brown during the 1½-hour town hall. “When is the Democratic Party going to set aside its peacetime leaders and bring up some wartime leaders?”

The irony of Khanna’s event, and undoubtedly a factor in why he chose to be in Bakersfield on Sunday, is that Democrats hold a 12-point party registration edge in the district, where Latinos of voting age account for 59% of voting age residents. This is Republican Rep. David Valadao’s 22nd District, where 67% of residents rely on Medicaid.

Valadao, who called the town hall “a political stunt” in a statement, provided a key vote to move along a Republican budget resolution that seeks to cut $800 billion over the next 10 years from Medicaid. The Hanford dairyman has said he will not vote to cut Medicaid funding, but some say the math doesn’t add up when the Medicaid budget is $880 billion.

Signs criticizing President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk for targeting federal workers for massive layoffs and dismantling departments and agencies popped out among the estimated 1,000 people who crowded into the gym at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center Park.

Speakers, however, lashed out at the Democrats.

“The house is on fire when I see (Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency) get into Social Security systems. They’re getting secret information,” said a man who did not identify himself. “Tell me how we’re going to stop it.”

Calls for a change in Democratic leadership

What the town hall audience was begging for was new Democratic leadership, less than two weeks after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer folded on a GOP-written funding bill along with nine other Democrats.

Johnny Olaguez, 36, said that after “watching Trump dismantle our economy, ignore judges on deportations, it makes me wonder: ‘Are the Democrats here to represent us or to make excuses?’

“I have switched to being independent because of that,” said Olaguez, who owns a Bakersfield transportation company.

He asked Khanna for three bullet points “to fight the craziness.” Khanna said Democrats in Congress should show up at town halls, vote no on Republican bills, and “get out of Washington.” He also demanded that Democrats get rid of super PACs and corporate money.

Olaguez, speaking to me after the town hall, said he wasn’t satisfied with Khanna’s response. “A lot of the questions that were asked were answered the same way where it was like a rally,” he said. The “oh, we’re gonna get them” doesn’t cut it for him. “How are you going to solve it?”

The former Democrat said many of his childhood friends who grew up as progressives voted for Trump “because the Democrats do nothing. Olaguez said he won’t vote for Trump, but indicated he wouldn’t vote Democrat until the party makes foundational changes.

Town hall speakers told Khanna they were ready to knock on doors and hold rallies but wanted better directions from Democrats.

Democrats, said Khanna, need “to have an agenda that actually speaks to the working and middle class in America. If we do that, we’re going to win back a lot of people who left the Democratic Party. We need a new generation of leaders.”

“I’ve said the old guard needs to step aside,” said Khanna. “Some of them have been great legislators, some of whom are great supporters. But today, being in Congress is not enough to just get legislation done. It’s not enough to just go and give a speech on the House floor.

“If you are not organizing, if you are not fighting and marching, then you don’t understand the moment.”

If Khanna – and other Democrats like him – can figure out how to harness the frustration of voters in Republican-held districts like Valadao’s, they can retake the House in 2026. Otherwise, they risk even less support from Latino males and those without a college degree, who cast 55% and 56% of their votes, respectively, for Trump in 2024.

This story was originally published March 26, 2025 at 5:30 AM with the headline "Ro Khanna’s Bakersfield town hall reveals voter frustration with Democrats and Trump | Opinion."