By Roger Riffenburgh
Central Valley Congressman John Duarte recently visited with two groups in the Bay Area. In Pleasanton he met with a group of community leaders. In Cupertino he was the featured speaker at the Santa Clara County GOP-SPARC picnic. He is the closest Republican member of Congress to the Bay Area.
Duarte drew attention last fall when he defeated a Democrat assemblyman and won election in a district with a 14% Dem registration advantage. He received 50.2% of the vote, a 564 vote margin, and his race was one of the last in the country to be decided.
A farmer and a businessman, Representative Duarte serves on three important House committees: Transportation and Infrastructure, Natural Resources, and Agriculture. He is able to apply his expertise to transportation infrastructure, water management, and farming practices and financing, respectively, as well as to other related issues.
John Duarte takes a practical approach to politics and has succeeded by focusing on the basic needs of his low-income district. He emphasizes the need to provide water to the valley, produce American oil, and get the cost of living under control. He says that Republicans can succeed in campaigning by contrasting their support of opportunity and individual agency against the identity politics and scarcity that are created by the Democrats’ policies.
Duarte represents Congressional District 13, which includes part of the western Central Valley between Modesto and Fresno. (See the map.) It abuts the eastern side of counties in the extended Bay Area, including Alameda, Santa Clara, San Benito, and Monterey.
John Duarte was born in Modesto and is a fourth-generation farmer and businessman of Portuguese ancestry. He earned his bachelor’s degree in finance from San Diego State and an MBA from the University of the Pacific. He and his wife have together run a farming operation of vineyards and orchards since 1989.
Duarte had a significant experience with the heavy hand of government in 2012, when his land was being tilled in preparation to plant wheat. The federal government accused his farm of damaging temporary wetlands. Ultimately Duarte had to settle the case rather than risk catastrophic liability to his successful farming business. Subsequently the U.S. Supreme Court narrowed the definition of wetlands to exclude areas that did not have a direct connection to larger waterways like rivers and oceans.
John and his wife Alexandra live near Stockton, where they have raised four children, who have attended public schools. One can find out more about John on his Congressional website and on his campaign website.