Josh Harder, the Democratic candidate trying to unseat GOP representative Jeff Denham in California’s Central Valley, this week found time to campaign with far-left representative Barbara Lee in the Bay area after skipping several local debates and rallies—including one sponsored by the area Rotary Club.
Harder, a 32-year-old venture capitalist, attended a "Flip the House Party"in Oakland, Calif., on Monday headlined by Lee and sponsored by the Wellstone Club, a left-wing Bay-area political organization closely aligned with Lee.
Lee, who earned a 95 percent lifetime rating from Progressive Punch for her liberal voting record, has a long history of involvement in controversial far-left causes and activities.
She began her political career in the late-1960s by volunteering at the Black Panther Party's Community Learning Center in Oakland. She then supported Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale's 1973 campaign for mayor in Oakland.
The Wellstone Club supports making California a sanctuary state and introducing single-payer healthcare. The group endorsed former state senator Kevin de Leon, the author of the sanctuary-state law, over Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) in the Senate campaign.
Harder's decision to campaign with Lee comes after his campaign declined to attend several debates with Denham, including one at the local Farm Bureau and another at a local church, and withdrew from an Aug. 1 Rotary Club debate he had previously agreed to attend.
Denham, a 51-year-old Air Force veteran, also hit Harder for skipping a water-rights rally he organized.
Few issues are more important in this agricultural district than control of water, and farmers have spent decades waging war with the environmentalists that hold sway in Sacramento over diverting water out of the local dam.
"I understand John Harder's fear of addressing the Farm Bureau with his support of the State water grab, but the Rotary?" Denham said in a statement. "The Rotary is one of our district's most important local organizations and is a bedrock of fair, non-partisan and open discourse about local issues."
The Harder campaign, which has accused Denham of stacking the debate decks against him, did not respond to a request for comment. He recently began holding town-hall meetings with constituents, and in late July announced plans to hold 16 town hall meetings in the then-remaining 16 weeks leading up to the election.
Harder's decision to campaign with Lee follows news that his campaign received just 1.4 percent of his political donations from within the district, with the lion's share coming from the Bay area.
The ties to Lee and liberal Bay-area donors are giving Republicans new fodder for attacks that play into previous criticism that Harder only moved back to the district last year after working as a venture capitalist in San Francisco.
"Harder would rather pal around in Oakland with Communist sympathizers and socialists instead of meeting farmers and parishioners in the Central Valley," said Jack Pandol, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Harder, who attended Modesto High School in the district before leaving to study at Stanford and Harvard, pitches himself to voters as a fifth-generation resident of California's Central Valley. He is the grandson of local peach farmers and has vowed to protect the valley's water rights and way of life.
The Denham campaign has cast Harder as a carpetbagger, pointing out that he only cast votes in the district for the first time last year when he moved there from San Francisco to launch his campaign.
Both national parties have been pouring money into the high-profile race, which Democrats view as critical for their strategy to forge a path through California by flipping at least seven seats there and reclaim the House majority.
Hillary Clinton beat Trump in the 10th district by 3 points in 2016, the same year Denham beat his challenger by a 3-point margin. Then-President Barack Obama carried the district with 51 percent of the vote in 2012.
Still, district voters there are leery of Bay-area politicians, the liberal metropolis located an hour and half away from the closest point in the district. Harder seems particularly sensitive about displaying any loyalty to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.).
He has declined to commit to vote for her as Speaker if Democrats gain the majority, saying, "It's more important to vote for a Democratic Speaker than to say who that should be."