Vice President Joe Biden recently visited Bakersfield and joined congressional candidate Amanda Renteria and state Sen. Alex Padilla on stage, during the Rally for the Valley, to rally democratic candidate support for the upcoming midterm elections.
A line of over 2,000 attendants waited outside of California State University, Bakersfield’s Icardo Center Gymnasium on Oct. 7.
Various locals and representatives provided brief speeches in support of the democratic candidates for nearly an hour before the candidates and the vice president finally took stage.
The event marked the vice president’s return to the Central Valley in over 40 years. “It’s good to be back at the valley. First time I was here I was a young senator, 1973,” said Biden and then addressed citizen’s of the valley and its significance. “We understand back at my hometown of Delaware that you provide. You know if ya’ll were a single nation, you would be about the fourth largest agriculture exporter in the world as a nation.”
The upcoming November elections were the focal topics for the candidates.
“At a district like this guys, and you know this better than I do, we’ve got some problems right now. We have a water crisis, we have a jobs crisis, we’ve got education issues, and we got immigration issues,” said Renteria.
As a former schoolteacher, Renteria emphasized the importance of the valley’s children and called out to the dreamers in the audience: “Where are my dreamers?”
Outstretching her hands to them, Renteria asked for their help and said she couldn’t do it alone. “I need you to volunteer. I need you to tell your friends. I need you to have that energy,” she said. “And most importantly I need you to believe in better. I need you to believe that the Central Valley can be better; that our future can be different.”
Sen. Padilla, who is running for California’s Secretary of State, affirmed that the elections are ever more important and come at a time when voter rights are under attack.
“You see what’s happened in other states,” said Padilla. “In 41 other states, [bills were] introduced that will make it tougher for working men and woman to register to vote, to make it harder for working men and women to participate in our democracy. That’s just wrong.”
Biden also addressed the issue and said states attempting to make it harder for “folks” to vote, were doing so to prevent them from voting against them. “… That’s why they’re making it harder to vote,” he said. “It’s kinda pretty simple stuff.”
The politicians urged the increasing need for citizens of the valley to vote. “Look folks, this is a really, really big election, and there’s a reason for that,” said Biden.
The vice president believes that the lack of communication in Washington is affecting the rest of the nation, and said that candidates like Alex Padilla can help fix the problem.
“This is a guy who knows how to reach out. He knows how to reach out and generate census. He’s passed over 80 pieces of legislations. In any legislative body that’s kind of a big deal, because you gotta reach out,” said Biden. “And America right now, the thing is broken in Washington, because people don’t know how to reach out. They don’t talk much to each other and as a consequence all of America gets hurt when they don’t, but what Alex is gonna do for Sacramento, Amanda is gonna do for Washington.”