The latest Democrat aiming to unseat Republican Rep. David Valadao isn’t trying to do it from the center.

Randy Villegas, a Visalia, Calif. school board trustee, is hoping economic populism will resonate in a swing district that continues to be a top Democratic target. He also plans to tie Valadao to President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and GOP efforts to slash federal government.

Like other Democrats who have embraced an anti-corporate message in the aftermath of the 2024 election, his candidacy will represent a test of progressive messaging in a purple district.

“I’m running on an economic populist message,” Villegas said in a phone interview. “I think we need to have candidates who are willing to say that they’re going to stand up against corporate greed, that they are going to stand against corruption in government, and that they are going to stand against billionaires that are controlling the strings right now.”

Affiliated with the Working Families Party, Villegas could run to the left in a Democratic primary, though he said he would “hesitate to put any labels on myself.”

The majority-Latino 22nd District in California’s San Joaquin Valley has been a top Democratic target the past few cycles, though the 2024 election saw it slide toward President Donald Trump along with many other Latino-heavy districts across the country. Valadao has represented the area in Congress for all but two of the last dozen years, representing the seat since 2021 and holding a previous version of the district from 2013 to 2019. (Valadao was ousted in the 2018 midterms but won his seat back two years later even as Joe Biden carried the district.)

He’s touted his centrist creds in the House and is one of only two House Republicans remaining who impeached Trump in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection. Still, Villegas is trying to hitch him to controversial moves by national Republicans that could result in cuts to federal programs.

“The reason that I got to where I was was because of programs like Medicaid, because of programs like free and reduced school lunch and WIC, and now all of those programs are under threat right now because Valadao won’t stand up to Musk, to Trump, to his Republican colleagues,” Villegas said. Raised in Bakersfield, Calif., he’s also an associate professor of political science at College of the Sequoias.

One wrinkle in the race: it’s not clear whether former California state Rep. Rudy Salas, Democrats’ nominee the last two cycles, will run again, though he’s pulled paperwork to run for the seat. Villegas, who noted he’d been an intern for Salas when he was a college student, said he had “all the respect for the work [Salas] did in the California State Assembly, but I think that voters are ready for a new face.”

Congressional Democrats are raising increasingly pointed concerns about potential financial malfeasance by President Donald Trump and his allies surrounding his dramatic recent tariff moves, despite a lack of evidence of wrongdoing.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Friday joined the growing number of Democrats formally calling for investigations zeroing in on the wild swings in the stock market amid Trump’s escalating trade war. It’s one of the central messages the party has coalesced around in the 48 hours since Trump partially reversed his implementation of sweeping trade barriers.

Trump on Wednesday morning posted to Truth Social that it was a “GREAT TIME TO BUY” despite the chaos within the financial markets. Hours later, Trump announced he was pausing the most sweeping global tariffs for 90 days, causing a temporary but dramatic stock market rally.

Some Democrats quickly questioned whether there was financial gain to be had amid the market whiplash, though no evidence has emerged of insider trading or other wrongdoing, and top party leaders have now followed suit.

In the latest salvo, Schumer joined Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Schumer in requesting SEC Chair Paul Atkins to launch an investigation into whether Trump or those around him “engaged in insider trading, market manipulation, or other securities laws violations.”

“It is unconscionable that as American families are concerned about their financial security during this economic crisis entirely manufactured by the President, insiders may have actively profited from the market volatility and potentially perpetrated financial fraud on the American public,” the senators said in the letter.

The White House accused Democrats of “playing partisan games instead of celebrating President Trump’s decisive action yesterday to finally corner China,” according to a statement from spokesperson Kush Desai provided to media organizations. Trump, he added, was seeking “to reassure the markets and Americans about their economic security in the face of nonstop media fearmongering.”

In a separate letter Friday, Schumer, Schiff, Warren and Wyden sent a letter requesting state attorneys general also launch investigations into any potential violations of state laws, including by members of Congress.

“We do not make this request lightly. No one — not even a president — is above the law. … Any proven misconduct must be prosecuted and punished to the fullest extent permitted by the laws of your states,” they added.

The senators’ actions followed two days of increasingly strident reactions from top House Democrats.

“We need to get to the bottom of the possible stock manipulation unfolding before the American people — including what, if any, advance knowledge members of the House Republican Conference had of Trump’s decision to pause the reckless tariffs he put in place,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters Thursday.

As the minority party in both chambers, there aren’t many options available for Democrats to force an investigation —- they don’t hold committee gavels, and they have limited avenues for getting legislation considered.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said she and her colleagues were discussing “several options” including a discharge petition to force a vote on a congressional stock trading ban, though that effort faces an uphill climb after previous attempts to ban congressional stock trading have fizzled out.

The disclosure of lawmakers’ stock trades has presented a perennial ethics issue for members of Congress. Any trades that happened around the tariff-induced market swings must be publicly disclosed through congressional ethics authorities by May 15.

A House Republican is suing the federal government for $2.5 million, claiming he was retaliated against by the Capitol Police four years ago for his vocal criticism of the department’s leadership after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.

Rep. Troy Nehls’ unusual lawsuit, filed in federal court in his home state of Texas, accuses the Capitol Police of improperly entering his office in November 2021 and taking pictures of a whiteboard that had notes related to legislation.

The Capitol Police declined to comment on the lawsuit, but the department has long denied the allegations that leadership targeted Nehls for his criticism. An officer indicated he entered the office during a regular security sweep, according to a department report, because the door was left ajar and took pictures of the notes because he found them concerning.

“If a Member’s office is left open and unsecured, without anyone inside the office, USCP officers are directed to document that and secure the office to ensure nobody can wander in and steal or do anything else nefarious,” Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger said after Nehls first surfaced his allegations in 2022. “The weekend before Thanksgiving, one of our vigilant officers spotted the Congressman’s door was wide open. That Monday, USCP personnel personally followed up with the Congressman’s staff and determined no investigation or further action of any kind was needed.”

But Nehls called the actions part of an attempt to chill his criticism of the department. His lawyer, Terrell Roberts, has represented the family of Ashli Babbitt, a Jan. 6 rioter who was shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer as she attempted to enter the lobby near the House chamber.

A spokesperson for Nehls did not immediately return a request for comment.

It’s unclear why Nehls filed the civil claim in Texas rather than Washington, where his office is located and where the alleged breach took place. It’s also unclear why he waited more than three years to file the lawsuit.

The Texas congressman, who voted to overturn the results of the 2020 election, was one of a handful of Republicans initially selected by then-GOP leader Kevin McCarthy to serve on the panel investigating the Capitol riot, then withdrawn by McCarthy after then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi vetoed some of his other picks. Nehls continued to criticize the Capitol Police’s handling of the events at the Capitol that day and called for a grand jury investigation of the officer who shot Babbitt.

Nehls’ lawsuit accuses the Capitol Police of violating his First and Fourth Amendment rights, as well as the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause, which protects members of Congress from being questioned by authorities outside the legislative branch. However, the Capitol Police, as Nehls acknowledges, are housed within Congress, so it’s unclear how that clause would be applied.

Nehls’ allegations against the Capitol Police sparked an inspector general investigation that concluded in 2022 and undercut Nehls’ claim of nefarious actions by the department. The inspector general recommended the department update its policies on how to handle open office doors in a way that “strikes the proper balance of protecting congressional representatives and their staff from physical outside threats while simultaneously protecting their legislative proposals and work product from possibly inappropriate photography, scrutiny, and questioning by USCP employees.”

After the report, the Capitol Police swiped at Nehls for “spreading unfounded conspiracy theories” about its officers’ actions.

President Donald Trump called Friday for Congress to adopt permanent daylight saving time — meaning there would be more daylight in the evening hours and most Americans would no longer have to change their clocks twice a year.

He’s weighing in as Congress is also starting to debate the issue, including in a hearing convened Thursday by the Senate Commerce Committee.

“The House and Senate should push hard for more Daylight at the end of a day. Very popular and, most importantly, no more changing of the clocks, a big inconvenience and, for our government, A VERY COSTLY EVENT!!!” Trump said in a Truth Social Post.

Commerce Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said there’s general consensus that the twice-annual changing of the clocks should end, but there’s disagreement on whether to switch to daylight saving time or standard time. Advocates for permanent daylight saving time, including the golf industry, have argued the extended evening sunlight would reap benefits for recreation and exercise, while advocates for permanent standard time have argued their favored alternative would lead to better sleep.

Trump’s endorsement for making daylight saving time the norm — rather than changing clocks twice a year or conforming to standard time, which would mean more daylight in the morning hours and less in the evening — could help settle the debate for lawmakers. While it’s consistent with Trump’s previous positions, he wavered slightly last month, calling it a “50/50 issue” during remarks in the Oval Office.

Senators on both sides of the aisle said in Thursday’s hearing they want to be sure that states still have latitude to make the decision between standard and daylight saving time, weighing economic and health trade-offs. For example, Republican Sen. Todd Young warned that his state of Indiana may not reap the same benefits of daylight saving time as states farther east, saying the sun may rise past 9 a.m. in the winter.

“Hoosiers would begin their day in darkness for much of winter. … What works for East Coast states, I’m hearing from many of my constituents, may not work for states like Indiana,” Young said. “A one-size-fits-all national policy of time changes doesn’t take into account the regional differences that significantly impact daily life.”

Congress came closer than ever to adopting a permanent daylight saving time.

The Senate unanimously passed legislation in 2022 from then-Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to create permanent daylight saving time, without requiring states already on permanent standard time to make the move. The bill’s passage took many lawmakers by surprise, including those who said they would have hurried to the floor to block the request for speedy consideration had they known the measure was coming up for a vote. It later died in the House.

With Rubio now Secretary of State, the bill is now being championed by Florida GOP Sen. Rick Scott.

House and Senate Republicans finally agreed on the same budget framework to tee up President Donald Trump’s tax, border security and energy agenda. The bigger challenge will be wrangling Republicans to agree on the specifics of sweeping program cuts and policy details needed to fulfill Trump’s pledges.

As committee chairs get to work over the two-week Easter recess, here’s a rundown of three of the biggest fights they face:

Medicaid — Republicans can no longer avoid figuring out how to slash $880 billion from programs under House Energy and Commerce, an element of the budget that’s poised to lead to Medicaid cuts. Moderates are wary of changes that could lead to benefit reductions, while conservative hard-liners want to make deep cuts to the program.

Speaker Mike Johnson and Trump insist they have no plans to trim benefits and are instead looking to tackle what they see as “waste, fraud and abuse.” But that alone won’t be enough to meet the $880 billion target. Johnson acknowledged Thursday that Republicans are looking at “other areas,” without giving any details.

Some Medicaid changes being considered: One idea is to reduce the federal share of payments for certain beneficiaries, since it’s a joint state-federal program. Another is to include work requirements, something even Senate Republicans otherwise wary of cutting benefits say they support.

Taxes — Both chambers will have plenty to hammer out between extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and enacting his campaign tax promises. Several blue-state moderate Republicans, including Reps. Mike Lawler and Nicole Malliotakis, are pushing to raise a key deduction for state and local taxes. Expect that to run into resistance from House hard-liners.

Other Republicans, including Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo and Sen. Josh Hawley, are eyeing an expansion of the Child Tax Credit, something that’s quietly gaining traction in both chambers but that deficit hawks could also oppose.

Clean-energy credits — Conservatives want to undo former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. But a growing number of Republicans are fighting to preserve the law’s clean-energy tax credits. Four GOP senators — enough to stop the reconciliation package — wrote to Majority Leader John Thune in defense of the tax credits this week. Sen. Lisa Murkowski told POLITICO that the group is prepared to use its leverage. One possible compromise would be to revamp the credits to reduce their cost.

What else we’re watching:

— HHS staff briefs E&C: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s HHS staff will brief bipartisan staff from House Energy and Commerce members on his overhaul of the agency today, including sweeping layoffs and a major reorganization. It comes after members of Congress on both sides of the aisle and in both chambers were surprised by the drastic changes.

— Schumer’s upcoming vacancy: Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet is expected to launch a run for Colorado governor today, potentially giving Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer another seat to defend down the line.

Ben Leonard, Elena Schneider and Josh Siegel contributed to this report.