3/26/26: Final List of 7th Congressional District DEMOCRATS Breakdown

I break down the four Democrats who are on the ballot in California's 7th Congressional District.

Doris Matsui

Mai Vang

Robby Morin

Enayat Nazhat

Here is the list of all the candidates in the state: June 2, 2026, Primary Election Notice to Candidates - Congress

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Hi fans and stalkers. This is Erica Lee, host of Disrupt Your Politics in Sacramento, former congressional candidate. I just have to remember to get all that out, even if it's in a different order every time. But I just wanted to record, I say a quick episode, but you know, I talk forever, but a quick episode about the candidates running in California's 7th Congressional District. I know a lot about this race because I ran in this race, but I suspended from my vang when she got into the race about three months after I started running. So, anyhow, the final uh names have been revealed as to who is going to be on the ballot. I will say I am kind of surprised by at least one of them. But I'm I don't know much about the Republicans in the race. I'm not really worried about it because it is a deep blue district. Um, it's a little less blue than it was before the passage of Prop 50, but it is still rather blue. But so I'm just gonna go, I'm gonna go down the list here and just talk about the the Democrats. Okay, starting off with Doris Matsui. So Doris Matsui is the incumbent. She has been there 21 years now. She is currently 81 years old. She will be 82 by the time voters vote in November. And I'm just I'm saying that because she is very likely going to make it into the top two unless something happens to her. She is 81 years old. But um, anyhow, so she replaced her first husband in Congress very easily. He died in 2005, so 21 years ago, and Nancy Pelosi cleared the way for her to step into his shoes, ride his coattails into that seat. I'm not biased at all, obviously, right? But uh I say that because there were other people who had been doing the work in Sacramento at the time who thought maybe they were gonna run now because Bob Matsui had been in office for 26 years, but no Nancy Pelosi helped install Doris Matsui, who had no relevant experience, just the last name. And then her, but her husband had been the congressman, like I said, since 1979, and he was on City Council, Sacramento City Council. He was the one from Sacramento in that relationship, and he was 37 at the time, and that's important because a lot of people have been saying that my bang is, you know, she needs more experience. But Doris Matsui's husband was only 37 when he was elected into Congress in 1979 when I was a toddler. So, um, anyhow, so she has raised the most money so far, but that is because she hasn't said no to a billionaire or any corporate PAC dollar and APAC. So, you know, she's out of touch. A lot of people say she's just too old, she should retire. Yeah, but you know, saying someone is older when they're an octogenarian in Congress usually means it's because they're out of touch because she's been collecting this money for 20 years. Why would she change now? There are just a handful of octogenarians in Congress who refuse this corporate pack money or who have made a recent decision to not accept it, right? But you know, Doris Matsui, I think that mostly her staff basically run her day-to-day operations. She's just there as a Matsui, a stand-in for the family dynasty, honestly. So she rarely comes back to Sacramento. She has a home here that she treats like an Airbnb. She's married to a DC billionaire now, and she married him in 2020, Roger Zant. They were on some board together. I want to say it was for the arts. And uh funny thing is that he has donated$3,500 to her campaign, but he's able to donate$7,000 like the other billionaires. So I don't know if he's trying to pretend to pretend to be the ethical billionaire or something. I don't know. But you know, maybe he's just waiting to see if his wife makes it to the general because, you know, people can donate$7,000 if they have that kind of money lying around right now to help her use now. She can use this money now. For quick finance law or campaign finance law thing, is that if any candidate accepts a$7,000 donation during the primary and they don't make it through the primary, they have to give the$3,500 back. So there's that bit of information for you. Anyway, Doris Matsui, she is she has been defrosted and she is going to appear at a an unscripted forum, unless someone slips through the questions in advance, which I wouldn't be surprised if anyone did. But anyway, uh she's going to be in a forum on April 2nd at a neighborhood association. I forgot where off the top of my head, but I'm shocked. So it's going to be a forum. Everyone who's made it onto the ballot is invited. So that'll be interesting too, because I haven't heard the others speak besides my vang. So, anyhow, that's just a quick summary of the Doris Matsui and her dynasty. Next is My Vang. So MyVang is who I suspended my race for. I was running because I did not think Doris Matsui should be running again after being a faction, a member of the faction of the Democratic Party who keeps losing to Trump and MAGA, right? And she doesn't run on anything. She has no North Star in her platform, right? Like no Medicare for all, um, no ending a genocide, no nothing for affordability, immigration, abolishing ICE, nothing. She's just running on vibes, but it's like her staff's vibes, I guess. So anyway, um, and her staff's vibes are not very good because one of the reasons I ran is because they're so rude. But so anyway, back to my vang. My Vang is was on the school board in Sacramento, and she is now in her second term for Sacramento City Council. She is the lone progressive, basically, on the city council. She is deeply beloved by her uh district. She is from the district, she is born and raised in South Sax. She left for school and came back. Um, just like I said, deep roots in the community. She's the oldest of 16. She has probably close to 40 nieces and nephews in the education system here in Sacramento County. And um, so she, you know, I was running because nobody else was running, not even my Vang, I heard. And then she decided to get in, and so we met, and I suspended for her because she has a much better chance at replacing Doris Matsui. And that's what's important, right? So, anyhow, she's got uh the endorsement of Justice Democrats, our evolution, California Working Families Party. Um, she's got some other ones coming her way too. She's got some union endorsements, she's got people endorsements, she's got a big ground game. I mean, I think Doris Matsui is gonna have to pay for her canvassers. I don't think and she's ever had to have anyone knock a door for her, and she's not doing it, right? She posted a picture on social media the other day of her putting a lawn sign into someone's yard with the homeowner right there, and she says, you know, she likes to go out and you know, give put the lawn signs in, but we know she's not doing that, and the heels that she was wearing and the$10,000 Van Cleef and R. Pell's necklace she was wearing. So moving on, um, but yeah, my vang, my vang is who I support. That is who her most formidable opponent is. And you know, for the first time, Doris is having to come back to Sacramento quite a bit because uh um you'll hear why I know more about that here in a second. So I'm going down this list of candidates. So, in addition to my vang, there is Robbie Morin. So, Robbie Morin, he's running as a Democrat. He is, I think, in his early 30s, is what I saw uh in the Sacramento Bee. He is a member of the Sacramento County Young Democrats. And so I did meet him, I've spoken to him twice. Um, the first time I met him was at a Sacramento County Young Democrats meeting, actually. And um, he's very nice. Uh, we talked for just a few minutes after the meeting, and um, I had made a comment, something about, like I said, I wonder if they're even watching our campaign, because you know I'm back here, Ernest, don't really know all the secrets y of Sacramento politics, but boy, did I learn them. And he said, Oh no, they're watching. And he said that he knows, I don't know if he said he was friends with us, but he knows Doris's Doris Matsue's longtime campaign manager, Roger Salazar. And he said that Roger said, Loose lips Roger, said that, oh, they're just they're gonna do the same thing they've always done, basically nothing, essentially. You know, she's um definitely fundraising, though. She's calling, you know, the big donors in a Rolodex um and uh you know, getting those billionaires to max out, basically. But uh it was just a nice conversation. He's basically, when I looked at his website, he's essentially moderate. Um, there was nothing that really screamed anything different than Doris. Um I can't remember if he supports universal healthcare or not, but this kind of besides the point, he he's raised, according to the FEC website as of December, I think it was 22,000 or so. And um, you know, he does have a website, doesn't really have any social media presence. A few people think that he might be a plant. One thing he did say, which I thought was interesting when I talked to him, was that he said he used to work for Dan Lundgren. And Dan Lundgren is a Republican, he's the Republican that Amibera ran against twice and beat. He flipped that seat, Democrat Amibera. And um, he made a comment about how you know he has a grudge still against Amibera or something. But that I mean that would indicate though that Robbie was very young when he worked for Dan Lundgren, and maybe it was just a job, you know. Dan Lundgren was a very moderate Republican as well, like a pro-choice one, not like in your face pro-choice, but a pro-choice one per his campaign ad that I remember seeing back in 2012. And so, but you know, Amibera, he's been there since then. I think it was 2021, 2020, 2012 that he was elected and he had run twice and then beat Dan Lundgren the second time, but barely. But he's had easy races since then. So, you know, he's a medical doctor, he has a lot of wealthy doctor friends, so um that that helps keep him in place for sure in that seat. But anyway, so but that's what Robbie said, and then um another conversation I remember having with Robbie was I hadn't announced I was suspending yet. I was waiting to announce the same time that Mai was going to announce it, officially announced that she was getting into the race. But I went to a Sacramento County on Democrats candidate training and he was there and I spoke to him at the break, and um I told him I said, Oh, I'm suspending, so you don't have to worry about me, you know, whatever. I was just being nice. Um, I was happy to talk to him. And then uh I said, I might get into the sixth, though. He says, Oh, he said, Yeah, somebody called me about maybe running in the sixth too. Um, because this was around the time too, I think that Prop 50 was now a thing andor was becoming a thing, and uh so the districts were changing, and there's going to be no incumbent in the sixth because Amibera had indicated he was going to run in the new third district. So basically that was the end of that conversation for the most part. It was it was very friendly. But I I will say I was kind of surprised to see him on the ballot because he hasn't really raised any money, and like I said, he doesn't really have any social media. I haven't heard anything about him, he doesn't go to any of the clubs, look for endorsements. A few people have said maybe he's a plant. And I said, I don't know. I mean, maybe I don't put anything past anybody these days, but he is a member of the Sacramento County Young Democrats. Maybe he's just running and trying to prepare himself for another run. But there it there was there hasn't really been a campaign, like there's there's no campaign, right? So, um, and like I said, he knows Doris's campaign manager too, right? Like I said, um, and he offered that information to me as well. And then um, but he did say that he had been called to maybe think about jumping into the 6th district too, but anyone could have made that call. I don't know. That's what I know about Robbie Morin, very nice guy, um, but not progressive. If you're looking for a progressive, you still have my bang. Now, the last one on here, the last democrat, is N-I-A-N-T, if I'm saying his name correctly. It's E-N-A-Y-A-T, and then Nazat N-A-Z-H-A-T. So, according to the FEC website, he hasn't raised any money at all. Um, but what I've seen from about him, because he did file, uh, you know, when I was still running, I was paying attention to who was getting into my race. And uh, I was the first Democrat to file to challenge Doris Matsui. There was another guy named Heath Fulkerson who had filed a Republican who has indicated he has not raised any money, and he filed in several districts. So I was essentially like the first person with the intention of running here against Doris Matsui to file in April of last year. And then Robbie filed like a month after me, and then I think after, I think it was after the I think it was July 1st or so, um, NIA got into the race. So what I know of NIO, and I have tons of screenshots to prove all this in case they've disappeared now from his social media, because you know, of course I'm I'm stalking everybody, right? So um he doesn't, he's uh he was in the military, so he's he's an he's an expert gun handler, he loves guns, he's definitely definitely a pro-Second Amendment um Democrat. He thinks that Trump will love him because he's like a tough talker, he supports the Lake and Riley Act. Um he tried to quote tweet me a few times on that app um to call me out on some things, but I just ignored him. Um it wasn't anything. He keeps saying that he's gonna, you know, be the next congressman. He doesn't like pronouns. Um, so he's just one of those type of Democrats. I'm honestly, frankly, surprised to see him on the ballot. I think he just wants his name on the ballot, honestly. And I feel like that might be the same for Robbie as well, because they don't they're in a in a in a dream world, maybe that they would make it into the top two, but definitely not, right? So I think that they just wanted to see their name on the ballot, and like I said, and no, it hasn't raised any money. So maybe he paid his own way onto the ballot because you have to either pay or you know, you have to also collect signatures, and um, I haven't checked his socials lately, but um, I'm kind of surprised to see that on there. And I don't think he's submitted a candidate statement, or maybe he did, and I just haven't seen it yet. But um, so that's basically it. It looks like for the 7th district, you have uh Doris Matsui, Mai Vang, those are the two who are probably make it into the top two, and then Robbie Morin and NIAT and Azat. And then in addition, there are some Republicans. I don't know really anything about these Republicans. Let me just kind of look at their names really fast. Nope. So um, I will put the link to what I'm looking at, this deck, this document I see from the Secretary of State. I'll put a link to this PDF in the show notes so you can look for yourself in case you want to look up the other people. They um have their uh contact information, their you know, email and websites that you can look up as well. Thanks for listening to that. And if you like what you hear, please don't forget to subscribe to the show. And if you can, leave a review, a five-star review, that would be much appreciated on Spotify and on Apple Podcasts, and wherever you wherever else you listen to shows. So, but uh, thanks for listening and hang in there.