“Fong Is Wrong” Rally

At 9 a.m. on Sept. 9, Randy—a retired second-grade teacher of 25 years—drove to the corner of Armstrong and Herndon avenues in Clovis and parked his truck and horse trailer sporting a large “Missing” sign with a photo of his—and perhaps your—U.S. Congressional representative, Vincent Fong (R–Bakersfield).

The “Missing” poster claims that Fong is “Beholden only to oligarchs and [was] last seen wearing a fake smile and dodging constituents,” referring to Fong’s unwillingness to face the voters of his district in a town hall meeting, probably out of fear over their ire at his support of legislation dubbed by Trump as the “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act.”

The “Missing” poster also wryly states: “If you have any information about Vince, please contact any of his constituents in the 20th District of California.”

The 20th Congressional District encompasses almost the entire city of Clovis, a major part of Sequoia National Park and the city of Tulare. It then moves south to parts of Bakersfield until it ends slightly to the north of Lancaster, on the western edge of the Carrizo Plain.

Fong was elected to Congress in a May 2024 special election to replace Kevin McCarthy and then reelected to a full term in November 2024. In both elections, his general election challenger was fellow MAGA Republican, Mike Boudreaux. The only Democrat in the primary—Marisa Woods—a progressive and an educator from the Bakersfield area, did not qualify for the general election ballot.

This left Democrats and many other voters in Congressional District 20 with no candidate to support in the General Election. Their frustration was apparent as both Fong and Trump easily won the district in November 2024.

Many of those angry and disgruntled voters, upset at Fong’s failure to listen to them, showed up to protest near Fong’s Clovis office on Sept. 9.

Seven months into Trump’s second term, these voters were feeling the brunt of his executive orders for everything from firing thousands of federal civil servants, mass deportations without due process of 200,000 immigrants and cuts to most federal programs except the military and ICE to the arrests and censorship of students and faculty for “wokeness” or criticism of Israel.

Although these attacks were portended by Project 2025, which the American Civil Liberties Union describes as “a roadmap for how to replace the rule of law with right-wing ideals,” it seems that many of us were still somewhat shellshocked at the rapidity of the assaults on every institution of American life.

As a crowd began to gather, a staffer emerged from Fong’s office at 2187 Herndon Avenue in Clovis and approached people with “constituent comment” forms. These were passed out to attendees to share their concerns with the absent member of Congress.

Randy came prepared with a message for Fong: “I am unhappy with his performance representing our views in Congress—[he] made an enormous mistake voting in favor of Trump’s Big Ugly Budget Bill.”

That bill ended or reduced funding for the Department of Education, Medicaid, future Social Security funding, the U.S. Agency for International Development, SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), Veterans Affairs and many other poverty-reducing programs.

Another retired teacher shared a cornucopia of concerns including cuts to “everything I believe in.” She added that her biggest concern was the violence and cruelty of ICE, comparing the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign to the Nazi Brownshirts in 1930s Germany.

Regarding recent anti-vax announcements from Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., she said, “He must be fired” adding that “RFK Jr. should be prosecuted for the death of the first child who dies of measles, based on his lies about childhood vaccines.”

Celso, a constituent carrying a flag and a sign saying “We stand with immigrant families” said that he was so concerned about Trump and ICE raids in Los Angeles and the Central Valley that he laminated a small copy of his birth certificate to verify that he was born in the United States; he carries that in his pocket every time he leaves his home.

Although he is proud to be Hispanic with Mexican roots, the Supreme Court’s recent decision to allow ICE to detain people based on “racial profiling” has Celso feeling vulnerable as a Spanish speaker with family still in Mexico.

Two female friends at the rally echoed the complaint that “Fong has the wrong priorities, such as giving tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires while cutting Medicare and Medicaid.” Both have adult children on Medi-Cal as students who are no longer eligible to be enrolled in their parents’ health insurance.

They worried Medicaid cuts could end coverage for not only their children but also an estimated 11 million other Americans.

One of the women purchased health insurance from Walgreen’s Medicare Advantage through the Affordable Care Act, which unfortunately is also being cut. She says that the legislative branch of the federal government has abdicated its responsibility to legislate on behalf of the people rather than the rich—all while eliminating consumer and environmental protections.

Lois, a Fresno Unified School District retiree, carried a sign that characterized the theme of the rally: “Fong is Wrong—Congress is supposed to be a check for the Executive Branch, but Fong and the Congress are giving Trump the authority to do whatever he wants as SCOTUS affirms his ‘immunity of the executive’ and as he accumulates more money and power for himself and his family.”

She also accused Fong of repeating Trump’s false rhetoric when he claimed that his average constituent would get a break on their income taxes.

“Fong warps the truth,” said Lois, “and he supports all of Trump’s disastrous cuts to the federal government including the Consumer Protection Bureau, the Federal Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institute of Health…These cuts will affect my family.”

Rich, an 85-year-old mechanical engineer who worked for 25 years in NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, lamented the Trump administration’s gift of a $2.5 trillion tax cut for wealthy people and big corporations while at the same time making cuts to all healthcare programs and research.

“Fong took an oath when he was elected to protect the Constitution, but he has abandoned it,” Rich said. “Fong supported Trump’s loyalists and threw the rest of us under the bus.”

Anne, a member of Peace Fresno, complained that Fong and the Congress are voting to fund an outsized and unaccountable military budget that contributes to the genocide in Gaza, “so-called homeland security” and a militarized ICE budget.

She believes these costs are contrary to what Fong’s constituents want and do not reflect their values. Anne says that people’s needs are not being met for housing, food, healthcare or to meet the high costs of childcare, education and other services.

 A review of Rep. Fong’s website makes it clear that, as Anne feared, his focus is primarily on the military and doing Trump’s bidding. In fact, Trump has made his priorities clear by changing the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War.

Fong has revealed himself to be a handmaiden for the Military Industrial Complex. He sees his role as a legislator who makes “real” the military aspirations of the autocrat Trump who is busy every day declaring war: war on Chicago, war on Venezuela, war on the “Radical Left,” war on Memphis and even war on DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion)—plus trans people, Black women, Gazans, and you and me.

In a Sept. 10 press release, Fong confirmed his intention to vote for the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 3838), which is an $831.5 billion “discretionary” allocation of our tax money.

Fong has included many expensive amendments to the legislation that he claims will bring needed funds because “California’s 20th District plays a critical role in defending our nation. That’s why I fought to ensure our military installations are front and center in this legislation.

“By investing in NAS (Naval Air Station) Lemoore, NAWS (Naval Air Weapons Station) China Lake, Edwards Air Force Base and the Fresno Air National Guard Base, and their workforce, we are strengthening our military readiness.”

We must ask Rep. Fong: “Military readiness” for what? Who are we defending our nation from? As Anne and Peace Fresno have noted, “There is money for war, but not for food, education, housing, healthcare or any of the other things that ‘we the people’ need.”