Conservative Democrat Compares Ad About Her Corporate Donations to 'Political Violence'

[Celerity]

Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains took PAC money from 53 corporations that also donated to the incumbent Republican she’s running against. She said a progressive challenger pointing that out is a form of violence.

https://prospect.org/politics/2025-09-25-conservative-dem-ad-corporate-donations-violence-bains-california/



A Democratic congressional challenger in a key swing House district in California likened an ad from her primary opponent about her corporate donors to “political violence,” in an early sign of the potential fallout of Charlie Kirk’s murder on campaign rhetoric.

Dr. Jasmeet Bains, a state assemblymember who is running in California’s 22nd Congressional District, made the comment in a Facebook post after a fellow Democrat running for the seat, a college teacher and auto repair shop owner named Randy Villegas, released an ad criticizing her corporate contributors. Both Democrats are challenging Rep. David Valadao (R-CA) in a Central Valley seat that will be very competitive, whether California voters pass new congressional maps or not.

“My opponents, Democrat and Republican alike, have taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from the same corporations that are ripping us off, making our health care, housing, and groceries more expensive,” Villegas says in the ad. Bains is not mentioned by name, but her image appears.

Campaign finance disclosures compiled by the Working Families Party, a supporter of Villegas, which the Prospect verified, show that both Bains and Valadao have indeed received direct contributions or corporate PAC donations from the same 53 corporations, including AbbVie, Amazon, Anheuser-Busch, AT&T, Bayer, BNSF Railway, Charter Communications, Chevron, Comcast, Eli Lilly, Exxon Mobil, Google, Honeywell, Johnson & Johnson, KPMG, McDonald’s, Merck, Paramount, Pfizer, Phillips 66, Sempra Energy, Southern California Edison, Union Pacific, UnitedHealth Group, Walmart, and Waste Management.

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