The Bee’s choice in California’s pivotal 3rd Congressional District race | Opinion

In the last decade, Rep. Ami Bera has run for Congress in three different districts representing various communities in the Sacramento region. First elected to the Elk Grove-based 7th District in 2013, Bera served there for a decade before an independent commission’s remapping moved him to the 6th District just north of Sacramento.

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This year, Bera is migrating yet again because California’s congressional maps were redrawn by Proposition 50, the 2025 voter-approved initiative which authorized Democrats to gerrymander districts in their favor.

Bera is running for the 3rd Congressional District, which includes parts of Sacramento, Placer, El Dorado, Nevada and Colusa counties.

The new map favors Democrat Bera over a Republican, Nevada County Supervisor Robb Tucker.

The musical chairs are dizzying. Yet throughout it all, OP-NDM-HOUSE-3

Tucker’s platform offers no evidence that he would be as effective as Bera at representing this district in Washington, particularly at a time when its representative must be willing to challenge the president

The suburban section of the new 3rd District is familiar territory to Bera from his first years in office. And as we said in our April endorsement, Bera faces a steep learning curve to master the resource issues of the mountainous areas of Placer, El Dorado, Nevada and Butte counties.

Bera’s stint representing this region may be relatively brief if he chooses to continue serving in Congress. California’s next independent redistricting process is six years away and will bring new congressional maps, again leaving Bera’s political future uncertain. Nearing the end of his seventh term, he finds himself at a crossroads.

In 2012, Bera ran as the moderate to beat the conservative Republican incumbent, Dan Lungren. But much has changed in the world since then.

A key example is the Democrats’ shifting views on Israel due to the ongoing violence in Gaza and the West Bank. When the House voted on a motion to suspend a new security aid package to Israel on July 15, 21 California Democrats voted in favor, including Matsui. Bera voted present, which is neither yes nor no.

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He cannot remain in no-man’s land on issues such as Israel forever as the political ground shifts beneath him and his party. Over the next two years, however, he can be counted on to defend Congress’ constitutional powers against Trump’s dangerous expansion of executive authority.

That’s why California voters approved Prop. 50 and it’s why Bera is the only candidate in this race who can be counted on to deliver.