Generational divide marks Matsui and Vang race. Do their supporters fall in line?

The Abridged version:

• Longtime U.S. Rep. Doris Matsui and Sacramento City Councilmember Mai Vang will face off in November to represent Sacramento, Elk Grove and surrounding areas in Congress.
• Vang, 41, has said it’s time for generational change in the congressional seat, while Matsui has argued the 10 terms under her belt make her the stronger candidate.
• On Thursday, the candidates met on the debate stage, watched by supporters of all ages — some of whom defy assumptions about the age of voter that tends to back each candidate.

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Twenty-three-year-old Taja Suruki has supported U.S. Rep. Doris Matsui since high school, when the lawmaker sponsored an art contest in which Suruki entered her work. 

“It was just really cool to see that a congresswoman was actually supporting a small competition,” Suruki, a resident of Sacramento’s Pocket-Greenhaven neighborhood, said Thursday.  

“I’m trying to get my friends to campaign with her too.” 

The young artist was one of roughly 200 people who packed the Coloma Community Center Thursday night to watch Matsui debate Sacramento City Councilmember Mai Vang, who’s running against her to represent Sacramento, Elk Grove, Galt and surrounding areas in the U.S. House of Representatives. 

Ahead of the the June primary, both candidates framed the race as a choice between two generations of leaders, with Vang remarking to Abridged by PBS KVIE in spring that “there is another choice on the ballot for the first time in 21 years.”  

The councilmember, 41, was just one of a group of younger Democrats running to unseat established House members. 

Meanwhile, Matsui, 81, told Abridged earlier this year, “What we really need now is experienced leadership.” If elected, Matsui will begin her 11th term in Congress. 

There’s some evidence that the generational divide evoked in races such as District 7 plays out in the ages of each candidate’s supporters. A UC Berkeley poll released earlier this month found that registered Democrats under 40 say they’re very inclined to support candidates described as progressives or as Democratic Socialists — but less excited about those described as mainstream Democrats. 

In contrast, Democrats 65 and up who were surveyed said they were more inclined to back candidates described as mainstream Democrats than as Democratic Socialists, but also reacted positively to those described as progressives, the poll found. 

A heated debate

On Thursday night, however, whether the Matsui-Vang race represents a generational showdown was far from the main topic. Questions posed to the candidates by the League of Women Voters ranged from immigration policy and ICE activity to the U.S. healthcare system and the war in Iran.  

Yet as the candidates answered questions and traded jabs, the topic simmered just below the surface throughout the night. 

“You need to have experienced people who are leading the charge,” Matsui said of Democrats’ fight to retake control of the House, accusing Vang several times throughout the debate of not understanding how Congress operates. 

In response, Vang pointed out that she is older than Matsui’s late husband, former U.S. Rep. Robert Matsui, was when he was first elected in the 1970s. After his death in 2005, Doris Matsui won his former seat — and has held it ever since.  

“This November, people get a chance on their ballot to choose between two options. Two visions for the future,” Vang said. “One by an established politician, who created the condition for what we have today, and two … our vision for a new generation.” 

Yet some in the audience Thursday defied easy assumptions about the ages of those who support each candidate.  

Choosing a side

While 23-year-old Suruki hopes Matsui will triumph, 75-year-old L.R. Roberts said she is excited to see Vang in office. 

“I hope that she will listen to the constituents, because I feel Doris is far too entrenched to listen to the average person,” said Roberts, a former union officer and onetime state Senate candidate from the Peace and Freedom party. 

Sixty-six year old Dennis Terrill, too, plans to vote for Vang out of disappointment over finding Matsui to be inaccessible over the years, he said. 

After the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, “I tried to meet with Doris about trying to help me out … I was pushed out,” he said. 

One thing the candidates did agree on after the often-heated debate was that their own supporters don’t primarily belong to one generation or another.   

When asked if she believed her supporters tended to be older on average than Vang’s, Matsui told Abridged, “No, I really don’t think so.”  

But she added, “There’s absolutely a new generation,” some of whom Matsui believes may have moved to the Sacramento area in recent years, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic, she said.

“This is a challenge, I really welcome the challenge,” Matsui said. 

“Our coalition is multiethnic, multigenerational,” Vang said of her own supporters.  

But the candidate added, “I’m often asked how to turn out young people. My answer is, give them someone to vote for.”