What happened at the Unknown Democratic Mixer?

By: Allissa Lozano

Visalia Democrat Mixer was October 9th at Cellar Door. This meeting was hosted by the Visalia Democratic Club and they hoped that by hosting this meeting, they could create a connection between like-minded individuals.

Congressional Candidates like Bobby Bliatout and Ricardo Franco attended the event along with the Mayor of Farmersville and the Mayor of Porterville.

The description of the event was displayed on the event’s website as, “One myth is that our valley is one-sided politically. Most of us know this isn’t true…join us for our new monthly mixer and fellow left-leaning people and help us unite and show we exist and call this Valley our Home too.”

Daniel Sepulveda is in the Tulare County Democrats Party. He organized this month’s mixer and plans on continuing it. Growing up in the central valley he felt as if, “I was the only Democrat here.” He wanted to start these mixers at Cellar Door to give the Democrats of Tulare County a voice.

Bobby Bliatout is a candidate for California’s 22nd Congressional District in the U.S House and he shared a little about why he is running for Democratic Candidate and his background growing up.

Bliatout grew up with parents who came from Laos as refugees, he got to witness first hand what it is like to grow up with parents who struggled and had to learn English.

“My parents came to the U.S as refugees and did their very best to raise a family and help out their community,” Bliatout says. This added to the reason why he feels fit to run for congress.

Later in life, he began to see a need for a, “linguistically sensitive cultural care for the southeast Asian communitive.” He then opened up non-profit clinics to provide medical care. When he discovered that the President and Congress wanted to take away health care from 30,000 of his patients, he believed it was the “wrong thing to do.”

Bliatout wants to “take the experience and understanding that he has for the underserved, and what it means to be in poverty and what it means to be an immigrant, what it means to be a refugee and apply this to congress.”

Bliatout has big plans for the central valley, he wants to make sure health care is a number one priority, make sure everyone has clean water, and have the proper educational systems in the central valley.

Alexa Barraza, President of the COS Democratic Club, graduated from Golden West in 2019. The club is starting up again, as the previous executive board just graduated. The mixer helped gain new members and open up a way to talk to more active voices in the community.

Barraza runs a booth that helps young adults register to “influence kids to vote.” She feels that to be a democrat in Visalia is “a little overwhelming. I feel like we are stuck in a little bubble. Hearing about the last election and how Andrew Janz was really close to beating Devin Nunes makes me feel like we do have a chance,” Barraza says.

Kenneth O’Leary ’18, who now goes to COS, also attended the mixer. He wasn’t expecting anything of the mixer and went to learn more about politics in the Central Valley. “The turnout was actually pretty cool, I have never been to Cellar Door before so this is a whole new experience to me,” says O’Leary.

O’Leary also got a chance to speak to one of the congressional candidates that attended the event. “I have never met any candidates before and it was pretty neat to talk to them and learn more on how they plan to impact the central valley.” He likes the experience of, “like-minded individuals got together and collaborate.”

Being a Democrat in Visalia, he feels as though he is “pretty moderate, but I do not agree with some of the new progressive movement. I am more left-leaning than right-leaning.” O’Leary experiences the feeling of pressure to make a choice on what side to pick in Tulare County.

Caleb Rodriguez ’20, Teenage Republican Club President, attended the event to “see what the local Democrats were all about because I am conservative and tend to see things from a different perspective.” Rodriguez says, “I found that everyone there that I spoke to was very friendly. Although I disagree with their political ideas, I found they were definitely passionate, which I find admirable.”

Rodriguez had the opportunity of meeting Billy Bilatout and he explained this encounter as a great learning experience, especially coming from different beliefs. “I’ve never met a congressional candidate before, he was very compassionate and down to earth,” Rodriquez says.

This mixer was a great opportunity to open people’s minds up and create an accepting community of political beliefs.