Former Filipino American congressman will not run for office in 2022

TJ Cox discusses his future plans.

TJ Cox, the first Filipino American representing California in Congress, will not be running for office in 2022. 

TJ Cox, who represented District 21 in 2018-2020 will not run against the Republican who beat him in 2020.

Instead, Cox has endorsed state Assemblymember Rudy Salas, a Latino American, against Republican Rep. David Valadao. Prior to his endorsement of Salas, there was much speculatoin whether or not Cox would seek to regain the seat that he narrowly lost to Valadao in 2020.

"There’s no question that Rudy gives us our best shot of flipping a seat from red to blue here in the Valley,” Cox told KGET. “No one knows their district better than Rudy. No one has delivered more for their district than Rudy. This year alone he has delivered over 50 million dollars for public safety, water and education. He’s raised wages for farmworkers and lowered healthcare costs for families. His track record as a fearless and independent representative for the Valley will serve him well in Congress.”

Democrats have called Valadao’s seat one of the most vulnerable in the nation. The district will likely have different boundaries that will include more Democratic voters under the redistricting plan based on the population data from the 2020 Census.

Chris Mathys, the former Fresno city councilman, is challenging Valadao from the right. Many Republican groups are upset over Valadao because he voted to impeach Donald Trump.

Delano Mayor Brian Osorio and former Assemblywoman-turned-lobbyist Nicole Parra, both Democrats, are also in the race.

Filipino Americans have historically underrepresented in Congress. Cox, who represented the 21st Congressional District for a single term, 2018-2020, was one of the few Filipino Americans elected to Congress. Virginia's Rep. Bobby Scott is the only other current member of Congress who is of Filipino descent.

The former Congressional representative who ran a job-training program prior to his election, is rebranding his old PAC known as “TJ Cox for Congress” into a new one called the “Rising Electorate PAC.”

In an interview with 17 News, he said he hopes the campaign will reach younger voters, single women, and communities of color.

“Our goal and our mission is to organize, to coordinate, and to directly fund voter registration efforts,” he said.

“If you look at Kings, Tulare, and Kern County — that is a population of 1.5 million people — there are only 25,000 more Republicans than Democrats. We intend to register two times, three times that many so that when the midterms come around, we’re more than prepared to take back not only my seat, but the Devin Nunes seat and the Kevin McCarthy seat as well,” Cox continued.

Prior to entering politics, Cox used his experience as a businssman and engineer to creat the Central Valley Fund, which raises money for projects such as health clinics, job-training projects and affordable housing located in economically-disadvantaged neighborhoods throughout the Central Valley.