The upcoming midterms present a crucial opportunity to put a check on Trump’s cruelty and defend our food, water, and climate. That’s why, from coast to coast, Food & Water Action is mobilizing volunteers to knock on doors, register voters, and drive people to the polls in some of the most hotly contested districts in the country. 

One of those districts is California’s 22nd, where we endorsed Randy Villegas to elect a progressive champion and oust David Valadao, one of the state’s last remaining Republican representatives. 

At the head of our efforts in California’s 22nd District is Tomás Rebecchi, our Central Coast Organizing Manager based in Ventura County. Tomás has spent more than a decade fighting for his community and others across the state. He’s won restrictions on fracking and drilling and helped elect climate champions who stand up for us, not the fossil fuel industry.

As a part of the Food & Water Action community, your generosity powers our work from California to Iowa to Pennsylvania. With you, we’re electing leaders who will stand up to Trump’s unprecedented attacks on our climate, communities, and democracy.

Learn more about one of the people spearheading that work in our interview with Tomás below, where we talk about what brought him to Food & Water Action, his work, and what keeps him hopeful for the future! This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

What brought you to environmental activism and Food & Water Action?

Originally, I worked on voter registration and politics with the Assembly Democrats. That’s what originally brought me to Ventura County. When I came here in 2014, my parents were working in our home county of San Benito to stop a thousand oil wells right near Pinnacles National Park. 

Since I’d worked on ballot initiatives and campaigns in the past, we came up with the idea for a ballot initiative to ban fracking.

At the time, a lot of the big environmental groups hadn’t taken a position on fracking. Food & Water Watch, Food & Water Action’s partner organization, was one of the only groups that had. They heard about our campaign and offered to help. 

The oil industry outspent us 15 to 1, but we knocked on every single door in the county and ended up winning by 60%! That was the first time I’d used my electoral experience on an environmental issue, and now I’ve been with Food & Water Watch and Food & Water Action for twelve years. 

What drew me here is that we don’t ask for half-steps; we ask for what we need. And we don’t take corporate or government money; we don’t sell out communities and people along the way. 

Why are Food & Water Action’s issues important to you?

I’ve always loved nature. My parents bought a piece of land right by Pinnacles National Park back in the ‘80s, when it was still affordable. We call it Picacho. Spending time there, swimming in the river, and camping helped build my connection to nature from a young age.

I was raised in a political family, too. My mom was the daughter of undocumented immigrants, and she would take us to United Farmworkers marches when we were little. She’s always been doing citizenship drives and has always been involved in the community. 

Now, I live in Ventura County, the third-largest oil-producing county in the state. And the majority of the drilling is next to homes and schools. 

This is a huge concern. We know drilling pollutes the water. We rely on groundwater for agriculture and drinking water, and we’ve seen water contamination from drilling and oil spills, like the one in 2015 in Santa Barbara. There have been study after study showing the health impacts. Everyone deserves to be safe and healthy in their own neighborhood, and the oil industry is a huge barrier to that.

What does your work with Food & Water Action look like?

We’re really excited to have endorsed Randy Villegas, who’s running to represent District 22 in the Central Valley, where they have a lot of oil and gas drilling. Randy is the son of immigrants and grew up on Medicaid and SNAP (many of the programs his Republican opponent voted to cut), like many families in his district. 

He’s a great guy; progressive, went to college and got his doctorate in Education, came back home to teach at the local college, and runs his family’s auto repair shop. 

He’s taken a position against data centers and pledged to support Make Polluters Pay legislation, which would make the fossil fuel industry pay for the costs of climate change. He also pledged to take no fossil fuel money, which is especially notable since he defeated a moderate Democrat who took oil money in the primary. 

Now, we’re supporting him to unseat one of the last Congressional Republicans left here in California. 

So ahead of the midterms, we’re working to mobilize volunteers in support of Randy in this race. In the day-to-day, that looks like writing campaign literature and getting it approved; coordinating with experienced volunteers who will help train new canvassers the day of; creating e-mails and texts to recruit people.

It all changes from day to day — you wear a lot of hats and do everything from public speaking to databasing. 

What have you learned from your time at Food & Water Action?

Before, I thought political change only happens during elections. But being here, you realize that it’s a long game. You really need to invest in yourself and your community to last in the long-run and avoid burning yourself out. 

With individual electoral campaigns, you burn yourself out, and then you get to rest afterward. But at Food & Water Action, we’re working on one long campaign to protect our neighborhood and our planet. 

Despite everything we’re facing from the Trump administration, what gives you hope?

The silver lining that I’ve seen in the horribleness of this administration is that sometimes, we’ve got to see the evilness right in front of us to really push us to take action.

Despite its progressive reputation, California policies have been racist toward immigrants for a long time. But now that Trump has been so blatant about it, more people are standing up. Here in Ventura County, we’ve been facing ICE raids since last year. It’s been inspirational to see how people are coming into networks of support for their communities.

There’s a similar story with oil and gas. California has had this reputation for being a very environmental state, but when you look under the rug, you see oil money everywhere.

But now, for example, the Trump administration has forced the restarting of oil drilling off the coast of Santa Barbara, which had been shut down after the 2015 oil spill, defying state law. This kind of stuff is driving more people to get involved. 

Way more people are looking for ways to get plugged in — whether it’s protecting their neighbors from ICE through neighborhood group chats, protecting our oil and gas regulations from federal attacks, or working to get progressive leaders elected who will actually work for us, not the oil industry.