MODESTO, Calif. — It’s one of the closest watched races in the country and one that could help determine control of the house of representatives.
Friday night candidates from District 13, Republican John Duarte and Democrat Adam Gray debated in Modesto.
In a race decided by less than half a percentage point in the primary, incumbent John Duarte and former Assemblymember Adam Gray spoke to their moderate views in opening statements and first questions.
That moderate stand point tested with a question about protecting Abortion Rights at a federal level.
“I’m the most moderate Republican in congress and I will stand by my record of being Pro-Choice,” said Duarte.
Adam Gray’s answer was met with applause.
“I voted to help pass a constitutional amendment to protect choice in California , what Pro-Choice means John is a woman can choose her reproductive health care regardless of what statement she lives in, that is a fundamental right.”
Immigration was brought up multiple times.
Duarte taking the opportunity to discuss a new bill he introduced Friday.
“ A full amnesty program for families that have been here five years or longer, we’ve got a DACA fix in my immigration bill, a guest workers program in my immigration, I filled it today it’s taking good things from both sides and pushing both sides of the aisles,” said Duarte.
“We don’t need immigration bills at election time we need people that will sit down and do the work, when we have an actual consensus compromise bill he is nowhere to be found,” said Gray.
After the debate ABC10 asked incumbent John Duarte about recent findings that his family nursery has been cited for workplace safety allegations including an employee death.
“If you look at workman’s comp we are way above the average in safety, we have a lot of people there, people do pass away, I think this was an unrelated to work incident where unfortunately one of our employees had a heart problem,” said Duarte.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee released a statement:
“John Duarte has exploited his power at every turn, claiming to fight for agricultural workers in Congress while directly using and abusing them for personal financial gain back in the Central Valley. Working Valley families have paid the price for Duarte’s self-serving hypocrisy and deceit, and in just 11 days, they will finally hold him accountable for the irreparable damage he has caused their community for years.”
“It’s just more of John being misleading, he’s been misleading and dishonest this entire campaign,” said Gray
There were a few agreements such as protecting the rights of same sex marriage and that the high speed rail project connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco is ridiculously over budget and something must be done.
After the debate, ABC10 asked each candidate for their thoughts on the evening and overall feeling of confidence.
“I’m confident,” said Duarte.
“Things went very well tonight,” said Gray.
WATCH MORE ON ABC10 | Adam Gray and John Duarte meet for California 13th Congressional District debate
