I had the opportunity to speak with former congressional candidate Erica Lee about her experience launching a primary challenge against Democratic incumbent Doris Matsui, who basically inherited her seat in 2005 after the death of her husband, Rep. Bob Matsui. The two combined have represented Sacramento since 1979 — although the current Rep. Matsui doesn’t spend much time in California these days.
Lee hosts the podcast Disrupter Politics, which you should check out.
Edited excerpts from our discussion:
ERICA: I was challenging Congresswoman Doris Matsui. The reason most people don’t know who she is, even though she represents the capital of the fourth largest economy in the world, is because she doesn’t stick her neck out for anything. She’s deeply entrenched. Everything is prepared. The joke is that she still acts like the spouse of a member of Congress.
The history here is she’s not from Sacramento. That’s fine. People move around. But her husband, Bob Matsui, was on the Sacramento City Council in the ‘70s. He was elected into Congress in his 30s in 1979. I was two years old and he was elected into Congress for Sacramento proper. He was in Congress for 26 years and he died. And then just days after the memorial — I believe that he was lying in wake under the rotunda — I’m pretty sure Doris Matsui announced that she was going to run. And with Nancy Pelosi’s help, she cleared the field.
So there were people who had been in line to run, who were going to run, who had actually been doing the work in the community who were going to run. But the field was cleared for Doris Matsui to become the next member of Congress, despite not having any experience that any normal objective person would look at and think, “Oh, she’s a great candidate for Congress.”
It was just her name. Even people who like her will say she was only elected because of her last name.
SER: But [Rep. Matsui] is 81 years old, will be 82 [and she’s running for another term].
ERICA: Right.
SER: Which is insane.
ERICA: Not reading the room.
SER: I’ve written a piece about this a while back about why Democrats can’t resist dying in office.
ERICA: She’s never really lived in Sacramento. When her husband won back in 1979, they bought a home in Maryland. She basically lived there. They used her father-in-law’s address at a home in Sacramento. I believe they raised their son there. So all of her experience is like local to D.C.
She was appointed to the transition committee for Bill Clinton … I think she was a corporate lobbyist, too, right before she was appointed into this role basically, or won the special election. But you don’t find that anywhere in her history because I think they know it’s toxic.
So your primary residence is supposed to be in the state, just the state that you represent. And she got dinged in 2007 by the House Ethics Committee, because her taxes have been filed with Maryland as her primary residence. She’s still living in that home that her son now lives in, apparently.
When I was running against her, I heard from three separate people at three different events that I went to … they were a little tipsy, but they said, “Oh, you know, [her campaign manager Roger Salazar,] says he just tells Doris to stay in D.C. because people are going to vote for her anyway, because it’s such a blue district.”
It’s changed a little bit since redistricting after the passage of Prop 50, but she’s so entrenched. And she’s running for another term.
ERICA: When I realized that Doris Matsui was going to run again, I saw her new logo roll up on December 31st, 2024 on Facebook, Doris Matsui 2026. I said, you’re kidding me. So I immediately said, Who is challenging her? I’m a great campaign operative. I love to talk. Who’s challenging her? Nobody. Nobody’s challenging.
I was told the people on the bench are cowards or unhinged. That’s what I was told. So they said, you should run. I was like, I can’t run. I have anxiety. I have ADHD. I have OCD. I couldn’t do it. I don’t like pictures of myself even, you know, I can’t do it. But people kept talking to me and saying, “Look, you are kind of not like a nobody, but you are the person we need right now because you have a background that is unusual, right? Because you have lived experiences that we’re missing in Congress.
I finally filed in April. I still waited a month to actually drop a campaign ad. I was just making sure you know no one else is going to get in and then I did it and so that’s when I had that video I made and I went to the convention.
I would go to these meetings and I feel like I’d see epiphanies on faces. “Yeah, you’re right. You know, these Democrats, they’re a big part of why we lost again.”
So this was the time. Look at your primary challengers. Who was un-bought? There are a lot of people here who say “I like Doris but it’s time for her to go.” The reason why I suspended [my campaign] was because there was finally a more prominent progressive who decided to run. I know that she decided to run after I got in. Her name is Mai Vang. She is currently the lone progressive on the Sacramento City Council.
She was also on the school board. She was born and raised in south Sacramento She’s the oldest of 16 kids. She’s a daughter of Hmong refugees. She is someone people love and admire, and she’s been doing the work in the community.
It takes political courage to challenge Doris Matsui. [Vang’s] not waiting her turn. We have a bottleneck in Sacramento where there are all these people who want to run for Congress, but they’re just waiting for [Matsui] to retire. So they all endorse her. They say nice things about her, even though they know she doesn’t come back to the district or hold town halls. She’s never had to hold a debate in her life because she’s had the easiest ride in Congress ever.
So, Mai Vang announced that she was going to run and almost immediately I suspended and I talked to her and now I knock doors for her.
