A new attack ad uses misleading claims to suggest Randy Villegas voted to let a sexual predator work in a Visalia, California school.
The reality is that Villegas, and other members of the Visalia school board, had no knowledge of the predator’s record and there was no public reporting about it at the time.
The ad is being financed by the GOP-aligned Congressional Leadership Fund PAC. Villegas is challenging Republican Rep. David Valadao in what is widely considered one of the most competitive U.S. House races of 2026.
The ad details how Villegas and other school board members voted in October 2022 to approve the hiring of Dejuan Jones as a campus supervisor at Mt. Whitney High School. Jones was arrested six months later for sexual misconduct with a student.
It was later revealed that Jones had been fired from the same high school in 2013 for sending inappropriate text messages to a student. He then worked at Monache High School where he was reportedly investigated for similar misconduct.
None of this history was provided to the Visalia school board when it voted. The board also did not vote on Jones’ hiring individually. Instead, it was asked to approve the hiring of 10 individuals, including Jones, and 15 other agenda items in a single vote. The Visalia Unified School District Office advised the board to vote in the affirmative.
Jones did not have a criminal record at the time, which is part of what enabled him to slip past the school district’s pre-screening protocols for new hires. Those protocols have since been made more stringent.
The ad’s claims that “Randy Villegas hired a predator” and that it was “Randy’s decision” are clear exaggerations.
Juan Guerrero, the former Visalia school board president, confirmed thar Jones’ re-hiring was a “human resources failure” and “the board was not briefed on Jones’ background before he was added alongside nine other personnel to a routine consent agenda.”
“Any political ads saying this was Randy’s decision are untrue, misleading, and profoundly disrespectful to those impacted,” Guerro continued. “Most importantly, they don’t get us any closer to accountability and justice for victims.”
Villegas addressed this matter as well in a Sept. 10 debate hosted by KGET.
“I stand with survivors of abuse of any kind,” Villegas said. “And with respect to Mr. Jones, the charges against him are despicable, and he is in prison where he belongs, nowhere near our schools.”
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