California — 4th District

Democratic challenger Eric Jones, who is looking to unseat 14-term incumbent Rep. Mike Thompson in California’s 4th Congressional District, picked up a surprising political endorsement Monday. It came from Ray Riehle, the Republican candidate Jones narrowly defeated in the June primary to earn a spot on the November ballot.

It’s a curious embrace, considering Jones, 35, has largely hit Thompson from the left as he spotlights issues like universal healthcare and skyrocketing defense spending.

Riehle told The Press Democrat he came to admire Jones after they met near Riehle’s office in Citrus Heights, just days after the election. During that conversation, Riehle told Jones of his long involvement in the group Toastmasters International. Riehle, 65, invited the younger man to a meeting in Sacramento County a few days later. Jones attended, undaunted by the 6:45 a.m. start time.

Not long after that, Jones invited the Republican to dinner at his house in Napa, and they talked “for the better part of four hours,” Riehle said.

He came away convinced that Jones was genuine in his interest in water infrastructure, Riehle’s core concern. He also asked Jones to focus more on the nation’s mounting debt.

And despite the difference in their ages and backgrounds — Jones made his fortune in venture capital, Riehle runs a modest printing and mailing company in Citrus Heights — they found additional common ground.

“I’m a businessman. Eric’s a businessman,” Riehle said. “I’m not sure when Mike Thompson last signed the front of a check that came from money he actually earned.”

Riehle said Jones asked for the endorsement. Jones said he did not.

At their core, the two former political opponents would seem to have one major plank in common: disdain for California’s powerful Democratic establishment, which Thompson has come to epitomize in his 28th year in Congress.

That establishment authored and shepherded Proposition 50, which redrew the 4th District — it now includes all or parts of nine counties — and 22 others across the state in an effort to increase Democratic seats in the House, as a countermeasure to similar gerrymandering efforts by Republicans in Texas. And it has worked against Jones, too, with the political mainstream throwing its weight behind Thompson.

“Voters in this district and all across the country know our political system is broken,” Jones told The Press Democrat. “That’s in Sacramento and Washington DC. Much of this district feels left behind by their electeds.”

He called himself “the anti-establishment candidate,” a position that is proving popular in many parts of America this election cycle.

“We’ve been happy just handing out participation trophies for keeping seats warm (in Congress),” Jones said. “We can’t have that anymore.”

Mike Thompson’s campaign manager, Thomas Dowling, said in a statement that, “Like Eric Jones, Ray Riehle is not from California’s 4th Congressional District and only ran for this seat for political gain. Congressman Thompson is proud to have earned the endorsement of local farm bureaus, local small business groups, firefighters, nurses and more than 250 local elected officials and community leaders from across the new and old district.”

Riehle can’t vote for Jones; he lives 5 miles outside the new 4th District. Jones and wife, Rachel, live in Napa with their two children, but have run into skepticism from some local voters who point to their short time of residency there.

Thompson has been endorsed by groups like the North Bay Labor Council, the Santa Rosa Metro Chamber PAC, the Sonoma County Deputy Sheriffs’ Association, Professional Fire Fighters of Sonoma County Local 1401 and the Sonoma County Farm Bureau, and a vast array of elected leaders that includes California’s U.S. Senators, Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, as well as Gov. Gavin Newsom, House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and current Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Jones’ endorsements have been harder to come by — in part, he believes, because “the Democratic party, or both parties, like to play games with endorsements. I am not invited to the vast majority of endorsement conferences because the party sets the rules.”

Riehle’s seal of approval is especially unexpected in light of the mysterious Southern California money that might have helped sink his campaign.

Hedge fund analyst Rishi Dixit and his family fully funded the campaigns of three dark horse Republican candidates in the District 4 primary race, and founded a PAC called California Leadership Fund that financed attack ads against Riehle.

Jones wound up edging Riehle by a little more than 3,000 votes in June. The three Dixit-funded Republicans pulled in a total of about 21,500 ballots.

Jones wound up with 22.2% of the primary vote, while Riehle had 20.7%. Thompson led comfortably with 41%.

Rishi Dixit also reported contributing the maximum $7,000 to Jones’ campaign in the 2025-26 cycle. The family’s past political spending had skewed almost entirely Democratic, according to a review of campaign finance reports.

It’s unclear whether endorsements like Riehle’s will help Jones garner the independent and Republican support he’ll likely need to unseat Thompson.

A July 31 Fox News segment might have tugged those voters in the opposite direction. It mocked the “extravagances” of the Jones’ Napa home, as portrayed in a recent Architectural Digest feature on Rachel, who works for an architecture firm. Fox estimated the value of the furnishings and artwork pictured in the house at somewhere between $393,000 and $578,000.

Despite his progressive stance on many economic issues, Jones says he rejects the Bernie Sanders-AOC wing of the left, and insists he’s poised to work with Republicans.

“Roughly 60% this district is either independent or registered Republican. To dismiss all of them would be wrong,” Jones said. “The issues Ray and I will be talking about are things like corruption and term limits. These aren’t really left or right issues. These are consensus issues.”

While seeking common ground with Jones on these crossover issues, Riehle acknowledged the two may tangle again politically. Riehle is likely to run for Congress again in 2028, he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or [email protected]. On X (Twitter) @Skinny_Post.