Alexandra Duarte for Senate? Read Before You Vote

Duarte Nursery Sold Pistachio Growers Thousands of Defective Trees. A Judge Ruled Its Fine Print Couldn’t Limit What It Owed.

The 2022 ruling, which cites at least $8.8 million in grower losses, found the contract terms limiting the nursery’s liability “unconscionable and, therefore, unenforceable.” No court ruled on the growers’ fraud claims.

Many pistachio trees Duarte Nursery sold from 2011 to 2014 were defective. Growers who planted them lost years of work and money.
Growers began suing in 2015. John Duarte was named personally.
In 2022, a judge threw out the fine print that limited what the nursery owed. Citing the nursery’s own expert, the ruling says “Defective trees were knowingly delivered to growers.”

August 13, 202610 sources

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The record

Taxes & Money

In John Duarte’s First Year in Congress, His Nursery Salary Fell to the House Limit. His Wife Alexandra’s Rose to $783,328, Matching His Old Pay.

Her 2023 salary from the family nursery was identical to his 2021 salary and within $625 of his 2022 salary, his House financial disclosures show. Paying a spouse is legal, and nothing in the record shows the money was for his work.

October 2, 20268 sources

Campaign

Before the Primary, Alexandra Duarte Ran on Guns, Immigration, and Trump. Now Her Website Is About Gas and Groceries, and It No Longer Calls Her a Republican.

Archived copies of her campaign website show a hard-edged conservative pitch through the spring. By two days after the June 2 primary, its pages had been rewritten around affordability, “no matter their party.” The descriptions it gives search engines were not.

October 2, 20268 sources

Campaign

Alexandra Duarte Wants to Be “a Senator for the People Who Can’t Afford to Buy One.” She and Her Husband Have Given More Than $100,000 in Political Contributions Since 2016.

Federal, state, and local records show the Duartes have given $123,360 to campaigns, party committees, and PACs since 2016, including $25,000 in one day to a fund for then-Rep. Devin Nunes. The contributions were legal and publicly disclosed.

October 2, 20267 sources

Lawsuits

Pistachio Growers Whose Duarte Trees Failed Asked for Their Money Back. A Judge Found They Were “Left With No Remedy at All.”

A 2022 court decision says John Duarte withdrew a $10-a-tree offer, offered credit for other trees instead, and told a grower he didn’t have the deposit money to return.

October 2, 20266 sources

Lawsuits

An Avocado Grower’s Lawsuit Says DNA Tests Showed Duarte Nursery Sold Him the Wrong Trees.

Richard Stevens’ lawsuit says the 1,000 trees he bought weren’t the rootstock he ordered and couldn’t thrive on his Ventura County farm. Duarte Nursery denied it. The case settled weeks before trial.

October 2, 20265 sources

Lawsuits

A Lemon Grower’s Lawsuit Says Duarte Nursery Sold Him the Wrong Trees, a Variety That Bears a Quarter Less Fruit.

Ron Turner didn’t learn what he had planted until seven years later, his lawsuit says. Under oath, John Duarte said the nursery had no record of a lemon mix-up. The case settled in 2025 before any court ruled.

October 2, 202615 sources

Workplace Safety

A Lawsuit Says a Worker Lost Three Fingers After Being Told to Adjust a Running Trimmer Duarte Nursery Built.

After the accident, state regulators cited the nursery under rules requiring machine guarding and shutting machinery down during adjustments. In court, Duarte Nursery argues the worker was effectively its own employee, which would limit him to workers’ compensation.

October 2, 202620 sources

Labor

A 2026 Class Action Says Duarte Nursery Didn’t Pay Hourly Workers for All the Time They Worked.

A former plant sorter sued in January 2026 on behalf of the nursery’s hourly workers. Duarte Nursery denies the allegations. After it argued that most of the original claims came too late, she refiled them under a law with a longer deadline.

October 2, 20265 sources

Taxes & Money

Alexandra Duarte Runs as “a Farmer, a Mom, and One of Us.” Her Husband’s 2022 Disclosure Shows His $783,953 Salary and Up to $91 Million in Family Assets.

John Duarte, who signed his 2024 concession statement “Your Farmer,” reported a 2022 salary from the family nursery about 7.8 times the average pay of a California farm manager. The family’s listed assets were valued between about $18.6 million and $91.1 million.

October 2, 20266 sources

Taxes & Money

Duarte Businesses Got $6.1 Million in Pandemic Loans. John Duarte Said COVID Aid That “Paid People to Stay Home” Had to End.

Small Business Administration data shows Duarte Nursery and three companies tied to John Duarte received Paycheck Protection Program loans in 2020 and 2021, all since paid or forgiven.

October 1, 20267 sources

Voting Record

John Duarte Voted to Cut IRS Enforcement Funding. Congress’s Budget Office Says the Cut Would Have Added $114 Billion to Deficits.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill would cut tax collections by $186 billion, because the IRS would collect less of what people already owe.

September 2, 20265 sources

Labor

Workers Sued Duarte Nursery and John Duarte in 2015. Their Lawsuit Says They Were Underpaid and Denied Breaks.

Four current and former employees filed the proposed class action on behalf of other workers. A court has not decided the claims, and we have not confirmed how the case ended.

August 29, 20263 sources

Workplace Safety

Nine Duarte Nursery Workers Were Hospitalized for Carbon Monoxide Exposure. The Fine Was $3,375.

Regulators cited the nursery for failing to monitor the air in a greenhouse. Federal records list other citations, including a $5,000 fine for reporting a worker’s death late.

August 27, 20264 sources

Lawsuits

Duarte Nursery Sued to Get Back About $800,000 in State-Mandated Fees for Grapevine Research. A Court Called Its Appeal “Long on Innuendo and Short on Evidence.”

After a pest destroyed more than 50,000 acres of Napa and Sonoma vineyards, the Legislature made grape rootstock nurseries fund research on healthier rootstock. Duarte Nursery challenged the fee in federal and state court and lost both times.

August 23, 20262 sources

Environment

The Company That Bought 1,500 Acres From Duarte Nursery Paid $5.3 Million Over Wetlands. Its Lawsuit Says the Nursery Didn’t Disclose the Land’s Environmental Restrictions.

The federal penalties were for Goose Pond Ag’s own work on the land. Its 2019 lawsuit against Duarte Nursery makes allegations, not court findings, and we have not confirmed how the case ended.

August 21, 20263 sources

Environment

A Federal Judge Ruled Duarte Nursery Broke the Clean Water Act by Tearing Up Protected Wetlands. It Paid $1.1 Million to Settle.

The Justice Department says the company’s own consultant had warned that ripping the land without a permit could bring significant penalties. In a 2017 TV interview about the case, John Duarte said: “These guys are a carload of idiots and they’re evil.”

August 19, 202610 sources