Janz, 33, of Visalia, told reporters he'd never thought about running for office until recently, when national political developments spurred him to get involved. He said he was especially motivated by the actions of his own representative, Nunes, on health care, and the complaint among some locals that the congressman ignored them.

Those concerns and critiques were echoed by the demonstrators.

"I can't sit back and watch anymore," said Steve Spriggs, who noted that he hasn't been out protesting since 1973.

"I'm concerned about his ethical judgment," said retired doctor James Mendez, concerning both Russia and the health care bill.

A group, Friends of Andrew Janz, organized the demonstration. In a statement early Friday, Nunes' spokesman Jack Langer said that the protests against the congressman were "being organized by Indivisible, a group of left-wing activists who, unsurprisingly, oppose Republican Members of Congress.

"Our staff has met with Indivisible activists numerous times, exchanged emails and phone calls with them, and provided them with information on legislative bills. Nevertheless, they continually proclaim their talking point that they are being ignored," he said in a statement.

At Thursday's rally, health care was a big focus: Jennifer McLelland told the crowd how the Affordable Care Act helped her family. She said her son James, 6, was in the hospital for the first nine months of his life because he was born with a rare syndrome that affects his breathing.

"If lifetime limits had been in effect he would have blown through the maximum dollar value on his life before he ever left the neonatal intensive care unit," she said.

The ACA prohibits insurance companies from placing lifetime limits on the amount of care they will pay for.

"Obamacare protected us from the costs of having a very disabled baby," she said. "We've spoken to Congressman Nunes about how our son is a lifetime limit baby and how we're terrified that lifetime limits are coming back (under the AHCA)."

For more than a decade, Nunes, a Tulare dairyman, was a little-known Central Valley congressman. Then he took a field trip to the White House grounds that landed him in the center of a national controversy.

After President Donald Trump tweeted wiretapping allegations against the Obama administration, Nunes —who in his role as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee led an investigation into the election 2016-Russia-team-Trump maelstrom — met with intelligence officials. He did so reportedly with the help of two White House staffers, without alerting his committee colleagues.

Nunes, who had served on the executive committee of Trump’s presidential transition team, recused himself in April from the Russian investigation. Soon after, the House Committee on Ethics said it was investigating whether Nunes had made unauthorized disclosures of classified information.