California’s key congressional races that could determine the fate of the United States House of Representatives remained undecided on Wednesday morning.
Republican and Democratic candidates squared off with razor-thin margins. Republicans generally remained in the lead coming off Election Day; the question is whether uncounted mail-in ballots, which tend to favor Democrats, will be able to offset the early Republican advantage.
California’s key races, concentrated in the Hispanic but conservative Central Valley and the suburbs of Southern California were targeted by a PAC run by House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Redlands, as the “path to the House majority.”
With 218 seats required for a majority in the 435-member House, Republicans, with 190 confirmed seats at the time of publication, seem poised for a majority; Democrats had 172 seats by the time of publication, with another 73 undecided seats set to determine control of the House.
Aguilar’s PAC supported challengers Adam Gray in California’s 13th Congressional District, Rudy Salas in the 22nd, George Whitesides in the 27th, and Will Rollins in the 41st. Also in play were the 45th and 47th Districts, both located in Orange County.
Gray, who is running against incumbent Congressman John Duarte, R-Modesto in a Central Valley district with slight Democratic advantage, also ran against Duarte in 2022, during which time he lost by just 564 votes. Duarte has run as a socially liberal Republican, voting against a Republican-led bill to ban Department of Defense funding for sex reassignment surgeries and gender hormone treatments for transgender individuals, and describing himself as “immigration fluid.” Duarte was ahead with 51.4% of the vote on Wednesday morning but the race remains uncalled.
Salas, who served as a California Assemblymember for a decade, is running against Congressman David Valadao, R-Hanford, who voted to impeach president-elect Donald Trump and placed just 11 points ahead of a more conservative Republican in the primary. Valadeo currently has 55% of the vote in the Central Valley district, or about what he had in the primary relative to Salas, but the race remains uncalled.
Whitesides, former CEO of private space corporation Virgin Galactic, is running against Congressman Mike Garcia, D-Santa Clarita, who won by just 333 votes in 2020. Garcia, whose district encompasses the suburbs and exurbs north of Los Angeles, was one of the few Republicans who voted in favor of the Respect for Marriage Act, which codified the right to same-sex marriage in federal law. Garcia has 51.2% of the vote, but the race is uncalled.
Rollins, a former federal prosecutor, is running for the second time against Congressman Ken Calvert, R-Corona, who also voted for the Respect for Marriage Act. Calvert has just 50.5% of the vote in the suburban and rural Inland Empire district, and was considered one of the most vulnerable Republican members of Congress in California.
In the 45th District a few miles inland from the coast in Orange and Los Angeles Counties, Democratic labor attorney Derek Tran is challenging Republican Congresswoman Michelle Steel in the plurality Asian district. Steel remains ahead with 52.5% of the vote.
In the 47th District, Republican Scott Baugh and Democrat Dave Min are vying to replace the coastal Orange County seat left open by sitting Congresswoman Katie Porter, D-Irvine, as she pursued the U.S. Senate primary against Congressman Adam Schiff to fill the seat left open by the death of Dianne Feinstein. Scott Baugh is also ahead with 50.6% of the vote.
