Republican Garcia set to win California House race

LOS ANGELES — In what amounted to a proxy vote on President Donald Trump’s leadership in the coronavirus crisis, a former Navy combat pilot appeared to earn a rare congressional victory for the GOP in heavily Democratic California.

A win for Mike Garcia in a district north of Los Angeles would mark the first time in over two decades that a Republican captured a Democratic-held congressional district in California.

“I’m ready to go to work,” Garcia

said. His Democratic rival, Christy Smith, congratulated Garcia, calling him the “likely victor.”

But she said she expected to win in November when the two meet again in a rematch for the full, two-year House term that begins in January.

“This is only one step in this process,” Smith said in a statement.

Garcia, a political newcomer, had a 12-point edge over Smith in Tuesday’s special election for the swing 25th District. An unknown number of ballots remained uncounted. Los Angeles

County, where most of them are located, wasn’t expected to update its tally until Friday.

California routinely counts large numbers of votes after election day, and mail ballots can arrive as late as Friday and still be counted if they were postmarked by election day.

With about 143,000 ballots tallied — almost all of them mail-in ballots — Garcia had 56 percent. All voters received mailed ballots because of the coronavirus outbreak, though a sprinkling of polling places were available for those who wanted to vote in person.

The contest took on outsized importance as the only competitive House race in the country in the midst of the pandemic.

Trump, who lost the district that runs through a swath of suburbs and small ranches in 2016, urged voters to support Garcia, while former President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and other high-profile Democrats backed Smith.

Early Wednesday, Trump tweeted: “Big Congressional win in California for Mike Garcia, taking back a seat from the Democrats.”

The seat became vacant last year after the resignation of Democratic Rep. Katie Hill, who stepped down after admitting to an affair with a campaign worker.

The House also opened an ethics probe into an allegation that she was involved with a member of her congressional staff, which Hill denied.

Smith and Garcia topped a crowded field of candidates in the state’s March 3 primary and advanced to separate elections: One, on Tuesday, to fill the rest of Hill’s two-year term, and a second in November for the full, two-year term.