Democrats take another House seat from GOP, a trend in late counting
Katie Porter, a UC Irvine law professor, has ousted Orange County GOP Rep. Mimi Walters from office, giving Democrats five new congressional seats in California even as they edge closer to a pickup in a sixth district.
California Democrats now lead or have won in six of the seven GOP-held districts the party targeted in the midterm elections, a near-sweep of historic proportions.
Porter, who has worked closely with Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, was the underdog in the historically conservative 45th District. But Walters’ solid support for President Trump worked against her in a district that backed Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Walters, R-Irvine, held the lead on election night, but Porter took command earlier this week. According to Thursday evening results from Orange County, Porter now leads the incumbent by about 6,200 votes, 51 to 49 percent.
Southern California’s 39th District also moved closer to a Democratic takeover. The California secretary of state’s office showed Gil Cisneros of Yorba Linda (Orange County) just 48 votes behind former GOP Assemblywoman Young Kim in a district left vacant by the retirement of GOP Rep. Ed Royce. But results from Orange County, which were released too late to appear in the secretary of state’s report, gave Cisneros a 900-vote lead.
Kim appears to be suffering the same fate as Republicans across the state — the longer the vote count continues, the worse they do. Kim, for example, had a 53 percent-to-47 percent margin on election night.
In the Bay Area, the lone Republican in either the Legislature or Congress, Assemblywoman Catharine Baker of San Ramon, had a 51.2 to 48.8 percent lead on election night over Democrat Rebecca Bauer-Kahan. That’s now down to 50.1 to 49.9 percent, a difference of fewer than 200 votes.
The millions of mail ballots dropped off at polling places on election day or arriving in the following days, as well as provisional ballots, have been a gold mine of support for Democrats. Across the state, those late ballots have flipped a number of races, or moved Democrats into insurmountable leads.
Voters who turn their mail ballots in on election day or cast provisional ballots are not the same demographic group as those who vote early or at the polls, said Paul Mitchell of Political Data Inc., which collects and analyzes voter information.
“They are renters, young people, minorities and other low-propensity voters” who tend to lean both Democratic and progressive, he said.
Millions of mail ballots, as well as provisional ballots, have been a gold mine for Democrats.