California House seats that Democrats hoped to flip are still too close to call
LOS ANGELES — A prominent Republican congressman in California appeared to have lost his seat early Wednesday but election returns showed some of the hardest-fought House races in the state remained too close to call as votes still came in.
With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Democrat Harley Rouda held a lead over longtime Republican incumbent Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa, although the race had not been officially called. Rohrabacher was first elected to Congress in 1988.
Republicans Jeff Denham of Turlock and Mimi Walters of Laguna Beach appeared to have survived strong challenges in their districts.
Steve Knight of Palmdale, another endangered Republican, was trailing Democrat Katie Hill but the race was too close to call.
Another Republican, Young Kim, took a wider lead over Democrat Gil Cisneros in the contest to replace retiring Republican Rep. Ed Royce of Fullerton in the 39th Congressional District.
At the same time, Democrat Mike Levin gained an early lead in his bid to capture the seat of outgoing Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of Vista.
The midterm vote had given California, a blue-state afterthought in recent presidential contests, a rare shot at returning to relevance in a national election. In the end, though, television networks declared Democrats had already won control of the House by the time polls closed on the West Coast.
Republicans in California were in danger of losing a handful of House seats in a backlash against President Trump.
The first wave of returns confirmed the easy reelection of the more entrenched incumbents, Democratic and Republican. That included Republicans Devin Nunes of Tulare, who will lose his perch as House Intelligence Committee chairman when Democrats take control of the chamber, and Tom McClintock of Elk Grove.
Rep. David Valadao, one of the state’s seven GOP incumbents whose districts Trump lost in the 2016 presidential race, defeated his Democratic challenger in the Central Valley’s 21st Congressional District.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, a Republican under indictment on charges of misspending of campaign funds on personal expenses, held a solid lead over Democratic opponent Ammar Campa-Najjar in the 50th Congressional District in inland San Diego and Riverside counties.
Rohrabacher, who faced the toughest reelection battle of his 30 years in Congress, told supporters at Skosh Monahan’s pub in Costa Mesa that it was a night of mixed messages.
“I can’t say I’m pleased with the outcome in the rest of the country,” he said, standing before a surfboard inscribed “Give me Liberty or Give me Surf.” “We did lose control of the House. That has to be balanced by the fact we’re going to be a lot stronger in the U.S. Senate.”
Early returns showed Levin leading Republican Diane Harkey in the state’s 49th Congressional District, once a GOP stronghold on the coast straddling northern San Diego and southern Orange counties.
Levin all but declared victory at a celebration in Del Mar.
“I am confident that, thanks to you, when all the votes are counted we will have won,” he told supporters.
From the start of the campaign, Issa’s increasingly diverse district looked like the toughest in California for Republicans to keep in their grasp. Issa barely squeaked to a ninth term in 2016 after years of tormenting President Obama as the House’s point man for investigations.
Issa and Royce, whose districts chose Hillary Clinton over Trump, had announced their retirements in time to avoid daunting reelection fights.
Republican leaders, under pressure to steer limited resources into races that appeared winnable, gave up on Issa’s district, declining to spend anything to help Harkey in a tough election climate for the party.
Levin, 40, is an environmental attorney and former executive director of the Orange County Democratic Party.
Levin was one of the nation’s few Democratic congressional candidates to advertise his support for action to fight climate change. He backs single-payer healthcare, a $15 federal minimum wage, an assault-weapons ban and free tuition at community colleges.
The potential loss of Issa’s district would be a substantial blow to Republicans, who before Tuesday held just 14 of California’s 53 House seats.
All of California’s vulnerable House incumbents in the midterm were Republicans caught in a Trump undertow to make for tougher races: Denham in the 10th Congressional District in the Modesto area; Knight in the 25th, centered on Santa Clarita; Rohrabacher in the 48th, which spans coastal Orange County; and Walters in the 45th in the Irvine area.
Walters’ lead widened as midnight approached and her supporters began striking a celebratory note at her headquarters in Irvine.
“You guys, we’re looking good,” she told them. “I really think it’s going to be tough for her to beat me at this point.”
All of the Republicans were heavily outspent by Democrats, who benefited from a surge of support from donors hostile to Trump. Some were hobbled by their party’s combative, racially tinged politics under Trump, which plays well in some conservative states but can destroy Republican candidacies in the moderate suburbs of California.