2024 election results: Friday’s update for LA County’s closest Congress, state Senate, Assembly seats
The election isn't over for many candidates aiming to represent Los Angeles County continued to be tight as Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean C. Logan announced the third post-Election Night ballot count update on Friday, Nov. 8 for Tuesday's General Election.
ee a chart of the latest vote counts
Two the races figured prominently in the battle for control of the House of Representatives, which was still up in the air as of Friday. With 218 representatives needed, Republicans had snared 212 seats while the Democrats trailed with 198. That's an increase of two for the GOP since yesterday and one for the Democrats.
The next update will be on Saturday. There are 759,100 ballots left to be processed, according to the registrar's office.
Here's a look at the closest races in L.A. County in the House, the California state Senate and the Assembly as of Friday afternoon.
HOUSE of REPRESENTATIVES
District 27: As pundits watched anxiously, Republican incumbent Rep. Mike Garcia saw his lead winnowed down a bit on Friday, 50.19%-to-49.81%, over Democratic challenger George Whitesides on Thursday. Garcia's lead declined from 3,240 votes on Thursday to 993 on Friday. A former fighter pilot who was first elected to Congress in 2020, Garcia faced fierce competition from Whitesides, a former NASA chief of staff, in this battleground district. The winner will represent parts of northern L.A. County, including the high desert communities of Lancaster, Palmdale and Santa Clarita.
District 45: Republican incumbent Rep. Michelle Steel continued to lead Democratic attorney Derek Tran in this battleground race, but her lead went down a tick on Friday. Steel, leading 51.9% to 48.1%, made history as one of the first Korean American women in Congress when she was elected in 2020. Tran is a political newcomer who hopes to become the first Vietnamese American to represent Orange County's Little Saigon. District 45 represents Hawaiian Gardens and Artesia in southeastern L.A. County, as well as parts of northeastern Orange County and is one of the few majority-Asian districts in the nation.
STATE SENATE
District 23: Republican small business owner Suzette Martinez Valladares' lead increased over Democratic workers' rights attorney Kipp Mueller, 53.2% to 46.8%. Valladares served in the Assembly from 2020 to 2022 and was a founder of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus. Mueller ran for this office in 2020 but lost to the current officeholder, Republican Sen. Scott Wilk. Wilk is not seeking reelection this year due to term limits. This district represents an area spanning from Santa Clarita and Palmdale in northern L.A. County to Wrightwood and Hesperia in San Bernardino County.
District 35: Michelle Chambers is maintaining her slim lead over Laura Richardson in a Democrat v. Democrat battle to replace termed-out state Sen. Steven Bradford. Richardson was out in front, 51.1% to 48.9%. Richardson, of San Pedro, is a housing advocate and small business owner who previously served on the Long Beach City Council and in the state Assembly and U.S. House of Representatives. Chambers, who lives in Compton, is a community justice advocate. She previously served on the Compton City Council and was an aide to then-U.S. Rep. Janice Hahn. Senate District 35 represents residents in South L.A. County. It includes all or parts of Inglewood, Hawthorne, Compton, Carson and San Pedro.
District 40: Incumbent Democratic Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo is hanging on to her lead over Republican challenger Patrick Gipson, a former L.A. County sheriff's deputy. As of Thursday, increased her lead a bit, 51.56% and to Gipson's 48.44%.Schiavo was first elected to the Assembly in 2022. Gipson, now retired from the county Sheriff's Department, previously worked as a lifeguard for both the city and county of Los Angeles. The winner will represent Santa Clarita Valley and northwestern San Fernando Valley.
