Some Southland Congressional Races Remain Too Close to Call
With Southern California in the national spotlight over the battle for control of the House of Representatives, numerous local congressional races remained too close to call Wednesday as vote-counting continued.
In Orange County's 45th congressional district, incumbent Rep. Michelle Steel, R-Huntington Beach, held a narrow lead with 52.5% of the vote over Democrat Derek Tran. Steel had an edge of about 11,000 votes.
It was unclear how many ballots still remain to be counted in the various congressional districts.
The 45th District race featured heated exchanges, with Steel, who is Korean, at one point saying she was "more Vietnamese" than Tran, an Army veteran who said his "parents fled the Communist regime in Vietnam."
Vietnamese voters are a key Republican bloc in the district, and Steel in the past has allied herself politically with former Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do, who resigned his seat and pleaded guilty to a federal bribery charge last week.
In the 47th Congressional District, Republican former Assemblyman Scott Baugh held a roughly 3,000-vote lead over Sen. Dave Min, D-Irvine. Baugh had 50.6% of the vote as of Wednesday morning, while Min had 49.4%.
Baugh lost to Rep. Katie Porter, D-Irvine, in the race two years ago.
The race between Democrat Will Rollins and Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, in Riverside County's 41st District was also being closely watched, with the incorporation of more liberal Palm Springs changing the dynamics of the district.
Calvert, who was first elected in 1992, defeated Rollins, 52.3%-47.7%, in 2022. As of early Wednesday morning, Calvert was leading with 50.5% of the vote, holding a roughly 2,100-vote lead over Rollins.
In northern Los Angeles County, the 27th District race between Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Santa Clarita, and Democrat George Whitesides, a former NASA chief of staff, remained touch-and-go as returns were tallied.
But Garcia pulled ahead late, and as of Wednesday, he had 51.2% of the tally, and a roughly 5,000-vote lead.
The pair spent heavily on advertisements in the waning days of the campaign, with the candidates trading barbs on abortion rights, immigration and crime. The district has traditionally been a conservative stronghold, but thanks in part to the 2020 redrawing of the district boundaries, Democrats now outnumber Republicans, but the large number of independent voters could turn the tide.
In other tight races, Rep. Young Kim, R-Anaheim, defeated Democrat Joe Kerr in the 40th congressional district, with 56.8% of the vote. In the 49th district, which straddles Orange and San Diego counties, Rep. Mike Levin, D-San Juan Capistrano, had 50.9% of the vote, compared to 49.1% for Republican Matt Gunderson. Levin had a roughly 5,000-vote lead.
The outcome of many of the races might not be known for several days as vote-counting continues and late ballots continue to arrive.
