Update: Republican Valadao defeats Democrat Salas in California congressional district
Latest update:
Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford, had almost 52% of the votes with over 98% counted when the Associated Press projected he would win in California’s 22nd Congressional District.
Read the full story here: Valadao declares victory
Original story:
With almost all of the votes counted, Assemblyman Rudy Salas has narrowed the gap in his race against Congressman David Valadao in California’s 22nd Congressional District.
An influx of Kern County ballots pushed Salas, D-Bakersfield, closer to Valadao, R-Hanford, on Monday. Valadao has maintained a lead in the nearly two weeks since election night.
Valadao, a Hanford dairy farmer who first represented the area in Congress in 2013, had 51.7% of the votes in the 22nd with more than 98% counted, according to the Associated Press.
The race between the 45-year-olds in California’s 22nd has long been considered a toss-up.
The district, formed through the once-a-decade redrawing of legislative boundaries known as redistricting, runs from Hanford to Shafter. It would have picked President Joe Biden by a margin of 13 points in 2020 and has more registered Democrats than Republicans.
Valadao has swung Democratic votes before. And he understands close elections: The Republican lost to Democrat T.J. Cox in 2018 by less than a point and regained the seat in 2020 by the same margin in a race too close to call for weeks. Cox now faces several federal fraud charges.
If Valadao wins, he adds to a slim GOP majority and becomes the second Republican who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump over the 2021 insurrection to return to the U.S. House of Representatives. Eight of the 10 others will not. If Salas wins, he becomes the first Latino House member from the San Joaquin Valley.
So far, Republicans are projected to win 218 seats, the number required to hold the majority. Democrats, 212.
Five races had yet to be called. Three of them, including this one, are in California.
In California’s 13th Congressional District, directly north of the 22nd, Republican farmer John Duarte was atop a neck-and-neck race with Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, as of the AP’s update on Friday. In California’s 3rd, Republican Assemblyman Kevin Kiley has been leading Democratic Dr. Kermit Jones.
