10 Uncalled Races Remain as Democrats Pick Up California Seat (Updated)
Updated 4:39 p.m. | Democrats picked up their third House seat late Thursday, stemming the party’s losses to 13 seats — for now.
After more absentee and provisional ballots were counted, Democrat Pete Aguilar maintained a lead over Republican Paul Chabot, 51 percent to 49 percent, in California’s 31st District. Aguilar declared victory and Chabot conceded; the seat was open because Republican Rep. Gary G. Miller is retiring.
The Associated Press also called a House race in Maryland’s 6th District in favor of the Democrat. Freshman Rep. John Delaney defeated his Republican opponent, 50 percent to 48 percent, in an unexpectedly close contest.
In Virginia, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., defeated Republican Ed Gillespie by a 16,000-vote margin.
Gillespie announced at a news conference Friday afternoon that he would not contest the results .
Elsewhere, several other races remain too close to call:
In Alaska, Democratic Sen. Mark Begich trails Republican Dan Sullivan by about 8,000 votes, with an undetermined number of mail-in ballots outstanding. GOP operatives believe their lead will hold , but say it will be about two weeks before those ballots are in and counted.
In the House, nine contests are still too close to call .
Two of those districts are in California and Washington state, and feature Democrat -vs.-Democrat or Republican-vs.-Republican races, respectively. The outcome of those contests will not change the balance of power.
In Arizona’s 2nd District, the Republican, retired Air Force Col. Martha McSally, saw her lead over Democratic Rep. Ron Barber diminish after officials counted more ballots Thursday. She leads Barber by a 363-vote margin, with about 17,000 ballots outstanding. That lead shrunk from the 1,293-vote margin McSally had after Election Day.
In California, six races remain uncalled. Each county has their own process to count ballots, and it could be at least a week before winnere are declared.
Republicans lead in two of those contests:
- In the Sacramento-based 7th District, former Rep. Doug Ose leads Democratic Rep. Ami Bera by 2,183 votes, with many ballots still outstanding. That lead diminished Thursday, when he had a 3,011-vote lead. Around 40,000 votes remain to be counted.
- Little-known Republican Johnny Tacherra leads Democratic Rep. Jim Costa by 736 votes in the 16th District — a race not on the radar of any party operatives. It’s unclear whether there are enough outstanding votes for Costa to overcome that margin.
Democrats lead in the other four contests:
- In the San Diego-based 52nd District, Democratic Rep. Scott Peters retook the lead from Republican Carl DeMaio after mail-in ballots came in Thursday. Peters now leads by 861 votes. That is a big swing from after Election Day, when DeMaio led Peters by a 752-vote margin. More votes are expected to come in Monday.
- In the 9th District, Democratic Rep. Jerry McNerney leads Republican Tony Amador by a 2,360-vote margin in another unexpectedly close race.
- Democratic Rep. Michael M. Honda leads Democratic attorney Ro Khanna in the Silicon Valley-based 17th District by more than 4,000 votes — a widening lead giving Khanna a slim path to victory. Honda is slated to make an announcement about the race at 1 p.m. EST.
- In the Ventura County-based 26th District, Democratic Rep. Julia Brownley leads Republican state Assemblyman Jeff Gorell by 530 votes, with a number of votes left to be counted.
And in New York’s 25th District, Democratic Rep. Louise M. Slaughter leads a little-known Republican by 582-votes.
For a full list of winners and losers, check CQ Roll Call’s election map .
Roll Call Results Map: Results and District Profiles for Every Seat
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