4 House Races Remain Uncalled, Previously Projected Race in California Narrows
GOP Rep. Valadao was winning by 4,000 votes on Election Day; now he’s up by less than 1,000
Two weeks have gone by since the midterm elections, but officials have yet to determine the winner in four House races. And the results of a California House race that was called on election night has now been thrown into question.
House Democrats have long since passed the threshold for a majority that they haven’t held since 2010. They currently have 232 seats called in their favor with the potential to win some of those five not-yet-called races. They’re likely to finish around 234 with a 33-seat majority.
In the Senate, the GOP flipped seats in Indiana, North Dakota, and Missouri — states that President Donald Trump won by double digits in 2016. But Democrats picked up seats in Nevada and Arizona.
If GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith wins her run-off against Democrat Mike Espy next Tuesday in Mississippi, Republicans will hold a 53-47 Senate majority.
Here are the races yet to be called as of Tuesday that will determine the size of the Democrats’ majority in the House:
House
Democrat surging in California’s 21st District
On Election Day, it looked like GOP Rep. David Valadao had escaped with a victory by roughly 4,000 votes in California’s 21st District, where three-quarters of the population is Hispanic and Hillary Clinton paced President Donald Trump by 16 points in 2016.
But two weeks after the election, his lead has dwindled to 930 votes over Democratic challenger TJ Cox after a batch of uncounted ballots in Democratic-leaning Kern County was reported Monday.
Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight predicted on Twitter Monday that the final margin of the race could be within 100 votes.
Texas GOP Rep. Will Hurd reversed the trend of close races tilting toward the Democrats when he announced his victory over Democratic challenger Gina Ortiz Jones on Monday in the 23rd District.
Nine of the previous 10 House races that had been called by The Associated Press flipped to the Democrats after Gil Cisneros defeated Republican Young Kim in California’s 39th District. That seat is currently held by retiring GOP Rep. Ed Royce. Democrats now control every seat in Orange County, California, once a reliable GOP stronghold.
Republican incumbents
In Georgia’s 7th District, Rep. Rob Woodall leads by less than 500 votes over Democrat Carolyn Bourdeaux in the Atlanta suburbs. Bourdeaux has called for a recount.
Utah Rep. Mia Love, who spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention and is the only African-American Republican woman in the House, has not conceded to Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams, who declared victory in the 4th District on Monday after he pulled ahead by 739 votes on the final day of tabulation. The AP has not yet called the race.
Democratic challenger Anthony Brindisi continues to lead Rep. Claudia Tenney by about half a percentage point in New York’s 22nd District. Tenney ran one of the most pro-Trump campaigns of any vulnerable Republican this cycle.
In New York’s 27th District, Rep. Chris Collins has clung to a lead of less than 1 percent over his Democratic challenger, Nate McMurray. McMurray was in Washington, D.C., last week for New Member Orientation but may not actually ever make it to Congress.
A note on the Senate
Mississippi
The Mississippi special election for the final two years of former GOP Sen. Thad Cochran’s term is heading to a Nov. 27 runoff after no candidate cleared 50 percent on Election Night.
Just 1 point separated appointed GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and former Democratic Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy, with Hyde-Smith ahead 41 percent to 40 percent. Republican state Sen. Chris McDaniel took 16 percent of the vote.
Watch: Bill Nelson Makes a Statement on Florida’s Senate Race Recount
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