This California House seat had the narrowest margin in 2018. Now, rematch has a winner
Former Rep. David Valadao has recaptured his seat in the House of Representatives, ousting Democrat Rep. TJ Cox after Valadao lost to him narrowly in 2018.
The Associated Press declared that Valadao, a Republican from Hanford, beat Cox, D-Fresno, on Friday. Valadao is currently winning by about 1,700 votes with some ballots still left to count, but the AP calls many races before they’re fully counted based on calculated projections of how likely the result is to change.
Valadao declared victory on Wednesday, before AP had called the race. In his statement, he made it clear his first priority is delivering help for the coronavirus pandemic.
“This Thanksgiving, as the coronavirus continues to spread and our community and nation struggle, we desperately need relief,” Valadao said. “The only way we will get through this is by sticking together as Americans, not divided by political parties. When I head back to Washington every resident of the Central Valley has my word that I will continue to always put this community first.”
Cox has not yet conceded the election. He said in a lengthy Facebook post on Thursday that he wouldn’t make a statement on the election results until every vote is counted.
Valadao previously represented California’s 21st district in Congress between 2013 and 2018. Cox challenged him in the 2018 election and unseated him by a mere 862 votes, knocking over the final domino to fall in a blue wave that unseated a total of seven Republican congressmen in California.
The AP originally called the race incorrectly for Valadao in 2018, announcing the Republican win on election night. But it retracted the call on Nov. 26 as Cox’s numbers climbed and he overtook Valadao by a slim margin. The AP then called Cox the winner on Nov. 28.
The AP was more cautious this year, resisting a call on who won the race through most of November. Kern County officials, one of the areas represented by the seat, tend to count ballots relatively slowly, and another county represented by the seat, Kings County, had multiple delays in counting ballots due to a COVID-19 exposure and a power outage.
Late calls on House races
It’s one of the last races AP called this year, with only seven House races left without a declared winner. One of those is also in California — the race between Republican Rep. Mike Garcia and Democrat challenger Christy Smith, where Garcia is up by a slim margin. The majority of the remaining seats left to call are in New York.
Political strategists on both sides of the aisle believed Cox was carried over the finish line in 2018 by the blue wave that was a backlash to President Donald Trump’s presidency. This year, some down-ballot Republicans had a comeback when Trump was actually on the ballot, despite the fact that Trump himself lost the presidency.
Valadao is one of at least a dozen Republicans to take House seats back from Democrats this year, narrowing the Democrat majority in Congress in 2021 and 2022. While Democrats still control the House, that will give Republicans on the more moderate end of the spectrum, like Valadao, a little more power this term than they would typically have in the minority.
This story was originally published November 27, 2020 at 11:07 AM.
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