Where John Duarte, Adam Gray stand in close California congressional race on Election Night
Don’t expect to know a clear winner on Tuesday night in California’s 13th Congressional District, home to what’s expected to be one of the nation’s closest 2024 House of Representatives elections.
Former Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, had 51% of the votes and Rep. John Duarte, R-Modesto, had 49% with an estimated 40% of votes counted as of 10:08 p.m. on Tuesday, when early results started coming in.
The 2024 rematch between Duarte, a farmer and businessman turned congressman, and Gray may help decide which party controls the House of Representatives in 2025.
Their 2022 contest was one of the closest in the nation, helping give Republicans a slim House majority. Duarte was declared the winner several weeks after Election Day, with the freshman prevailing by about four-tenths of a percentage point.
It could take that long again to determine who wins this round.
The 13th district includes all of Merced County and chunks of Madera, Stanislaus, Fresno and San Joaquin counties. Nonpartisan election analysts rated the race as a tossup.
It is one of more than a dozen congressional districts across the country held by GOP congressmen where President Joe Biden would have beaten former President Donald Trump in 2020 had current legislative boundaries been in place. Boundaries were redrawn to reflect the 2020 census. Voters in the new 13th would have picked Biden by 11 points in 2020.
It’s a Latino-majority voting-age district with a large population of young people. Compared to the rest of California, this district tends to have low turnout, leading older, white, more conservative voters to disproportionately influence elections here. Still, presidential general elections tend to see the most turnout.
Gray, 47, served Merced in the California State Assembly for a decade before leaving his seat in 2022 for the congressional bid.
Freshman Duarte, 58, serves on House committees concerning agriculture, natural resources and transportation and infrastructure.
This story was originally published November 5, 2024 at 9:03 PM with the headline "Where John Duarte, Adam Gray stand in close California congressional race on Election Night."
