Cox cuts Valadao’s lead in Fresno-area race. Why Republicans remain confident in outcome
The race between David Valadao and Rep. TJ Cox tightened Friday with 2,300 votes separating the candidates.
Valadao still led in the race for District 21, but his lead was cut by nearly half since the last vote counts.
Disrtrictwide, Valadao leads with 50% of the votes counted so far; Cox held on to 49.3%. The race was tied in Tulare County and Valadao was leading in Kings and Fresno counties. But the new vote count in Kern County helped cut the margin between the candidates.
As of Friday, the Kern County elections update showed Cox with a 59% to Valadao’s 41%. There were still hundreds of votes left to count in the district.
A winner in the race between Cox and Valadao had not been determined, but elections experts like the Cook Political Report’s Dave Wasserman signaled that Friday’s update was good news for the Republican.
“More good news for Republicans in a key uncalled race, #CA21,” Wasserman tweeted to a post outlining a Kern County vote update that showed late votes coming in to favor Valadao. There were 36,259 votes left to be counted in Kern County, although not all are for this race.
In 2018, the race also took weeks to call in Cox’s favor in a surprise win for the Democrat.
The races for District 16 and 22 have been called for Democrat Jim Costa and Republican Devin Nunes, respectively.
In Fresno County, there were at least 2,240 votes left to process as of 3 p.m. Friday.
State Center Community College District
In the State Center Community College District race, Nasreen Michelle Johnson remained in the lead for Area 2 Trustee, with 37% of the vote. Sevag Tateosian trailed with 32% and incumbent Eric Payne held 29% of the vote.
In the Area 3 Trustee race, Danielle Parra led with most votes counted in Fresno County. The race picked up 51 votes from Kings County and as of Friday, incumbent John Leal had 38 of those votes.
But Parra remained in the lead in the race overall with close to 40% of the total vote.
Area 6 Trustee Deborah Jean Ikeda and Area 7 Trustee Richard Caglia both still held comfortable leads in their races.
Fresno-area school bonds
Most of the local school bonds still appeared favorable among voters with Friday’s new tally. School bonds need at least a 55% “yes” vote to pass.
Measure A, a $335 million Clovis school bond issue that would keep tax rates where they are for residential property owners but extend the amount of time people are taxed, reached 60% of “yes” votes.
Measure C in Sanger Unified had 57% of the “yes” vote.
In Central Unified, Measure D had 59% of the “yes” vote.
Measures K and J in Washington Unified and Riverdale Unified, respectively, both had majority support.
Fresno Unified
Carol Mills still led in the District 5 race for Fresno Unified School District. She held on to nearly 44% of the vote as of Friday.
Challenger David Paredes rose slightly to 37%.
In District 6, Claudia Cazares led with a comfortable margin of 50%.
Clovis Unified
David Defrank led in the Clovis Unified District 2 seat race with 78% of the vote. His challenger Jacob Trumble had 21% of the vote.
In District 4, Hugh Awtrey led with 38% of the vote. Noha Elbaz closely followed with 35% of the vote. Jonathan Holt held 26% of the vote.
In District 7, Yolanda Moore led with more than half of the vote, standing at 53% on Friday. Her only challenger, incumbent Christopher Casado, had 46%.
Central Unified
The Central Unified races remained the same with Friday’s vote totals.
Philip Cervantes held 50% of the vote in District 3 with Corbin Gunstream closely behind at 49%.
Jeremy Alan Mehling led in District 6 with 33% of the vote. Sandra Flores was at 27% and Richard Martinez was at 22%. Stacy Williams was behind with 17% of the vote.
In District 4, Shawn Brooks maintained a strong lead with 61% of the vote. Bret Ruch, his only challenger, held on to 38%.
This story was originally published November 13, 2020 at 5:18 PM.
