Republican David Valadao defeats TJ Cox for California seat in Congress, analyst says
Hanford Republican David Valadao’s lead in the U.S. House District 21 race shrunk Friday, but a political analyst has called the race.
Valadao, the challenger for the district, leads Rep. TJ Cox, D-Fresno, by 1,618 votes after the latest update from Kern County. Cox trimmed 178 votes from Valadao’s lead on Friday.
With the number of votes left to count from Fresno, Kern, Kings, and Tulare counties dwindling, the lead was enough for Dave Wasserman, U.S. House editor for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report and NBC News contributor.
“I’ve seen enough. David Valadao (R) defeats Rep. T.J. Cox (D) in #CA21, bringing the House GOP’s net gain to 9 seats so far,” he tweeted on Friday.
The Associated Press has not called the race.
The first time Cox and Valadao competed for the House seat in 2018 was close until the end. Cox was looking to unseat Valadao at the time, and Associated Press called the race the night of the election for Valadao.
Weeks later, Cox’s numbers kept climbing, and AP eventually reversed the initial call and announced the race for Cox on Nov. 28, 2018. Final numbers showed Cox won by 862 votes out of 113,616 total.
This story was originally published November 20, 2020 at 7:00 PM.
