Democrats have swept all the congressional races in Orange County, Calif., further eroding one of the few bases of Republican political power left in the state.
The Associated Press on Saturday evening declared Democrat Gil Cisneros the winner over his Republican opponent Young Kim in California’s 39th district, where he led by a margin of 50.8% to 49.2% with all precincts reporting. The victory, called a week and a half after voting concluded, completed the Democratic sweep of a region that helped produce conservative luminaries such as Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.
Congressional districts in Orange County, Calif. in 2016 and in 2018 pic.twitter.com/TWRQ1pPzS4
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) November 16, 2018
The county’s representation is split between seven congressional seats. Before the midterms, Democrats held three of them, versus four controlled by the GOP. In the election, Democrats ousted Republican incumbents Dana Rohrabacher and Mimi Walters and picked up open seats vacated by the retiring veteran GOP lawmakers Darrell Issa and Ed Royce. Royce’s seat was won by Cisneros.
The weekend win expanded Democrats’ lead in the overall House to 232 to 198, with five races nationwide still uncalled as of Sunday afternoon.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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