Guess what? Control of the House of Representatives will come down to a handful of still uncalled seats in of all places, California. The two seats to play close attention to are CA13 and CA22.
Control of the U.S. House of Representatives could be decided by a handful of close races in California — which could take weeks to determine, thanks to the state’s heavy reliance on vote-by-mail and its liberal voting rules.
In Orange County, two incumbent Democrats, Reps. Katie Porter (47th district) and Mike Levin (49th district), are holding onto slim leads. In Ventura County’s 26th district, Rep. Julia Brownley (D-CA) has been reelected despite a last-minute scare from Republican Matt Jacobs. Elsewhere, in closely-contested races in the Central Valley, the results are too close to call, and each new batch of counted ballots brings potential lead changes.
Valadao was one of ten Republicans who voted to impeach President Donald Trump. He has long succeded in a majority-Latino district. California allows the practice of “ballot harvesting,” in which unverified third parties may return unlimited numbers of mail-in ballots. Republicans have been forced to adopt it to stay competitive.
Currently, Republicans are a few seats shy of a House majority of 218, but Democrats could catch up to them.