Another California Republican Falls In Midterm Election

LOS ANGELES, CA — It’s been more than a week since the midterm elections, and Republican incumbents are still falling. The latest, and likely the last to fall, is Orange County’s Rep. Mimi Walters.

Walters, the Trump-embraced incumbent representing California’s bastion of conservatism, conceded Thursday to Katie Porter, a progressive who campaigned on universal healthcare and free college for all. In conceding, Walters became California’s fourth incumbent ousted by a Democratic challenger.

Another seat straddling the Orange and San Diego county border went to a Democrat after longtime Republican Darrell Issa retired. A final race, Orange County’s 39th remains too close to call, but on Wednesday Democrat Gil Cisneros took the lead and saw it increase to 3,020 votes by Friday night. If Cisneros beats Republican Young Kim, Democrats will have flipped a total of six seats, including four in Orange County.

It’s been a rough, and in some ways, unexpected week for Republicans.

Kim, for example, was already in Washington D.C. attending orientation for freshman legislators when her opponent surpassed her in the vote tally. Her victory seemed almost assured on election night when she held a nearly 5,000-vote lead. Walters, too, seemed safe, holding an 8,000 vote-lead on election night. By the time Walters conceded, Porter held a 6,203-vote lead.

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Porter, thanked her supporters on Twitter, saying, "Thank you. I can't wait to get to work for Orange County and to stand with you 100 percent of the time."

With Walters out, Kim is Orange County’s last hope for a Republican representative. The notion of an entirely blue Orange County was unthinkable not so long ago. Most Republican presidential contenders depend upon the region for fundraising. One-time home to Nixon’s Western White House, Orange County has consistently been the state’s most conservative region.

“This place has been controlled by Republicans for a generation or two,” said Chapman University Professor Fred Smoller.

While it remains to be seen how permanent the region’s shift to the left will be, demographic changes have been pushing Orange County leftward for years. But one person may have accelerated the rise of Democrats in Orange County, Smoller said.

“The demo change has been injected with steroids by Donald Trump,” he said. In the 2016 election Orange County went for a Democrat for the first time since FDR rather than vote for Trump.

Also this week, Democrat Harley Rouda declared victory Saturday in his bid to unseat 15-term incumbent Rep. Dana Rohrabacher in coastal Orange County’s 48th District even though the final race results won’t be certified until December.

Most major media outlets followed suit, but Rohrabacher refuses to concede until the final vote is tallied.

"There are still more than 300,000 ballots remaining to count. Our volunteer observers are at the Registrar of voters observing that process. We will have additional comment once the count is complete," Dale Neugebauer, spokesman for the Rohrabacher re-election campaign said over the weekend.

On Tuesday, the Associated Press called the Modesto area’s 10th District race for Democratic challenger Josh Harder. Late mail-in and provisional ballots turned the race for Harder. On election night, he trailed Republican Congressman Jeff Denham by roughly 1,300 votes.

Only two of the six house seats that ultimately flipped where called within 24 hours of election day. On Election Day, Democrat Mike Levin beat Republican candidate Diane L. Harkey to take the seat Issa vacated. And the day after the election, Katie Hill knocked off the city of LA’s last Republican, Steve Knight.

City News Service contributed to this report; Photo: Shutterstock