Vote counting continues in California three weeks after the 2018 election, and thanks to the latest round of ballot-updating by Kern County, Democrat TJ Cox has pulled ahead of Rep. David Valadao.
Rep. David Valadao– another GOP casualty of Trumpism.
As it stands, Cox leads Valadao by a whole 438 votes. The race is the last outstanding one in the country, following Rep. Mia Love’s concession in her Utah race.
Valadao was presumed relatively safe in his race. If certified, his defeat will confirm just how badly the GOP has faltered in California in the era of Donald Trump, and just how ineffective Kevin McCarthy’s strategy of putting a gas tax repeal on the ballot was.
Meanwhile, in the neighboring 22nd district, Rep. Devin Nunes– who usually wins with 70 percent of the vote– is down to 53.4 percent ahead of the end of the 30-day canvass period in which vote-by-mail ballots, provisional ballots, and others not previously counted are ultimately tallied. It appears that even the reddest parts of the Central Valley are now no longer safe turf for Republicans.
