Democrats Pick Off Another Republican House Seat in California

California Republicans suffered another blow on Thursday night as Rep. Mimi Walters, who has represented Orange County for two terms, was defeated in her bid for re-election by Katie Porter, a law professor from the University of California, Irvine.

With that win, first reported by The Associated Press, Democrats have now captured three of the four congressional seats in Orange County, a region that for a generation was a symbol of Republican power. The victory by Porter means California Democrats have won five of the seven Republican seats they identified as targets this year. Hillary Clinton defeated President Donald Trump in all seven of those districts.

It appears the only successful Republican in the group is Rep. David Valadao in Central California, who was declared a winner, though his lead over his Democratic challenger, T.J. Cox, has been shrinking as vote counting continues. The deadline for completing the count is Dec. 7.

Porter drew about 135,000 votes, compared with 129,000 for Walters.

One House race in California remained too close to call on Thursday night: a contest between Young Kim, a Republican, and Gil Cisneros, a Democrat, to replace Rep. Ed Royce, a Republican who did not seek re-election.