Demo­c­rat flips House seat in Cal­i­for­nia in last con­gres­sion­al race to be decid­ed

Near­ly a month after the elec­tion on Novem­ber 5, the Demo­c­ra­t­ic nom­i­nee for Cal­i­for­nia’s 13th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict was final­ly declared the win­ner in a very close race that was the last to be called. Gray defeat­ed incum­bent John Duarte (R‑CA) by less than 200 votes, accord­ing to the Asso­ci­at­ed Press. 

It was the sec­ond straight con­gres­sion­al elec­tion in which Duarte and Day faced off, and the sec­ond straight elec­tion won by the slimmest of mar­gins. In 2022, Duarte defeat­ed Gray by less than 600 votes.

“We always knew that this race would be as close as they come, and we’re expect­ing a pho­to fin­ish this year, too,” Gray said in a state­ment in Novem­ber.

Duarte’s defeat marks the lat­est set­back for Repub­li­cans in Cal­i­for­nia. Reps. Mike Gar­cia (R‑CA) and Michelle Steel (R‑CA) were also defeat­ed by Demo­c­ra­t­ic oppo­nents in the 2024 elec­tion. Steel’s race also took sev­er­al weeks to call, with her defeat only offi­cial­ly being announced on Novem­ber 27. 

Duarte called Gray to con­cede the race late Tues­day night, accord­ing to reports.

“That’s how it goes,” Duarte said on Tues­day night. “I’m a cit­i­zen leg­is­la­tor, and I didn’t plan on being in Con­gress for­ev­er.”

Gray is con­sid­ered a cen­trist Demo­c­rat, accord­ing to reports, and cam­paigned on top­ics such as renew­able ener­gy sources and agri­cul­tur­al mat­ters such as water short­ages, a crit­i­cal issue for farm­ers in Cal­i­for­nia, Fox News report­ed. Duarte’s plat­form also tack­led agrar­i­an mat­ters in the state while focus­ing on hot-but­ton con­cerns such as crime and infla­tion. 

Gray post­ed a state­ment on X after being offi­cial­ly declared the win­ner, stat­ing that the “work has just begun.”

“The final results con­firm this dis­trict is ready for inde­pen­dent and account­able lead­er­ship that always puts the Valley’s peo­ple ahead of par­ti­san pol­i­tics,” Gray post­ed. 

“But the work has just begun,” read Gray’s state­ment. “In Wash­ing­ton, I’ll work every­day [sic] to deliv­er the resources that the Val­ley needs: clean water, bet­ter edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties, stronger infra­struc­ture, and more good-pay­ing jobs. And you can count on me to build bipar­ti­san rela­tion­ships to accom­plish these goals.”

“Now, let’s get to work,” Gray declared.

With Gray’s vic­to­ry, Repub­li­cans cur­rent­ly hold a 5‑seat lead in the House. This will change in the com­ing weeks after cer­tain House mem­bers were nom­i­nat­ed to be in Pres­i­dent-elect Trump’s Cab­i­net.