Demo­c­ra­t­ic chal­lenger Adam Gray flips Cal­i­for­ni­a’s 13th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict in nation’s final House race

Demo­c­rat Adam Gray has won Cal­i­for­ni­a’s 13th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict race, defeat­ing incum­bent Repub­li­can Rep. John Duarte, accord­ing to The Asso­ci­at­ed Press.

Cal­i­for­ni­a’s 13th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict was the last seat to be called, with the dis­trict being one of the most com­pet­i­tive races in the Gold­en State. Repub­li­cans main­tained the major­i­ty with 220, with Democ­rats trail­ing at 216.

Gray, a for­mer state leg­is­la­tor who rep­re­sent­ed Cal­i­for­ni­a’s 21st Assem­bly Dis­trict from 2012 to 2022, is con­sid­ered a cen­trist Demo­c­rat who focused on key con­cerns for farm­ers in the Cen­tral Val­ley like water short­ages. He also cam­paigned on renew­able ener­gy solu­tions.

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In a state­ment on X, Gray wrote that the long-await­ed results were con­fir­ma­tion that res­i­dents were ready for “inde­pen­dent and account­able lead­er­ship.”

“I’m hon­ored to become the Con­gress­man-elect for Cal­i­for­ni­a’s 13th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict. The final results con­firm this dis­trict is ready for inde­pen­dent and account­able lead­er­ship that always puts the Val­ley’s peo­ple ahead of par­ti­san pol­i­tics,” he wrote. “But the work has just begun.”

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“In Wash­ing­ton, I’ll work every­day to deliv­er the resources that the Val­ley needs: clean water, bet­ter edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties, stronger infra­struc­ture, and more good-pay­ing jobs,” he wrote. “And you can count on me to build bipar­ti­san rela­tion­ships to accom­plish these goals.”

The race has been char­ac­ter­ized as one of the tight­est in the coun­try. In 2022, Duarte nar­row­ly defeat­ed Gray by just 564 votes.

Duarte, a busi­ness­man and farmer, focused on issues like infla­tion, crime and agri­cul­tur­al issues dur­ing his cam­paign.