Republicans and Democrats split a pair of close congressional races in California on Monday, with incumbent Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) defeating Democrat challenger Will Rollins in the 41st district, and incumbent Rep. Mike Garcia (R-CA) losing to Democrat challenger George Whitesides in the 27th.
Calvert, a 32-year veteran of the House of Representatives, faced an unusually tough challenge from Rollins, who accused Calvert of using his time in Congress to acquire local rental property in Riverside County, part of the Inland Empire east of Los Angeles.
President-elect Donald Trump boosted Calvert’s campaign with a rally in the nearby Coachella Valley in October that had political pundits scratching their heads, since California is a reliably blue state. Trump’s gambit turns out to have paid off, with Calvert winning reelection after a very close race.
Garcia, a former fighter pilot who faced tough reelection challenges ever since he won the election in 2000 to replace Democrat Rep. Katie Hill, who resigned, was a favorite among conservatives.
Though California’s competitive House races were all hard-fought, neither of the two races affected the outcome of the race for control of the House of Representatives, which had been called for Republicans earlier on Monday.
However, the more seats Republicans win, the more comfortable their margin — now extremely narrow — will be.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
