Home / News / National / Earthquake: Republican Garcia wins seat held by Dems since 98
garcia
Republican Garcia, left, and Democrat Smith.

Earthquake: Republican Garcia wins seat held by Dems since 98

In an election that pundits say could foretell the November elections, Republican Mike Garcia has won back a Congressional seat last held by a Republican in 1998. Democrat Christy Smith was defeated in the special election for the U.S. House seat left vacant when former California Democratic Rep. Katie Hill resigned.

Garcia jumped to a significant early lead Tuesday night over Smith in California’s 25th district, the California secretary of state’s office said. It put Garcia’s share of the vote at 56 percent to 44 percent for Smith. That’s almost double the margin of victory that Smith won in 2018.

PLEASE HELP: Donate now to help us publish more news like this

The victory for Republicans comes as a major CNN poll was released Monday showing President Trump leading in all 15 swing states over former Vice President Joe Biden. The poll has rattled Democrats who had assumed the pandemic and economic collapse would have been enough to sour Americans on the President’s chances of re-election.

Garcia, a businessman and Navy veteran who has never before held political office, was endorsed by President Donald Trump, while Smith, a state assembly member, had been endorsed by a number of prominent Democrats, including former President Barack Obama and former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

The special election results determine who serves out the remainder of what would have been Hill’s first term in office. But there will be a rematch because Smith and Garcia are still running as candidates for a November general election to decide who holds the seat in the next session of Congress. Republicans are bolstered in their confidence that Garcia will easily win the seat in the General Election and hope that Republicans will also regain the Congressional seats lost in 2018 when Democrats used a technique called “ballot harvesting”. In those elections, many counties saw more Democrat votes than registered voters raising concerns of voter fraud.

This seat in the northern Los Angeles suburbs became vacant after Hill last year resigned following a sex scandal.

“After seeing more results last night, it is clear that our message of lower taxes and ensuring we don’t take liberal Sacramento dysfunction to Washington prevailed,” Garcia, 44, said in a statement Wednesday.

Garcia’s “big congressional win” was heralded by Trump in a tweet Wednesday morning in which he noted it was the first time in many years (since 1998) that Republicans had flipped a Democratic congressional seat in California, a Democratic stronghold.

 

The result marked a setback for Democrats coming so soon after Hill had grabbed the long-time Republican suburban turf by nearly 9 percentage points in 2018.

The district has more Democrats than Republicans but the special election turnout seemed to be Republican-leaning, “which may not be the case in the fall,” said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a newsletter on campaigns.

–Metro Voice and wire services

Can You Help?

With events and churches cancelling services, the advertising that Metro Voice relies on for support is drying up. For 31 years, Metro Voice has been a leader in the faith-based community. We have historically relied on advertising to fund the mission of our publication and sharing the Good News. We are now seeking donation partners who want to support our publication and our mission of faith-based journalism.

Do you like what you read here? Help us continue our mission by supporting Metrovoicenews.com for as little as $1. Every contribution counts, big or small. We sincerely thank you for your continued support and encouragement in these critical times.

Ongoing Support


Monthly Giving



One-Time Gifts

 

X
X