Republican Young Kim officially defeated incumbent Rep. Gil Cisneros (D-CA) Saturday in California’s 39th congressional district, marking the latest GOP victory in an election that has seen Democrats lose seats nationwide while retaining a small majority in the House of Representatives.
The Orange County Register reported:
“Whoever you voted for in this election, I hope you know that regardless of any differences we may have, I will always work on your behalf and fight for you,” Kim said in a Facebook video declaring victory Friday night.
“Now that the election is over, I hope we can unite and move forward to address the issues that our nation faces.”
Cisneros issued a statement saying “the voters have spoken” after latest results showed Kim with 50.6% of the vote. While there were still several thousand mail-in and provisional ballots left to tally across the three counties that touch CA-39, both candidates said the math made it clear that Kim had won the race.
The race was a rematch of the 2018 contest between Kim, a former state legislator, and Cisneros, a Navy veteran and philanthropist. In 2018, Kim led on Election Night but lost as mail-in ballots were counted over several days.
The same happened this year — but in reverse, as Republicans adopted some of Democrats’ “ballot harvesting” tactics.
Kim’s victory marks the second Orange County congressional seat that Republicans have flipped back to the GOP in a traditionally conservative area of the liberal state.
In addition, Kim, together with victorious Michelle Steel from the 48th district, will take their seats in Congress as the first two Korean-American women ever elected to the position of U.S. Representatives. Both are Republicans.
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). His newest e-book is The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.