Three-Peat: Republican Mike Garcia, Democrat Christy Smith Advance to CA’s 27th District General Election

Republican Rep. Mike Garcia (R-CA) and Democrat Christy Smith will face off for the third time as they advance to the general election from a crowded primary field in California’s 27th Congressional District.

ABC News projected the results:

This will be another rematch between Garcia and Smith after he defeated her during a May 2020 special election to succeed disgraced former Rep. Katie Hill (D-CA) after she resigned from Congress following inappropriate relationships with staffers in her congressional office and campaign.

He also beat her in the 2020 general election for a full term by 333 votes — which made it the third-closest House race in that election cycle.

Garcia was a former U.S. Navy pilot who worked for Raytheon Technologies after his retirement. At the same time, Smith continuously ran for public office after only having one successful campaign in 2018 when she ran for state assembly.

The state’s once-in-a-decade redistricting effort following the census made the congressional district slightly more competitive after the loss of Simi Valley, the old district’s most conservative region, ultimately giving Democrats a slight edge.

However, going into November, Garcia has proven himself to voters.

In a head-to-head battle with 801 likely 2022 primary voters from a recent poll conducted by Remington Research Group, 47 percent said they would vote for Garcia, while only 45 percent said they would vote for Smith. In the head-to-head battle, only eight percent said they were undecided.

The poll also found that Garcia has a higher favorability. Thirty-nine percent said they viewed him with favorably, while only 26 percent viewed him negatively — 35 percent said they had no opinion. There were also 34 percent who said they viewed Smith favorably, while 23 percent viewed her unfavorably and 43 percent had no opinion.

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.