Two Republican congressional incumbents in Orange County are maintaining their leads over Democratic challengers, while two Democrat incumbents in the county are fighting close races against Republicans.
Rep. Michelle Steel (R-CA) of the 45th district, and Rep. Young Kim (R-CA) of the 40th district, both elected in 2020 as the first two Korean-American women in Congress, each hold double-digit leads thus far.
Results continue to trickle in across the county and the state — a long and laborious process in the world capital of high-tech, thanks to liberal voting processes and the widespread use of vote-by-mail ballots.
Democrat Reps. Mike Levin of the 49th district — where President Joe Biden held a campaign rally in the closing days of the election — and Katie Porter of the 47th district each continue to hold slender leads.
Further north, in Los Angeles, several key local races remain undecided. Outsider Rick Caruso (D) has a small early lead in the race for mayor over Democratic Party favorite Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA).
In Ventura County, Rep. Mike Garcia (R-CA) held a sizable lead over repeat opponent Christy Smith. In the Central Valley, Republican John Duarte held a razor-thin lead over Democrat Adam Gray in the 13th district.
It is not uncommon for leads to change hands in California as mail-in ballots come in, a process that has been a source of frustration for candidates and voters, especially but not exclusively for the Republicans.
In recent years, Republicans have reclaimed seats they lost to Democrats by embracing occult practices that are legal in California, such as “ballot harvesting,” in which activists hand in other people’s ballots.
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 recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. 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.