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“In an adverse political environment, Democrats found success in House races, increasing their seats from 213 to 215 and reducing the Republicans’ majority at the start of the session to just two seats.”
With victories in key House races up and down the West Coast, voters resoundingly rejected the chaos and dysfunction of Republican incumbents and elected five of the DCCC’s West Coast Red-to-Blue candidates to the halls of Congress:
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Congresswoman-elect Janelle Bynum will represent Oregon’s 5th
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Congressman-elect Dave Min will represent California’s 47th
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Congressman-elect Derek Tran will represent California’s 45th
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Congressman-elect George Whitesides will represent California’s 27th
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Congressman-elect Adam Gray will represent California’s 13th
As the Washington Post wrote, “ultimately, good candidates win competitive races” — and these Democrats are ready to get to work for their communities and constituents in the House of Representatives.
DCCC Spokesperson Dan Gottlieb:
“This election, West Coast voters sent a clear message: rebuking out-of-touch Republicans for enabling their party’s worst impulses, sending five Red-to-Blue candidates from California and Oregon to Congress alone, and re-electing every single swing district Frontline Member from San Diego to Seattle. Ultimately, these top-notch candidates had a better formula to win these seats out West and defy the political headwinds, and now dysfunctional Republicans will have to manage through the smallest House majority in nearly a century.”
Here’s what voters are reading about their newest Members of Congress:
Los Angeles Times: A bright spot for Democrats as voters shifted right: Flipping 3 House seats in California
Laura J. Nelson | December 7, 2024
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In the Central Valley, the Antelope Valley and Orange County, a trio of Democratic congressional challengers unseated Republican incumbents as the party narrowed the GOP’s razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives.
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In the aerospace-heavy Antelope Valley, Whitesides ran on his biography as a former NASA chief of staff and Virgin Galactic chief executive to oust GOP Rep. Mike Garcia.
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In Orange County, Tran narrowly defeated Republican Rep. Michelle Steel to become the first Vietnamese American candidate to win the congressional district that includes Little Saigon.
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And in the Central Valley, Gray — a moderate Democrat and longtime Modesto lawmaker — beat GOP Rep. John Duarte by a wafer-thin margin of 187 votes. The photo-finish race, called Tuesday, was the last in the country to be decided.
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The Orange County coast also delivered another key victory for Democrats, although not a flip. After Rep. Katie Porter chose not to run for reelection, Democrat Dave Min beat Republican Scott Baugh in the 47th Congressional District, keeping the seat blue.
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“We knew from the onset how important these seats would be, and so did Republicans,” said Dan Gottlieb, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee who worked on West Coast races.
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He chalked up their victory to strong candidates with deep ties in their districts, weaknesses with the Republican incumbents and robust fundraising that allowed Democrats to “strain the GOP’s resources” and force them to play defense in more districts.
POLITICO: Blue state bastions deliver Democrats a consolation prize in the House
Melanie Mason, Mia McCarthy, Emily Ngo | December 5, 2024
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Nearly a month after Election Day, Democrats clinched their final House win of the cycle this week, a capstone to winning four of the six most competitive California congressional races. Their strong showing, despite a statewide rightward shift that echoed national trends, led to the party ousting three incumbent Republicans and bringing them tantalizingly close to capturing the chamber.
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Democratic candidates routinely posted seven-figure fundraising hauls, putting them in a position to more efficiently buy TV airtime. And they were boosted by substantial investments by the party and major super PACs, which early on oriented their funding goals in anticipation of the high cost of playing in those races.
Washington Post: How House Democrats flipped New York and California seats
Jennifer Rubin | December 10, 2024
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In an adverse political environment, Democrats found success in House races, increasing their seats from 213 to 215 and reducing the Republicans’ majority at the start of the session to just two seats.
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If not for the extreme Republican gerrymandering in North Carolina that wiped out three Democratic seats, Democrats would have won the majority.
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Ultimately, good candidates win competitive races. Derek Tran, for example, ousted Republican Rep. Michelle Steel in California’s 45th District. In a heavily Vietnamese American district, Tran, a son of Vietnamese refugees and an Army veteran, made his background a “key component” of the race, allowing him to “connect with the Vietnamese population that Democrats believe no prior candidate could,” USA Today reported. His father’s emotional flight from Vietnam and Tran’s military service resonated with voters who tilt more conservative than other Asian Americans.
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In California’s heavily Republican 27th District, Democrat George Whitesides finally prevailed in knocking out GOP Rep. Mike Garcia. Whitesides, a former NASA chief of staff and former CEO of Virgin Galactic, was able to self-fund; moreover, conservative voters warmed to his aeronautics and business profile. “Whitesides not only held on to Democratic voters, but managed to keep many moderates and even made inroads into the GOP by promising to lower taxes, lower the cost of living, alter the Prop 47 crime law (a 10-year-old measure that reduced penalties for certain crimes), take a strong stance on crime, and create a stronger border,” the California Globe reported. (Californians also passed Proposition 36, which reinstated stiff penalties for theft and drug trafficking.)
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Likewise, Adam Gray edged out the Republican incumbent in the 13th District in the agriculture-rich Central Valley. Gray called himself the “most moderate Democrat in California.”
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And in California’s 47th District, Democrats managed to hold a seat vacated by Rep. Katie Porter. Korean American Dave Min (“who embodied the demographic changes that had transformed ruby-red Orange County to a purple battleground”), Politico reported, “did it by running offense on public safety, overcoming his party’s soft-on-crime stereotype and his own drunken driving arrest.”
POLITICO California Playbook: How California Democrats defied a red shift
Tyler Katzenberger, Dustin Gardiner | December 5, 2024
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Democrats felt their diverse roster of A-list business moguls, star lawyers and staunch moderates gave them a leg up over vulnerable Republican incumbents.
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Democratic Rep. Pete Aguilar touted the party’s personnel picks Wednesday alongside Adam Gray, who beamed into the Democrats’ caucus meeting via FaceTime less than 24 hours after winning his Central Valley race by just 127 votes.
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“Ultimately, these candidates and their stories is what broke through,” Aguilar told reporters.
Oregonian: See how Janelle Bynum won Oregon’s most closely watched Congressional race
Sami Edge, Mark Friesen | December 10, 2024
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Republican U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer scored a major victory in 2022 when she snatched the newly redrawn 5th Congressional District southeast of Portland.
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This year, Democrat Janelle Bynum won the seat back in one of the most expensive and closely-watched House races across the country, ending one term of Republican control.
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Nearly every precinct in the politically-mixed 5th Congressional District shifted to the left compared to 2022, delivering Bynum a win by nearly 3 percentage points, an analysis by The Oregonian/OregonLive finds.
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