In Pictures | Voter turnout, close races and high anxiety on election night in SoCal
Few can argue with California Democrats that their sweeping victories on Tuesday are a clear mandate to set in place an agenda for the state that will last well into the next decade. Less clear, though, is what those marching orders should be — and whether voters will embrace the full panoply of demands that have lurched the state’s dominant party leftward since the election of President Trump.
No one will face that task more directly than Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom. The 51-year old Democrat, who won a resounding victory over Republican challenger John Cox, will preside not only over the nation’s largest economy, but as leader of America’s most fierce resistance to Trump and the nationalist shift of mainstream GOP politics.
New man in Sacramento
Gavin Newsom won a decisive victory for governor Tuesday night, placing the risk-taking liberal at the center of the resistance to President Trump at a critical moment for California.
Newsom is expected to shift state politics and policy even further to the left after eight years of Gov. Jerry Brown, a pragmatic Democrat known for his fiscal restraint and distaste for expensive new social programs.
California's 48th congressional district
In coastal Orange County’s 48th Congressional District, Rep. DanaRohrabacher was more than 6,000 votes behind his Democratic challenger Harley Rouda. The tally Wednesday morning had Rouda leading, 50.7% to 49.3%.
Rohrabacher is facing his toughest reelection battle of his 30 years in Congress.
California's 45th congressional district
The lone Republican incumbent who showed strong signs of survival was Rep. Mimi Walters, who was leading her Democratic opponent Katie Porter, 51.7% to 48.3% in the 45th Congressional District that includes the Irvine area.
“You guys, we’re looking good,” she told supporters at a late-night gathering in Irvine. “I really think it’s going to be tough for her to beat me at this point.”
California's 39th congressional district
Young Kim, the Republican vying for the seat of retiring Rep. Ed Royce of Fullerton in the 39th Congressional District. She held a lead over Democrat Gil Cisneros, 51.3% to 48.7%.
California's 25th congressional district
Katie Hill held the lead over Republican incumbent Steve Knight in the 25th Congressional District.
With 100 percent of the precincts reporting, Hill had received 83,662 votes to Knight's 79,545 with provisional and mail-in ballots still to be counted.
New Sheriff in town?
Sheriff Jim McDonnell on Wednesday was in jeopardy of being ousted by voters as challenger Alex Villanueva took a razor-thin lead in the race to lead the sprawling, scandal-tainted law enforcement agency.
With votes still being counted, the outcome of the race is still in question. But the fact that McDonnell is fighting for his political life has stunned the Los Angeles political establishment and raised questions about future reforms at the department.
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