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Democrat Levin holds onto San Diego and Orange County-area House seat
Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif., arrives to the U.S. Capitol on April 20, 2023. Levin won reelection to California's 49th District.
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Tom Williams
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CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
)
Democratic Rep. Mike Levin defeated GOP challenger Matt Gunderson in a closely watched San Diego-area race.
The Associated Press called the race late Tuesday, although there are votes still to be counted. Levin had 52% of the vote to Gunderson’s 48%.
Republicans had hoped to flip the seat after Levin turned it Democratic in 2018. The seat represents California's 49th District, which covers coastal north San Diego County and parts of southern Orange County.
Levin's reaction
“This was a hard fought, competitive race and I am proud of the incredible work we put in as a team with hundreds of volunteers to get this over the finish line,” Levin said in a statement Tuesday. “We knocked on thousands of doors, called thousands of voters, and held town halls all throughout the district to share our message of successfully delivering bipartisan results for our residents."
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This will be Levin’s fourth term.
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Democrat Levin holds onto San Diego and Orange County-area House seat
In his statement, he laid out part of his agenda for his next term, including “to lower costs, secure our borders, protect Social Security and Medicare, remove the nuclear waste at San Onofre, put more sand on our beaches.”
What's next
Levin’s win likely isn't enough for Democrats to take control of the House. As of early Wednesday afternoon, the GOP was two seats away from winning the majority.
The Orange County race between Republican incumbent Michelle Steele and Democratic challenger Derek Tran is among the seats yet to be decided.
Steel was winning with 50.4% of the vote as of Wednesday, but fewer than 2,300 votes separated her from Tran.
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