(Republicaninformer.com)- The Associated Press declared the contest winner for California’s 22nd Congressional District on Monday night, two weeks after Election Day. Even though there were many Democrats in the district, Republican Rep. David Valadao scored a win.
After 98 percent of the votes had been tallied, the AP declared the contest in favor of Valadao, who had defeated Democrat Rudy Salas.
Even though many people thought the race between Salas and Valadao was close, Valadao won with 52 percent of the vote while Salas received only 48 percent, according to the AP.
Despite being a Republican, Valadao never openly endorsed the late President Donald Trump.
In fact, according to the AP, he was among the lawmakers that voted in favor of impeaching the outgoing president in 2021.
The Republican’s victory also occurs even though there are significantly more registered Democrats than Republicans in California’s 22nd Congressional District, according to CalMatters. Democrats outnumber Republicans as a proportion of registered voters in this district by 17.35 percentage points.
According to the AP, the primary issues that voters in this part of California, which is in the state’s farm belt, were concerned about were slightly different.
Voters in the 22nd District prioritized the economy over issues related to agriculture and water.
The AP reported that Salas and Valadao both made other issues, like abortion, health care, and gas taxes, a focus of their campaigns.
With Valadao’s victory, there has been a lot of discussion on Twitter about both the Republican’s triumph as well as the two-week wait for the ballots to be tabulated.
“Awesome!” one user stated, “I could have opened all the mail in ballots with my foot and had them counted quicker. — Cody J. on November 22, 2022 (@fellowLApatriot)
Another commented the he found it unbelievable that “we are still tallying votes!” – Julio Aguilar (@realJAguilar) 22 November 2022.
In the meantime, the AP reported last week that Republicans had already gained control of the House, despite Valadao’s victory being noteworthy in a seat with a Democratic lean.
With Valadao’s victory, the Republicans now command 219 seats in the House, compared to the Democrats’ 212, according to the AP.
