Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 08:48 pm
Democratic candidate TJ Cox has increased his lead in the last undecided House race, which means that Democrats are likely to flip a 40th House seat.
Meredith Kelly of the DCCC tweeted that the race is over:
#CA21 UPDATE!
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With an additional 1,438 ballots counted in King County today, Cox actually INCREASED his lead by a net 70 votes. This brings his total lead to 506 votes.
This race is over people. And means Dems will ultimately flip 40 seats in 2018 midterms.
— Meredith Kelly (@meredithk27) November 28, 2018
Nate Silver explained that Republican Rep. Valadao is likely toast:
Kings Co., which voted strongly for Valadao (R) on election night, just gave *Cox* (D) more votes instead, putting him further ahead. And Kings is done counting ballots, so it's hard to see where else Valadao will gain ground. Valadao is probably toast. https://t.co/n2fcq8NO7L
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 28, 2018
The Blue Wave Delivered
The race hasn’t been officially called yet, because the margin is so close, but this doesn’t appear to be enough remaining vote left for Republicans to make up the margin and keep the seat. TJ Cox took the lead in the election on Monday, and Valadao’s last hope was that King County would come through for him and narrow the margin. This did not happen. Instead, Cox picked up more votes and expanded his lead.
The blue wave was a reality. Trump and the Republicans can try to find different ways to dismiss, but Democrats picked up their most seats since the Watergate era. Forty House seats are right in line with the high-end projection that Democrats were expected to hit. It is absolutely absurd that some Democrats even thought of not electing Nancy Pelosi to be the speaker.
Pelosi saw the blue wave coming and worked tirelessly to help make it a reality.
Democrats hit expectations, and now have the power needed to check Donald Trump.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
