A week after the election, Democrats appear on the verge of a key House upset

Rep. Darrell Issa, fighting for his political life

(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

last updated 15 November 2016

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) was considered the rarest of birds: an endangered House incumbent. He won his previous eight races by comfortable margins in a reliably Republican Southern California district, until Donald Trump and changing demographics put his ninth term in jeopardy. On election night, Issa appeared to narrowly beat Democratic challenger Doug Applegate, a retired Marine colonel and Iraq War veteran, but on Monday, a new batch of ballots shrank his lead to just 2,871 votes, with another tally of mail-in and provisional ballots to be released Tuesday night.

There are hundreds of thousands of ballots left to count, The San Diego Union-Tribune reports, though it's not clear how many are from Issa's 49th congressional district. Registrars have 30 days to finish counting the votes, and mail-in and provisional ballots have tipped elections in the other direction before. Issa is one of the House's highest-profile Republicans, a multi-millionaire and former aggressive chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Democrats spent heavily to unseat him this year.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.