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.
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