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.

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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.