Democrat TJ Cox declares victory in country's last undecided congressional race

Democrat TJ Cox declared victory on Wednesday in California's 21st Congressional District, the final undecided congressional race from the 2018 midterms.

Cox, an engineer and owner of two nut-processing companies, ran against incumbent Republican Rep. David Valadao. On the night of the election more than three weeks ago, Valadao was ahead of Cox by nearly 4,400 votes. As more ballots were counted, that lead got tighter, and on Monday, Cox surged ahead. When Kings County updated its results on Wednesday morning, it brought Cox's lead to 529 votes.

All of the votes in Fresno and King counties have been counted, but a few thousand still need to be tallied in Tulare and Kern counties. Valadao is a three-term incumbent, who won in 2016 even when the mostly rural district voted for Hillary Clinton by double digits. If Cox does officially win the race, Democrats will have gained seven House seats in California and 40 nationwide.

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