Wisconsin state Sen. Tom Tiffany (R) won a U.S. House seat Tuesday in a special election to fill a vacancy left by former Rep. Sean Duffy (R). Tiffany beat Democrat Tricia Zunker by 14 percentage points in a district President Trump won by 20 points and Duffy took by 22 points in 2018. Tiffany's victory was widely expected, but the special election in California's 25 Congressional District was watched closely by both parties, and the Republican, former Navy pilot Mike Garcia, took a sizable early lead over Democratic state Assemblywoman Christy Smith.
Democrat Katie Hill won the suburban Los Angeles seat by 9 points in 2018, flipping it from GOP control for the first time in 25 years, before resigning after acknowledging an inappropriate sexual relationship with a staff member. With 142,000 votes counted early Wednesday, Garcia leads Smith by 12 points, 56 percent to 44 percent. The election was conducted mostly by mail, but Republicans appeared to have both turned in more ballots and showed up in greater numbers to the seven polling places, Jennifer Medina reports at The New York Times.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
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.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
If Garcia wins, as he looks likely to do. it will be the first time California's embattled Republican Party took a seat away from the Democrats since 1998. Democrats, bracing for the loss, said they expect Smith to win in November, when the electorate is more favorable to the party. For example, tracking data cited by the Times shows that 56 percent of voters 65 and older returned mail-in ballots versus 19 percent of voters younger than 35, while 40 percent of white voters and only 21 percent of Latino voters mailed back their ballots.
-
Could Trump run for a third term?The Explainer Constitutional amendment limits US presidents to two terms, but Trump diehards claim there is a loophole
-
Political cartoons for November 28Cartoons Friday's political cartoons include economic diagnosis, climate distractions, and more
-
What does the fall in net migration mean for the UK?Today’s Big Question With Labour and the Tories trying to ‘claim credit’ for lower figures, the ‘underlying picture is far less clear-cut’
-
Judge halts Trump’s DC Guard deploymentSpeed Read The Trump administration has ‘infringed upon the District’s right to govern itself,’ the judge ruled
-
Trump accuses Democrats of sedition meriting ‘death’Speed Read The president called for Democratic lawmakers to be arrested for urging the military to refuse illegal orders
-
Court strikes down Texas GOP gerrymanderSpeed Read The Texas congressional map ordered by Trump is likely an illegal racial gerrymander, the court ruled
-
Trump defends Saudi prince, shrugs off Khashoggi murderSpeed Read The president rebuked an ABC News reporter for asking Mohammed bin Salman about the death of a Washington Post journalist at the Saudi Consulate in 2018
-
Congress passes bill to force release of Epstein filesSpeed Read The Justice Department will release all files from its Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking investigation
-
Trump says he will sell F-35 jets to Saudi ArabiaSpeed Read The president plans to make several deals with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman this week
-
Judge blasts ‘profound’ errors in Comey caseSpeed Read ‘Government misconduct’ may necessitate dismissing the charges against the former FBI director altogether
-
Ecuador rejects push to allow US military basesSpeed Read Voters rejected a repeal of a constitutional ban on US and other foreign military bases in the country
