After three weeks of counting votes, Democrat TJ Cox took the lead over incumbent David Valadao, giving Democrats a 40th seat in the House.
November 28, 2018

Democrat TJ Cox has declared victory over Republican David Valadao in California's 21st district. In a press release sent earlier, Cox noted that he had a net gain of 70 votes from remaining votes in the one county that went toward incumbent David Valadao on Election Day, putting him up by just over 500 votes.

This race was called on Election Night by all of the major wire services, only to have to rescind those calls as Cox gained on Valadao in the post-election mail-in ballot count. Ironically, Valadao outperformed his 2016 performance, but it was not enough to hold off Cox.

Cox released this statement on Twitter:

This race, as much as any other, proves that when we show up to vote, we win. David Valadao is a terrible climate change denier, he voted 100% with Trump, and ignored his constituents.

In two years, it's going to be Devin Nunes we go after again. And Kevin McCarthy. But for now, savor the win.

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