Republicans Win Two Elections in California, Flipping a Congressional Seat in the Process

Written by Nicholas Vetrisek

For perhaps the first time in recent memory, Republicans are winning in California. Leftist pundits love to claim that California is a permanent safe haven for Democrats, but the elections this week showed otherwise.

Two elections, one for the State Senate and the other for the U.S. House of Representatives, have been won by Republicans—and the latter seat was flipped. Melissa Melendez won the 28th State Senate seat, while Mike Garcia won in the 25th congressional district, a seat that previously belonged to disgraced congresswoman Katie Hill. 

In 2018, Hill was elected to Congress after flipping the seat which was held by Republicans for decades, but she resigned in 2019 after embarrassing pictures surfaced of her engaging in truly bizarre behaviors. It’s hard to describe them with a straight face and they must be seen to be believed.

Prior to the controversy, her winning the seat was seen by leftist journalists as proof that the Republicans were on a downward spiral thanks to President Trump. After all, if a district as historically Republican as the 25th congressional district could flip blue, what else could? This recent election proved that 2018 may have been a fluke.

This is also the first time in over two decades that Republicans have flipped a congressional seat in California, suggesting that change may be on the horizon.

The reason why the Republicans lost the House in 2018 was not because of Trump, but because of the uncertainty surrounding him. With only two years in office, many still weren’t convinced that he wasn’t the madman that the media portrayed him as. Now that Americans know what he is truly like, they are coming around and these election are proof of that. 

The reason why this should be terrifying for Democrats is because many other seats were the same as CA-25, historically Republican but flipped due to uncertainty. Even with the uncertainty created by Trump, Democrats didn’t do as well as portrayed in 2018. Sure they took back the House, but not by an astronomical margin, and they came nowhere near winning the Senate. 

As a result of this and the fact that many Americans have come around on President Trump, 2020 may be a big year for Republicans—even in California.