The Latest: Democrat leads in last undecided House race

By The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — The Latest on U.S. House races in California (all times local):

8:15 p.m.

Democrat Gil Cisneros has grabbed a narrow lead for the first time in the last undecided U.S. House contest in California.

Cisneros is battling Republican Young Kim to replace retiring Republican Rep. Ed Royce in Southern California’s 39th District.

With ballots still being counted, an update Thursday showed Cisneros with a 941-vote lead, after Kim held an early edge in the contest.

Earlier Thursday, Democrat Katie Porter ousted Republican Rep. Mimi Walters in the 45th District in Orange County, a one-time Republican stronghold.

It was the fifth Republican-held House seat picked up by California Democrats.

With Porter’s win, Democrats will hold at least a 44-9 edge in California U.S. House seats.

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5:37 p.m.

Democrat Katie Porter captured a Republican-held U.S. House seat Thursday in the heart of what once was Southern California’s Reagan country, extending a rout of the state’s GOP House delegation that might not be over.

Porter’s upset in Orange County is a sign of changing times in a region once known nationally as a GOP fortress. The coastal county southeast of Los Angeles was home to President Richard Nixon, and President Ronald Reagan once likened it to a Republican heaven.

Porter, a law professor and protege of Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, defeated Republican Rep. Mimi Walters, who was re-elected in a walkover just two years ago in the 45th District. The latest update to the vote count gave Porter 51 per cent and a 6,203-vote lead.

The Associated Press

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