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Two Central, South Coast Congressional Incumbents Re-Elected; Fate Of Third Seat Still Up In Air

Two familiar faces on the Central and South Coasts will be returning to Washington, D.C. for new congressional terms, but a third race in the region is still up in the air.

24th District Democratic Congressman Salud Carbajal of Santa Barbara easily won re-election.  Carbajal defeated Republican challenger Andy Caldwell by a 62% to 38% margin.  It will be Carbajal’s third term in office.

Democratic Congresswoman Julia Brownley of Westlake Village also won re-election by an almost identical 62% to 38% margin.  The 26th District congresswoman won her fifth term in office, outdistancing Republican Ronda Baldwin-Kennedy.

But, a third race in the region is still far from settled.  It’s the 25th Congressional District, which is mostly in Los Angeles County but includes a slice of Ventura County.  Democrat Christy Smith has 50.5% of the vote, to Republican Mike Garcia’s 49.5%. 

This is the seat won by Democrat Katie Hill in 2018.  She resigned last year, following a scandal.  There was a special election in May to complete the final months of Hill’s term, which Garcia won.  This election is for a full two-year term.  We may not know the final results of this election for days, with mail-in and provisional ballots yet to be counted.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral.