Never let anyone tell you that their vote doesn’t count.  In California’s 25th Congressional District, my home district (and Jen Van Laar’s) the battle for the seat has been raging since the shocking resignation of Congresswoman Katie Hill, following accusations of misconduct with her staff, as broken exclusively by RedState in October of 2019.  After a Special Election left no candidate with 50+%, a runoff election between Republican first-time candidate Mike Garcia and Democrat Assemblywoman Christy Smith was held in May in which Garcia was victorious.

Now Congressman Garcia and Assemblywoman Smith faced off again in November, this time with a much closer result.  Though Garcia declared victory several weeks back, the counties (Los Angeles and Ventura) continued to count ballots. As of yesterday, Smith conceded the race to Garcia after it was revealed that there didn’t appear to be enough votes to overcome the 333 vote margin she trailed by.

Christy Smith’s campaign released the following statement:

While I remain philosophically and ideologically opposed to Christy, she has, for the most part, been honorable in her race against Garcia.  Mudslinging is a part of any political campaign, and if I had to have a Democrat represent me, Christy would likely be who I would choose.  She has already announced her intentions to challenge Garcia for the seat again in 2022, however, California is headed for a redistricting between now and then that could fundamentally change the composition of the district. Redistricting could send both candidates into different districts or make the 25th a tougher race for either candidate.

As for now, CA-25 remains red.