Republican farmer John Duarte won an open congressional seat in the Central Valley, defeating Democratic Assemblyman Adam Gray despite Democrats' strong voter registration advantage in the district.
The Associated Press called the race Friday, though official results will take longer. The race was the final congressional contest in California to be called and adds to Republicans' slim majority in the House in the next Congress.
No incumbent chose to run in the heavily agricultural 13th Congressional District, adjusted in the decennial redrawing of maps to include all of Merced County and parts of several others. Democrats have a 14.3-percentage-point voter registration edge, but low turnout among Democrats and Latinos — who make up slightly more than 50% of the population that is eligible to vote — as well as the independent nature of politics in the region have made races unpredictable here.
