SANTA ANA (CNS) - Two Republican challengers hold slim leads over first-term Orange County Democratic House members today.
Former Assemblywoman Young Kim leads Rep. Gil Cisneros, D-Yorba Linda, by 3,095 votes, 50.5%-49.5%, in the race to represent the 39th Congressional District, which consists of portions of Orange, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. Kim has 159,571 votes and Cisneros 156,476.
Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Michelle Steel leads Rep. Harley Rouda, D-Newport Beach, by 6,973 votes in the coastal 48th District. Steel has 50.9% of the vote to Rouda's 49.1%, or 196,208-189,235.
Updated figures are scheduled to be released later today.
Mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day can also be received as late as Nov. 20 and still be counted under state law.
The Cisneros-Kim race is a rematch of 2018, when Cisneros defeated Kim, 51.6%-48.4%, 126,002-118,391, to succeed Rep. Ed Royce, R-Fullerton, who held the seat from 1993-2019. Kim had been a member of Royce's staff.
Kim was leading in the vote count in 2018 and traveled to Washington, D.C., for orientation for newly elected House members, only to be overtaken by Cisneros in late-arriving ballots.
Kim is seeking to be the first Korean-American woman in Congress.
Rouda defeated then-Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, 53.6%-46.4%, 157,837-136,899, in 2018. Rohrabacher had served in the House since 1989.
Photo: Getty Images