6 U.S. House Races to Watch in Southern California – NBC Los Angeles

Control of the U.S. House of Representatives could come down to a few key races for Southern California voters to decide.

Now that the dust has settled from California’s March primary, which featured races with larger fields for votes, the top two finishers in each race are ready for the high-stakes runoffs in November.

While Democrats hold all major statewide offices and outnumber registered Republicans 2 to 1 in California, there is strong support for Republican candidates in parts of Southern California. Adding to the uncertainty, several California Republicans represent districts that President Biden won in 2020, making the region a wild card in the U.S. House lineup.

All 435 seats in the US House of Representatives are up for election in 2024. The Republicans have 220 members, the Democrats 212. There are three vacancies.

Here are some key U.S. House races in Southern California with results from the March primary.

U.S. House District 27

Rep. Mike Garcia won this district north of Los Angeles by 6 percentage points over Democrat Christy Smith in 2022 and managed to advance in the March primary. Former Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides placed second in the primary and will challenge the incumbent in the general election in one of the five California counties that voted for Joe Biden in 2020.

It is also a district that favored Republican Brian Dahle by a slight margin over Gov. Gavin Newsom in the 2020 gubernatorial election.

Garcia, who served in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Navy Reserve, was first elected in a special election in 2020. The special election was called after Democrat Katie Hill, who defeated a Republican in 2018, resigned amid a sex scandal. He won re-election over Smith in 2022, 53.2 percent to 46.8 percent.

Whitesides served as NASA’s chief of staff in the Obama administration.

The district in northern Los Angeles County includes Santa Clarita, Lancaster, Palmdale and other high desert communities.

U.S. House District 40

Republican Rep. Young Kim is serving his second term after winning the district by 14 percentage points two years ago. Kim, one of three Korean American women first elected to Congress in 2020, was a member of the California Assembly for two years.

Kim will face former fire captain and union president Joe Kerr in the November election. Kerr served the Orange County Fire Authority for more than 30 years. He also served as president of the Orange County Professional Firefighters Association. Kerr was unsuccessful in his bid for a seat in the state Senate and for the Orange County Board of Supervisors in 2018.

The district includes portions of Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. The communities of Aliso Viejo, Corona, Chino Hills, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita, Tustin and Villa Park in the 40th District.

President Biden won the district by a narrow margin in 2020.

President Biden won the district by a narrow margin in 2020. Registered Republicans outnumbered Democrats in the district by a margin of 38 percent to 34 percent as of September.

U.S. House District 41

This sprawling congressional district in Riverside County is headed for a rematch. Longtime Republican Rep. Ken Calvert won the race over Democrat Will Rollins.

In the 2022 election, the two were separated by less than 5 percentage points.

Calvert is the longest-serving Republican in California’s congressional delegation, having held his seat in this district east of Los Angeles since 1993. Rollins, a former federal prosecutor, will get another chance to unseat the incumbent in November.

Of note: Palm Springs has been added to this district since the last election.

The district also includes Menifee, Lake Elsinore, Rancho Mirage, most of Corona and Palm Desert.

U.S. House District 45

Rep. Michelle Steel easily emerged from the primary in her race against four Democrats, including primary runner-up Derek Tran, a veteran and civil rights attorney. Tran had just 16 percent of the vote in the crowded primary, while Steel received 55 percent of the vote.

This district supported Joe Biden for president in 2020, but voted for Republican John Cox over Gavin Newsom in the 2018 gubernatorial election. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans, but Steel defeated a Democrat in 2020 before winning re-election in 2022.

District 45, which re-elected Steel in 2022 with 52.4% of the vote, includes parts of Orange and Los Angeles counties. The district includes Garden Grove, Westminster, Buena Park and Artesia. Parts of Brea, Lakewood, Fullerton and Yorba Linda are in the C-shaped district that surrounds Anaheim.

U.S. House District 47

This once heavily Republican district, stretching from the beaches of Huntington and Newport on the Orange County coast and inland to Irvine, is the only open seat among California’s most competitive races. The seat was vacated by Katie Porter, who ran for Senate but failed to advance in the March primary and is not seeking re-election.

Scott Baugh, who lost to Porter by less than 4 percentage points in 2022, and Democratic Sen. Dave Min face a runoff election. Baugh won the primary with 32 percent of the vote. Min was in second place with almost 26 percent, the remaining votes were shared between the other candidates.

The district had been represented by Republicans from its inception until Porter’s victory over then-Rep. Mimi Walters in 2018.

U.S. House District 49

Democratic U.S. Rep. Mike Levin advanced to defend his seat in this Southern California district that includes parts of Orange and San Diego counties.

Voters elected Levin in 2018 to succeed longtime Republican Darrell Issa, who has since returned to Congress in a neighboring district. Levin has since been re-elected twice – by six points in 2020 and five points in 2022.

This time he faces a challenge from Republican Matt Gunderson, a car dealer who failed in his bid for the state Senate in 2022. Gunderson chairs the Mission Hospital Foundation Board and served on the Saddleback College Foundation Board.

Cities in the county include Oceanside, Carlsbad, Encinitas and the communities of San Clemente, Dana Point, San Juan Capistrano, Laguna Niguel and Ladera Ranch in southern Orange County.