Close results in a Central Valley congressional race are conjuring memories of 2018, when David Valadao lost his seat in California’s District 21 — covering Kings County and parts of Fresno, Tulare and Kern counties.
In 2018, Republican Valadao lost to Democratic challenger TJ Cox by just 862 votes. The race was so close that some newspapers preemptively called the race for Valadao, before issuing corrections and calling it for Cox.
Valadao ran against Cox again this year to regain the seat he previously held for six years. In returns on Wednesday evening, the ballot count was at 51.38% for Valadao, 48.62% for Cox — a difference of only 3,033 votes.
Valadao told the Fresno Bee Tuesday night that he was “encouraged by the early results,” but acknowledged that many ballots — tens of thousands, according to the Fresno Bee — remain to be counted. In 2018, it took nearly a month for final result in the race.
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