Democratic challenger Derek Tran took the narrow lead over incumbent Republican Michelle Steel in the race for Orange County’s 45th Congressional District, giving Democrats an edge in one of the most competitive districts in the country.
As of Saturday, Tran is just 36 votes ahead of Steel after slowly eating up her lead over the past week, with over 300,000 votes counted in the race.
Both Steel and Tran are in a dead heat with each holding roughly 50% of the votes.
It is one of only five races for the House of Representatives left in the country that have not been called by the Associated Press as of Saturday night.
While Republicans have already cemented a majority in the House, the handful of outstanding races across the country could determine just how large that majority is.
The district, which encompasses Little Saigon, stretches from parts of Los Angeles County into Orange County.
It includes Cerritos, Artesia, Hawaiian Gardens, Los Alamitos, La Palma, Placentia, parts of Lakewood, Fullerton, Yorba Linda and Brea, while dipping through Cypress and Buena Park and into Westminster and Garden Grove.
Steel, a former Orange County supervisor, was first elected to congress in 2020 during the height of the pandemic after leading the supervisors through the early days of the pandemic amidst questions over how they were spending their money.
Tran, a labor attorney, has never held elected office before.
Democrats already won Orange County’s other competitive congressional race in the 47th district after Republican Scott Baugh conceded to Democrat State Senator Dave Min earlier this week.
[Read: Dave Min Wins OC’s Coastal Congressional Seat]
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @NBiesiada.
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