All Eyes Are on Orange County’s Dead Heat Race in 45th Congressional District 

Observers crossed the state proceed to intimately ticker the tightly contested contention for Orange County’s 45th Congressional District seat, wherever the result volition assistance find conscionable however overmuch of a bulk Republicans volition person successful the 435-member U.S. House of Representatives. 

On Monday night, Democratic challenger Derek Tran’s pb continued expanding to 581 votes implicit Republican Rep. Michelle Steel successful the contention for Orange County’s 45th Congressional District – 1 of the tightest races successful the country. 

So far, Republicans person 219 seats successful the House – conscionable 1 implicit the threshold for a bulk – according to the Associated Press. 

Tran claimed triumph successful an email aft the 5 p.m. update connected Monday, highlighting his acquisition of making it to capitol elevation arsenic the lad of Vietnamese refugees. 

“This triumph is simply a testament to the tone and resilience of our community,” Tran said successful a statement. “I americium honored to correspond you and anxious to get to enactment and enactment radical first.”

While Steel’s run hasn’t issued a connection connected the contention arsenic of Monday night, the Republican Party of Orange County they’re focusing their efforts connected the 45th Congressional District contention earlier this month. 

“This contention volition travel down to each past vote. Our absorption volition beryllium successful curing ballots to guarantee each Republican voters person their votes counted and astatine the Registrar of Voters ensuring predetermination integrity,” reads a Nov. 13 email from Republican Party of OC’s Executive Director, Randall Avila. 

As of 5 p.m. Monday, Tran saw his pb summation by 36 votes, according to an updated tally from the OC Registrar of Voters. The Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters isn’t expected to update until Tuesday afternoon. 

The 45th Congressional District contention has been successful a dormant vigor for implicit a week and is 1 of the lone 3 U.S. House races successful the state not yet called by the Associated Press arsenic of Monday evening. 

The District stretches from Los Angeles County including Cerritos, Artesia, Hawaiian Gardens and Lakewood and into Orange County including Brea, Fullerton, Yorba Linda and encompasses Little Saigon successful Garden Grove and Westminster.

Steel — a erstwhile Orange County supervisor — has held the spot since 2020, portion Tran, a user rights attorney, is simply a governmental newcomer.

If Tran wins, Democrats volition person claimed 5 of the county’s six legislature seats successful this election, the astir they’ve held since 2018 erstwhile they managed to triumph each spot successful the county. 

Noah Biesiada is simply a Voice of OC newsman and corps subordinate with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him astatine nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.