Ken Calvert

We can provide tax relief to hostages without assaulting civil liberties. It's not that complicated.

In California, ballots are still being counted. But a picture of dismal voter turnout is already emerging.

Republican representatives in Congress were able to fend off enough California Democrats in close races and flip a few seats elsewhere to help keep the party's majority in the House of Representatives.

Welcome to At the Races! Each week we bring you news and analysis from the CQ Roll Call campaign team. Know someone who’d like to get this newsletter? They can subscribe here. By Daniela Altimari, Mary Ellen McIntire and Niels Lesniewski On Election Day, Democrats in key battlegrounds put their faith in familiar faces: candidates who [...]The post At the Races: The Leftovers appeared first on Roll Call.

California Democrat Rep. Josh Harder has declared victory over his Republican opponent, Stockton Mayor Kevin Lincoln.

Republicans will have full control of Congress and the White House, giving them their best shot yet to make big moves on immigration and tax cuts.

Data: Associated Press; Map: Axios VisualsRepublicans will hang on to their narrow House majority, AP projects — a win for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) after two years of turmoil in Congress' lower chamber.Why it matters: President-elect Trump will enjoy total control of Congress when he enters office, paving the way for his sweeping right-wing policy agenda.Republicans flipped four Senate seats for a total of 53, giving them the majority in the upper chamber for the first time in four years.Driving the news: House Republicans were put over the top by the victories of Reps. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) and Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.) on Wednesday, which put Republicans at 218 seats.The party is poised to pick up a handful more seats, but will still continue to control the House by an excruciatingly thin margin.That dynamic has been exacerbated by Trump himself, who tapped Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) as his ambassador to the United Nations and Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) as his national security adviser.

Republicans and Democrats are clawing for crucial U.S. House victories in California, as the GOP moved within one win of maintaining control of the chamber.

Rep. Ken Calvert - the longest-serving Republican in the state's congressional delegation - defeated rival Democrat Will Rollins in the 41st District, which was a top target for national Democrats.

Democrat George Whitesides holds a 2,114-vote lead over Rep. Mike Garcia in the 27th Congressional District race, according to figures released by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk.

There are 23 races in the U.S. House of Representatives that still being counted; 10 of which are in California.

Republicans won control of the White House and the Senate. Now all eyes are turning to the House, Democrats' last line of defense to stop President-elect Donald Trump and his agenda.

It could take days or longer to count critical votes in California, which is likely to decide House control

Tight races are taking shape in key California congressional districts that could determine U.S. House control next year. Incomplete returns spotlighted tight races in districts stretching from Southern California to the Central Valley farm belt, where Democrats and Republicans have...

A handful of tight races in the Golden State could help determine whether Democrats can maintain some ground amid unexpected GOP victories.

With votes still being counted, here's a look at the key races that remain uncalled by the NBC News Decision Desk (read more on how those races are called on NBCNews.com).

In 2020, California Democrats lost four of the seven competitive congressional seats they had just gained amid a “blue wave” two years earlier. In 2022, Republicans gained one more seat in California and took control of the U.S. House. This election, it is Republicans who must play defense. From the Central Valley to southern California, [...]The post These California Toss-Ups May Decide Which Party Controls Congress appeared first on GV Wire.

Republicans will win control of the Senate for the next two years, NBC News projects, as Democrats have grown nervous about Kamala Harris’ prospects of winning the presidency.Senate Republicans ousted Democrats in red states to secure the majority, flipping seats in West Virginia and Ohio, two states that have swung heavily to the GOP. And they held their ground in friendly states like Texas and Florida, assuring them at least 51 seats when the new Congress is sworn in next January.The GOP’s success at converting a dream Senate map to victories where it counted most will give the party control of legislation and nominations under the next president. NBC News has not yet projected a winner in the race for the White House or which party will control the House.Follow 2024 election live updatesDemocrats had hoped their slate of incumbents and heavy outside spending by allied groups would help overcome headwinds in those red states. But ultimately the force of political gravity won out.The GOP senators are expected to elect a new leader next week as longtime Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is stepping down from the role after a record 18 years. His current deputy, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., and former deputy, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, are battling to take the job when the new Congress begins.Every nonincumbent president since 1992 has entered office with their party controlling both chambers of Congress. But with the House still up for grabs, there’s no guarantee that’ll happen this year for either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump.Republicans were favored to win the SenateDemocrats entered Election Day with a 51-49 edge. As expected, Republicans will pick up an open seat in deep-red West Virginia, with NBC News projecting that Gov. Jim Justice has won the election to succeed retiring Democrat-turned-independent Sen. Joe Manchin.And in the red state of Ohio, Republican candidate Bernie Moreno has defeated Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, NBC News projected.The party is also looking to flip a Democratic-held seat in the red states of Montana, where Democratic Sen. Jon Tester will have to again defy political gravity against GOP rival Tim Sheehy.And Democrats are defending another five seats in purple states that are highly competitive at the presidential level: Sen. Bob Casey in Pennsylvania; an open seat in Michigan, where Sen. Debbie Stabenow is retiring; Sen. Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin; an open seat in Arizona, where Democrat-turned-independent Sen. Krysten Sinema is retiring; and Sen. Jacky Rosen in Nevada.Meanwhile, Democrats’ best hopes for capturing a Republican-held seat faded in Texas, where Sen. Ted Cruz won re-election to a third term, NBC News projected In red-trending Florida, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., also won re-election, defeating former Democratic Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, NBC News projected. Some Democrats had held out hope for a miracle in Florida but outside groups largely avoided the race.In deep-red Nebraska, the populist independent candidate Dan Osborn was running competitively against low-profile Republican Sen. Deb Fischer, but Fischer held on.A close fight for the HouseThe race for the House is on a knife-edge, with redistricting accounting for some early seat changes but no clear trend about which way control of the chamber is headed.Republicans came into Election Day holding a 220-212 majority, with three vacancies — two in safe blue seats, one in a safe red seat. Democrats will need to pick up just four seats in order to capture control of the House and, with it, the speaker’s gavel and chairmanships of all committees.The battlefield is narrow. According to the Cook Political Report, there are 22 “toss-up” seats at the heart of the fight — 10 held by Democrats and 12 held by Republicans. A few dozen more seats are being hotly contested but lean toward one party.Notably, the blue states of New York and California host 10 ultra-competitive House districts. Those two states are expected to be comfortably won by Harris at the presidential level, but Republicans are investing heavily in holding and flipping downballot seats there.In New York, Republicans are defending four seats they flipped in 2022, propelling them to win the House majority. Those seats are held by Reps. Marc Molinaro, Mike Lawler, Anthony D’Esposito and Brandon Williams, all of whom are seeking re-election. Lawler’s race is rated “lean Republican.” Meanwhile, Rep. Pat Ryan, D-N.Y., is facing a tough challenge from Republican Alison Esposito in the Hudson Valley in a race that is rated “lean Democrat.”And in central and southern California, at least five GOP incumbents are also facing tough re-election bids.Freshman Rep. John Duarte is facing Democrat Adam Gray in the 13th District; Rep. David Valadao has a rematch against Democrat Rudy Salas in the 22nd District; Rep. Mike Garcia is fending off a challenge from Democrat George Whitesides in the 27th District; longtime Rep. Ken Calvert is trying to hold off Democrat Will Rollins in the 41st District; and Rep. Michelle Steel is squaring off with Democrat Derek Tran in the 48th district.Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and the man who wants to replace him, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., have spent the past weeks crisscrossing those key House battlegrounds, as well as a slew of swing districts in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada and the Pacific Northwest.As polls opened Tuesday morning, the chair of the House Democratic campaign arm sounded a note of optimism.“We are in a very strong position,” Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., told NBC News. “We have great candidates. We are with the American people on policy, in our message. We’ve had the resources to get out the vote and communicate with voters all across the country, and that has all put us in a very strong position today to take back the majority, take back the gavels and make Hakeem Jeffries our next speaker.”Still, she warned that the battle for the majority could be close and take “a few days” to count all the votes.“We may not know tonight,” DelBene said.But in a speech to supporters in his hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana, Johnson said he would fly late Tuesday to Mar-a-Lago to be with Trump — a sign that the speaker and Republicans feel they are having a good election night. Spokespeople for Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., said those leaders were also on their way to see Trump.“I think it is a night, when they tabulate all this, I am very hopeful that we’re going to have not only a larger majority in the House to make my job easier,” Johnson told the crowd in Shreveport, “but we retake the Senate and the White House as well. I think that’s what’s going to happen.”A full plateThe new Congress will have to work with the new president from the very start. The Fiscal Responsibility Act, the product of a deal between President Joe Biden and then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, extended the nation’s debt limit until January 2025. The Treasury Department will be able to avert an immediate catastrophic debt default by using extraordinary measures to free up cash, but another bipartisan agreement will likely be needed.The Senate will spend the first part of the New Year confirming the president’s judicial and Cabinet nominees, as well as hundreds of others nominated for other political roles.If Republicans manage to win complete control of the White House and Congress, they will be in the same situation they were in 2016 — with Trump back at the helm.In that scenario, Republicans will have to determine how to use budget reconciliation, an arcane process that Johnson, ould allow them to fast-track legislation without Democratic support: Do they push forward first with another round of Trump tax cuts? Or do they try once again to repeal or overhaul Obamacare, as they failed to do in 2017?Johnson, whose political fate is tied to the outcome of the election, has recently said Republicans would go big and pursue a “massive reform” of the Affordable Care Act if his party wins.“The ACA is so deeply ingrained, we need massive reform to make this work, and we got a lot of ideas on how to do that,” Johnson said at a campaign stop in Pennsylvania.If Democrats are able to capture the White House and Congress, it would be a remarkable coup for a party faced with one of the most daunting Senate maps in the modern era. That would give Harris’ aggressive economic agenda a fighting chance and put legislation to codify abortion rights high on the agenda.This article first appeared on NBCNews.com. Read more from NBC News here:Andy Kim ushers in a ‘new era’ as he becomes 1st Asian American N.J. senatorSen. Ted Cruz wins re-election, overcoming challenge from Democrat Colin AllredEffort to add abortion rights to Florida’s Constitution fails

Four of these heated races are in Southern California and they're among the most expensive in the nation.

It's political déjà vu all over again in cities like Corona, Menifee, Lake Elsinore and Palm Springs, all part of Congressional District 41.

The nation’s largest network of left-leaning megadonors poured millions of dollars into California and New York House races this year to build a get-out-the-vote operation in states so blue that Democrats have not bothered to build much political infrastructure, revealing previously unknown details about the effort to NBC News.

by Molly Castle Work for KFF Health News In a campaign ad this month, Derek Tran, a Democrat from Orange County, California, blasted his opponent, Republican U.S. Rep. Michelle Steel, for supporting a national abortion ban and voting to limit access to birth control. Democratic challenger Will Rollins also called out his rival, Rep. Ken Calvert, and “MAGA extremists” in an ad last week for their backing of a bill that could criminalize medical practitioners who provide abortions.A few blocks from state Route 14 in Lancaster, about 70 miles north of downtown Los Angeles, Rep. Mike Garcia’s Democratic opponent, George Whitesides, planted two billboards promising to protect reproductive health care, a jab at the Republican congressman, who has voted to cut taxpayer funding of abortions for service members and other Americans.As Election Day approaches, Democratic hopefuls are doing all they can to tie Republican opponents in contested congressional districts to their anti-abortion records. Aggressive ads are going up in California, Arizona, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, and Oregon, as Democrats see an opportunity to take control of the House by engaging voters who might not vote straight-ticket — or at all. Republicans currently control the House by a slim margin.“What we all need to do is to make sure we look at her record, and that record is contrary to what she’s putting out there in her ads,” Tran said in an interview about Steel. “We’re making sure that we educate and remind the voters of who she really is.”

One is the longest-serving woman in congressional history. The other is dean of the Republican delegation from California. Together, they have more than seven decades of experience serving in Congress. And both are in what could be the fight of...

Election night in 2024 will not only determine who stands in the White House, but also may change the fate of who controls the House of Representatives.

California's reputation as a politically liberal state is being tested in a string of U.S. House districts that are expected to play into control of the chamber.

This week, there’s a certain irony to our newsletter being called “At the Races.” And no, it’s not because Pete Rose, Major League Baseball’s all-time hits leader who was banned from baseball for betting on the Cincinnati Reds, died​ Monday at age 83. Betting on the outcome of the congressional elections next month by individuals [...]The post At the Races: Please bet responsibly appeared first on Roll Call.

Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., faces Democrat Will Rollins, whom he narrowly defeated two years ago.

As Election Day approaches, Democratic hopefuls are doing all they can to tie Republican opponents in contested congressional districts to their anti-abortion records.

WASHINGTON — California has several of the most 2024 competitive races for the U.S. House of Representatives, races crucial to deciding who wins control of the chamber..

Democratic congressional hopefuls in California are highlighting the anti-abortion records of vulnerable Republican incumbents, many of whom have moderated their stances ahead of the election.

House Defense Appropriations Chairman Ken Calvert, R-Calif., says lawmakers “have time to deal with” the $1.95 billion funding question — but he still needs answers from the Navy about the request.

California's 45th congressional district race is one of the most closely watched House contests this year.

We don’t expect campaigns to suddenly be more honest, but we think it’s important to clarify things at a time when there’s so much noise.

FIRST ON FOX: GOP Rep. Michelle Steele is rolling out a bill to block China and other American adversaries from accessing U.S. ports.

House Armed Services Chairman Mike D. Rogers, R-Ala., says the GOP leadership-drafted continuing resolution is "terrible for defense."

Fox News Digital found that eight Democrats in competitive races are running campaigns to appeal to moderate voters but have gotten donations from progressive billionaires.

Rep. Ken Calvert would need a waiver to remain the top Republican on the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee if he wins reelection. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)

A narrow majority for either party could also decide national policy on other vital issues, but those are among the most prominent.

It’s a 2024 election battleground where millions of dollars are being spent and some of the biggest names in American politics are sure to pop up. But it’s not in the Rust Belt. And it isn’t Georgia or Nevada.

Nearly 6 in 10 Democrats say the November election is “extremely important” to the future of U.S. democracy, compared to about 4 in 10 independents and Republicans.

Welcome to At the Races! Each week we bring you news and analysis from the CQ Roll Call campaign team. Know someone who’d like to get this newsletter? They can subscribe here. Michigan’s congressional primaries were overshadowed nationally by the debut of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as the running mate of current Vice President and Democratic [...]The post At the Races: Don’t forget the Motor City (counts votes slowly) appeared first on Roll Call.