Democrat comes from behind to beat Young Kim in California congressional race

 CISNEROS FOR CONGRESS

Gil Cisneros, left center, ran an aggressive campaign to win Asian American support, including the endorsement of Congressmember Judy Chu, who represented a neighboring district.

ASAM NEWS

A REPUBLICAN STRONGHOLD in California has fallen to the Democrats.
The Orange County Register reports that Gil Cisneros is now officially the winner over Republican Young Kim in California’s 39th Congressional District.

Kim ended election night with a 3.2 percent lead. Many prematurely proclaimed her the first Korean American women ever elected to Congress., but by Saturday (Nov. 17), Cisneros had increased his lead over Kim to 3020 votes with the help of the remaining provisional ballots that needed to be counted.

With Cisneros’ win, the Democrats have flipped five Congressional seats in Southern California, including all four Republican seats in Orange County.

“The past two years have been hard, but change is coming,” said Cisneros in a statement sent to AsAmNews. "The hard work begins now. The people of this district will receive the representation they deserve. I am honored by their support and humbled by the opportunity to represent them in Congress.”

Cisneros effectively communicated to voters that “The Republican agenda is anti-immigration.” The 39th Congressional District is now one of the most diverse in the country with two-thirds of the voters minorities, according to the OC Register.

Kim called Cisneros late Saturday to offer her congratulations and sent this message via Facebook to her supporters:

Kim had tried to distance herself from Donald Trump’s policies, saying she would protect family-based immigration programs.

According to Politico, the Democrats needed to flip 23 seats to take over Congress and actually picked up 38 seats.

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New Jersey's Andy Kim joins the Blue Wave in Congress

AFTER ALL the votes were counted in New Jersey's District 3, will be the first Korean American to serve in Congress since 1999. 

Kim was so sure of his victory that he declared himself winner over incumbent GOP Rep. Tom MacArthur the morning after the Nov. 6 midterm elections. However the vote was so close, that the final results could not be officially called until today (Nov. 14) over a week later.

MacArthur conceded later Wednesday (Nov. 14). “Tonight, I called Congressman-Elect Andy Kim to congratulate him on his victory," the two-term congressmember wrote in his statement. "Enough provisional ballots have been counted to make the outcome clear. My staff and I will work with him to ensure a smooth transition in every way."

On the other side of the continent, the news was not so good for Republican Young Kim in California's District 39. If Kim was elected, would have become the first Korean American woman elected to Congress. That seems unlikely as yesterday, her election night lead was whittled down to only 122 votes over Democrat Gil Cisneros. Poll watchers predict Cisneros to take the lead by Thursday (Nov. 15).

The first Korean American in Congress was Republican Rep. Jay Kim representing parts of Orange County. He served several terms until 1999.

Andy Kim, 36, the first Asian American to represent New Jersey in Congress, has never run for elected office. He's an alum of the Obama administration where he worked at the White House as a civilian advisor on the National Security Council.

Even though Kim was born in the U.S., some of MacArthur's PACs tried to paint him as an "other." A Republican Party super PAC sent out a flyer saying "He's not one of us."

One of the flyers sent in support of MacArthur featured a picture of fish heads (alluding to a racial slur against Asians) that said "there's something fishy about Andy Kim." In some versions, a font, known as "chop suey" was used.

“Some fish on a piece of paper is suddenly racist? What is racist about a picture of fish? Now we’re politicizing fonts? It’s not a racist font, it’s a font meant to stand out,” MacArthur said to editors of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Kim tried to steer away from the racial attacks to not antagonize the mostly white district and tried to stick to the issues.

Kim reminded voters that MacArthur drafted an amendment to the Senate attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, that allowed insurance to refuse coverage to pre-existing conditions. That version was voted down with the late Sen. John McCain's dramatic thumbs down.

Andy Kim joins the so-called Blue Wave of Democrats gaining the majority of seats in the House of Representatives. The Democrats needed 23 districts to flip from Republican to Democrat. With Kim's apparent win, the number of Red-to-Blue districts number 33 and there are a few more Democrat-leaning districts awaiting voting results.
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AAPI Vote 2018: Thai American candidate has Trump defender Devin Nunes running scared.

JANZ FOR CONGRESS

Democrat Andrew Janz, center, seeks to unseat incumbent Devin Nunes in California's Contressionals District 22.

EVEN THOUGH the polls show Rep. Devin Nunes ahead of his Democratic rival, Andrew Janz, the Republican lawmaker is running nervous.

For the first time, the eight-term conservative congressman representing a district dominated by Republicans, a rarity in blue-state California, he is facing an opponent who has even stanch Republicans questioning their political loyalties.

"He's made a decision he can pretty much do what he wants and ignore local concerns...if he just nationalizes this whole race," said Liz Mair, a Republican who runs the Swamp Accountability Project and is opposing Nunes as part of her organization's effort to protect Mueller's Russia investigation.

Recent polls suggest Nunes' lead has been considerably narrowed and show him ahead  by as little as five to eight points. His challenger, Thai-American Janz, has never before run for office but has raised more than $8 million, a staggering amount for a political newcomer in a heavily Republican district.

Still, Nunes holds a fund-raising edge thanks to large contributions from outside of California. While Janz is not receiving any financial help from the Democratic National Party, he has received only about 28 percent of his support from outside his state, according to Open Secrets, Nunes has received more than half of the $11.6 million he's raised from outside California.

In the days before the Nov. 6 Midterm Elections, the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan newsletter that analyzes elections across the U.S., downgraded the Valley district from “solid” Republican to “likely” Republican, giving more of a chance to Janz, reports the Fresno Bee. The “likely” rating means the congressional race “has the potential to become engaged,” but is still not considered competitive.

“This Central Valley race has attracted more dollars than any other in the country, yet is still one of the least competitive,” the report said in new ratings released Tuesday (Oct. 30).

Nunes' controversial actions as chair of the House Intelligence Committee have generated harsh criticism that he is covering for the president and not conducting the panel's business in a bipartisan way.  

He has not held a public town hall in years and is rarely seen in District 22 between campaigns every two years. Critics say it's difficult to get a meeting with him and his local offices are closed most of the week. This campaign year, Nunes stages invitation-only events and prefers to run a campaign from afar, using a massive amount of TV advertising and websites geared to tell his stilted  version of the news.

California's District 22

Source: U.S. Censu

His hometown newspaper, the Fresno Bee, which had endorsed him in past years, endorsed Janz when Nunes refused to meet with the newspaper's editorial board. In retaliation, taking a cue from Trump's attacks on the "fake media," Nunes mailed out a 40-page booklet, which probably cost a hefty sum, attacking the newspaper.

Rather than run on local issues, such as fixing agreements between the state and federal governments over water allocations, Nunes has chosen to play up national issues such as his role defending Trump against allegations of Russian campaign interference and stoking fear with this year's GOP boogeyman -- immigrants.

While the district has voted Republican in the last few presidential races, Janz hopes the Democrat's Blue Wave -- spurred by the women's vote and young people -- materializes enough to overcome the historically conservative district.

"The Russia issue is relevant insofar as it takes away the political capital that he has now in Washington to focus on what people care about here," Janz told NPR. Janz says he's the one who can give local representation to the district. "I think that this race is about taking back the Central Valley."

SCREEN CAPTURE

A billboard in California's Congressional District 22, jabs at incumbent Devin Nunes'  attacks of the Mueller probe.

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