Just 187 votes separated California's District 13 Congressional race
The last congressional race to be called in the entire country is in the Central Valley
The race for California Congressional District 13 includes parts of Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties and has been neck and neck.
The numbers between Republican incumbent John Duarte and Democratic challenger Adam Gray, on the final day for county election offices to submit their results to the Secretary of State, showed Gray in the lead by 187 votes with no more ballots left to count.
Inside the Stanislaus County Registrar of Voters office, where they just counted and submitted the final 150 ballots in the race on Tuesday, their work is finally done one month after Election Day.
Stanislaus County Registrar of Voters Donna Linder said the razor-thin race has been keeping her staff extra busy, with phone calls seeking non-stop updates.
"Yes, everyone's calling," Linder said. "A lot of people knew that today would be the day."
Now, on the final day of ballot counting, there was a break.
"I think right now, we have that sense of completion, and we're going have a little 'take a deep breath' time," Linder said.
"This is a re-run election," Claremont McKenna College politics professor Jack Pitney said. "Gray and Duarte faced each other two years ago, and it was also a very close election just a few hundred votes apart."
Pitney said it's the voters in the community stretching across five Central Valley counties, including parts of Modesto, that will determine an important balance in a closely divided House of Representatives, as President-Elect Donald Trump appears ready to pass new laws on everything from tax cuts to immigration to sweeping federal layoffs and his new Department of Government Efficiency, or "DOGE."
"There is very little you can do by executive order to cut the budget or eliminate agencies, that's going to have to go through the House of Representatives, and that's going to be very difficult, perhaps much more difficult than the Republican leadership anticipates," Pitney said.
The 13th California Congressional District has more registered Democrats. It also has more Latino voters than any other ethnic group. And the Latino vote has trended more Republican in this election cycle.
"Our congressional district has always been an exciting race, but not this close," Linder said.
Next up, the California Secretary of State's office must certify the election results. They have until Dec. 13 to do that.