Early returns show close race for vacant US House seat
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two Democrats were closely matched in early returns Tuesday in a runoff election to fill an empty U.S. House seat in Southern California.
A preliminary tally of about 19,000 mail-in ballots in the 34th Congressional District showed state legislator Jimmy Gomez leading attorney Robert Lee Ahn by about 150 votes.
The district that runs through downtown Los Angeles has long been considered a Hispanic stronghold. But the race has been made competitive by an energized Korean-American community that wants to see Ahn become the first Korean in Congress in nearly two decades.
The outcome of the special election in the heavily Democratic district will not change the balance of power in Congress. The seat was held for years by Xavier Becerra, another Democrat who stepped down after being appointed state attorney general.
Rather than party rivalry, the contest has been influenced by racial politics.
Ahn, 41, the son of Korean immigrants, has emerged as a favorite in the district’s bustling Koreatown neighborhood. Gomez, 42, the son of Mexican immigrants, is hoping to win a district where half the voters are Latino, compared with a relative sliver of Asian voters.
Gomez entered the runoff as the pick of the Democratic establishment, and also won the backing of a political committee inspired by former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.
The district boundaries are almost completely within the city of Los Angeles, and voters appeared to be living up to their reputation for mostly ignoring local elections. In a district with more than 300,000 voters, the tally of mail-in ballots pointed to a light turnout.
During the afternoon Tuesday, poll workers at one precinct at a school east of downtown were supervising a row of vacant voting booths. Fewer than 50 voters had shown up all day.
One of the few was Jesse Narvaez, 23, a college student.
He said he intended to vote for Gomez but when asked about the role of racial politics in the contest, he pointed out that either choice would bring diversity to an overwhelmingly white Congress.
He said he liked Gomez’s plans for education, which include support for debt-free college education and protecting programs for needy children.
“As they say, they are the future,” Narvaez said, gesturing toward two girls sitting on the school steps.
Ahn is part of what could be described as a political breakout for Korean-Americans, who have not had one of their own in the U.S. House since the late 1990s.
Two years ago, David Ryu became the first Korean-American to hold a City Council seat in Los Angeles. Steven Choi, who was born in South Korea, was elected to the state Assembly in 2016.
As two Democrats, Gomez and Ahn share similar ideas on health care, immigration and resistance to President Donald Trump.
Gomez has emphasized his legislative know-how and broad support within the party ranks and from organized labor.
Ahn, a lawyer and former Los Angeles planning commissioner, has embraced the role of an outsider who wants to shake up politics as usual.
The two Democrats emerged closely matched from a crowded April primary that sent the top two vote-getters to the general election, regardless of party. Gomez snagged 25 percent of the votes, with Ahn at 22 percent.
Gomez is more familiar to voters — his state Assembly district overlaps with parts of the congressional district.
Early mail-in ballots suggested a strong turnout by Korean-Americans. However, Asians make up only about 15 percent of the roughly 300,000 registered voters in the district.
Republicans account for less than 10 percent of voters.
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