Valadao Closes In on Rare Congressional Return After Defeat. No AP Call Yet on Race.

With a friendly Kings County resuming election counting after a brief pause, a return to Congress by David Valadao seems inevitable.

With the latest updates from Kings, Tulare and Kern counties, Valadao (R-Hanford) currently holds a 1,763 voter margin over Congressman TJ Cox (D-Fresno), or 5.05% of the overall vote.

GV Wire estimates 3,912 votes remain. That means, Cox needs 72% of those remaining ballots. Even in his best returns during this election counting season, Cox mustered 60%.

Valadao Encouraged by Trends

Valadao, in a social media message last week, seemed confident for a return.

“Today’s election update for #CA21 has been encouraging. While we continue to patiently wait for the remaining votes to be counted, I’d like to thank all those who have supported my campaign and helped us accomplish so much this year,” Valadao said.

While some media outlets have called the race for Valadao, as of Tuesday the Associated Press has not made that call.

If Valadao is certified the winner, he will pull off a feat that hasn’t happened in California in 26 years —regaining a House seat in a rematch after losing the prior election.

In 2018, Cox upended Valadao by 862 votes.

Latest Votes Favor Valadao

Kings County reported its first returns since Nov. 6. A COVID-19 exposure pushed things back 15 days, then a power outage delayed counting for yet another day.

With its updates from Nov. 22 and Nov. 23, Valadao gained 58.4%, for a net total of 134 votes in Kings County. Approximately 1,012 votes remain.

A Monday update from Tulare County broke 56.2% in Valadao’s favor, for a net of 11 votes. Overall, Cox has 10 more votes in the county. About 80 votes remain.

Kern County has the most remaining votes, at approximately 2,820. It has been Cox’s strongest county thus far.

Fresno County has wrapped up its vote count, with only an unknown amount of cured signatures remaining (cured means a voter has the opportunity to fix a forgotten or unreadable signature on a ballot). The county anticipates certifying its results on Friday.

A Brief History on Returning Congressmen

In California’s history, there have been eight previous times that an incumbent congressman lost an election, only to return later.

Of those eight, five were rematches the very next election.

The last time it happened was in 1994, when Republican Frank Riggs regained his northern California-area seat from Daniel Hamburg, who won the 1992 election.

Rematch victories to return also happened to Julius Kahn (1904), Frank Havenner (1944), Norris Poulson (1946), and Clyde Doyle (1948).

Congress Incumbents who Have Lost and Returned