The Story:
Though it was overshadowed by other news, including the ‘Super Tuesday’ primary for the Democratic Party’s candidates for President, the voters of the 25th district in California on March 3 spent that day narrowing to just two the field of candidates seeking to fill that seat in the US House of Representatives. The two headed for the run-off are Republican Christy Smith and Democrat Mike Garcia.
Geography and Numbers:
The 25th district includes part of northern Los Angeles county and part of Ventura county, and the city of Santa Clarita. In 2016 this district voted for Hillary Clinton for President, but not by a wide margin.
The candidates are only running to represent the 25th until the next regular election can be held: in November of this year.
Smith won 34.3% of the vote Tuesday. Garcia won 27.0%. They will go head-to-head in a second vote on May 12.
The Thing to Know:
One well-known figure that did surprisingly poorly on Tuesday, a distant fourth place, and so was eliminated, was Cenk Uygur, a Turkish-American journalist and activist. Last year, Uygur’s campaign was briefly endorsed by a presidential candidate, Senator Sanders. They have such issues as Medicare for All and public financing of campaigns in common. But Sanders became concerned about certain blatantly misogynistic comments of Uygur’s, and soon withdrew his endorsement.
