Matsui advances to November ballot in reelection bid for California congressional seat

Audio By Carbonatix

California Democratic Rep. Doris Matsui advanced to the November ballot on Friday after facing a reelection challenge from a younger Democrat.

Matsui, 81, has been in Congress since she replaced her late husband, former Rep. Bob Matsui, in the Sacramento-based seat in 2005.

In a statement referencing the upcoming runoff, Matsui vowed to “earn the trust of voters for another term in Congress.”

She faced a primary challenge from fellow Democrat Mai Vang, a member of the Sacramento City Council, and is one of several older Democrats challenged by younger insurgents this year. The second slot on the general election ballot has not yet been determined, but Vang issued a statement saying she was optimistic with the direction in which the count was moving.

“This is what people power looks like,” Vang said.

Two other House Democrats facing younger challengers, Reps. Brad Sherman in Los Angeles and Mike Thompson in Northern California, advanced to the general election as well.

But California's House primaries were most significant for being the first test of whether Democrats are able to add five potential pickups after they persuaded voters to let them redraw the electoral map last year.

The redistricting was sold as a countermeasure to Republican efforts to gain seats by reworking maps in states they control, including Texas.

Heading into Tuesday’s election, Democrats worried that California’s primary format, which sends the top two vote-getters to the general election regardless of party, could lead to them getting locked out of a seat they drew to their advantage in the San Diego’s suburbs.

That did not happen, as San Diego City Councilwoman Marni von Wilpert advanced to face Republican Jim Desmond, a San Diego County supervisor.

Democrats are at risk of being shut out of another district they expected to pick up, in Sacramento’s suburbs — though the danger of that dimmed Friday as Democratic former state Sen. Richard Pan moved into the top two for the first time. Tens of thousands of more ballots remain to be tallied, and it is too soon to know who will make it to November.

Another redrawn district, which straddles Orange and Riverside counties in Southern California, favors Republicans. GOP Rep. Ken Calvert has advanced to the November election in the 40th District but does not yet know who his opponent will be. He had a bruising primary fight with fellow Republican Rep. Young Kim, whom Democrats drew into a new district that includes areas Calvert previously represented.

In San Francisco a wealthy progressive challenger was unable to crack the top two slots to fill retiring Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s seat. Instead state Sen. Scott Wiener and San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan will face off to replace the former House speaker.

And in the Central Valley, Republican Rep. David Valadao, widely considered one of the most vulnerable House Republicans, is waiting to see if he will face centrist Democrat and Assemblywoman Jasmeet Bains or progressive political science professor and school board member Randy Villegas in November.

Several races cannot be called yet because of California's typical drawn-out election count, in which mail ballots that tend to come from more Democratic areas are counted later, eroding conservatives' traditional leads in votes reported on election night.

Trump has previously seized on the count to baselessly alleged fraud and did so again Thursday, adding that his Justice Department would investigate the state over it. A federal prosecutor toured Los Angeles' main vote-counting facility on Friday.