CA’s Gerrymandered Map Backfires as GOP To Keep 40th Congressional District

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Democrats backed an aggressive redistricting plan designed to help Democrats gain as many as five U.S. House seats.

But one newly called race has already delivered an embarrassing setback for the party.

Two Republican candidates in California’s 40th Congressional District have advanced to the general election, shutting Democrats out of the November contest and guaranteeing that the seat will remain in GOP hands.

Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) and Rep. Young Kim (R-CA) were both placed in the same district following redistricting, creating a rare incumbent-versus-incumbent Republican matchup.

According to Decision Desk HQ, Calvert led the field with 35.68 percent of the vote, while Kim finished second with 21.12 percent as of Sunday.

The result is a major blow to Democrats, who had hoped California’s redrawn map would help them expand their House advantage.

Instead, in the 40th District, the party was locked out entirely.

The two Republicans are running after mid-decade redistricting further reshaped California’s district lines, which Republicans argue already give Congressional Democrats an advantage far beyond the party’s actual share of the statewide vote.

In a post on Sunday, Eric Daugherty of Florida’s Voice News said Democrats had been “locked out” of California’s 40th Congressional District “Meaning zero resources must now be spent on defending the seat this November.”

“House control could run through California. Federal ‘election month’ should be BANNED by SCOTUS by the midterms so they can’t cheat!” Daugherty added.

Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) previously endorsed Calvert and said the race came down to two key issues: support for President Donald Trump and immigration.

“It comes down to two things. One is that Ken Calvert is a huge defender and supporter of the president. And number two, he’s got a fantastic record on immigration, which I think is the most important issue that we have in front of us today.”

Gill also criticized Kim’s record, noting that she cosponsored a resolution to censure President Donald Trump in 2021 and was an “original cosponsor of the Dignidad Act, a mass amnesty bill — notably with a non-English title — pushed by pro-migration Republicans.”

The outcome has fueled wider debate over California’s election system, especially as ballot counting continues slowly across Los Angeles County and other parts of the state more than a week after Election Day.

The slow pace has raised questions about transparency, staffing, and why one of the nation’s largest states takes so long to finish counting votes.

According to figures released by county officials Wednesday night, only 77,521 additional ballots had been processed since the June 2 election.

At the same time, officials estimated that approximately 713,180 ballots remained outstanding and still needed to be counted, according to the California Post, which investigated the facility.

During The Post’s visit, large portions of the facility’s workstations were reportedly empty, while boxes of ballots were visible throughout the building.

“In one area, where ballots that cannot be automatically read by scanners are reviewed by election workers, roughly 25 bins of ballots appeared ready for processing while no employees were seated at nearby desks,” the outlet reported.

“In another section where workers open envelopes and prepare ballots for counting, The Post observed about 75 employees working, despite the area being capable of accommodating more than twice that number,” it said.

As vote counting dragged on across Los Angeles County and much of California, reporters visiting the county’s 144,000-square-foot ballot processing center on Thursday found numerous empty workstations despite a massive backlog of ballots still awaiting review.

Republicans have increasingly pointed to California as a prime example of what they call “election month,” where voters go to the polls on Election Day but outcomes continue shifting as mail-in ballots are counted long afterward.

President Donald Trump sharply criticized the process last week, accusing “Dumocrats” of trying to steal statewide races in California.

“The Dumocrats are at it again! They are trying to STEAL THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA PRIMARY, AND THE MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES, PRIMARY, AWAY FROM TWO GREAT REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES. Here we go with the very late and massive numbers of MAIL IN BALLOTS,” he wrote in a Truth social post.

There has been no confirmed cheating.

Still, conservatives argue that the lack of proven fraud does not erase legitimate concerns about slow counts, late ballot surges, weak voter confidence, and election rules that keep races unresolved for days or even weeks.

The 40th District result gives Republicans a rare bright spot in deep-blue California.

Democrats drew the lines expecting to gain ground. Instead, in this race, they will not even have a candidate in the general election.

For the GOP, the message is simple: even in California, voters can still punish Democratic overreach when Republicans stay competitive and expose the flaws in the system.

With control of the House potentially running through California, the result could prove more than symbolic.

It may become one of the first signs that Newsom’s redistricting gamble did not go exactly as planned.