OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
10:15 AM – Thursday, November 5, 2026
California has seen two U.S. House seats flip blue after decades of Republican leadership.
Republicans suffered several losses across the nation in Tuesday's midterm elections, even in districts with long-standing GOP support.
In California's 48th Congressional District, Democrat San Diego City Councilmember Marni von Wilpert (D-Calif.) defeated former San Marcos Mayor Jim Desmond (R-Calif.). Desmond had been endorsed by the seat's incumbent GOP Representative Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who announced he would not be running for reelection and would retire after his 12th nonconsecutive term in Congress. He was first elected to the House in 2000.
The Associated Press called the race for von Wilpert, who led with approximately 59.5% of the vote to Desmond's 40.5%.
Issa's retirement announcement came earlier this year, after the Golden State drew new district boundaries under Proposition 50 to favor Democrats. The boundary lines in southern California changed several times since his first term in office, prompting Issa, who is based in the northern region of San Diego County, to serve California's 49th and 50th districts at times.
Before California's most recent map was drawn, the district included Bonsall, Fallbrook, Poway, Ramona, Santee and some portions of Escondido, as well as Temecula, located in Riverside County. Under Proposition 50, the district added Vista, San Marcos, parts of Oceanside and portions of Palm Springs, while removing Poway, Ramona, Santee and Lakeside.
In District 22, incumbent Republican Representative David G. Valadao (R-Calif.) was ousted by Democrat challenger Randy Villegas, a political science professor, after a 13-year tenure representing the southern Central Valley in Congress.
According to the Associated Press, with 57% of the total votes counted on Wednesday, Villegas won 66.4% of the vote, while Valadao had 33.6%.
The 22nd District includes cities portions of Fresno, Kings, Tulare and Kern counties. The new map added a small portion of the city of Fresno and the eastern portion of Bakersfield.
Valadao served six terms in the House: Three terms from 2013 to 2019, and three subsequent terms starting in 2021.
Cal Matters reported that after years of targeting Valadao's seat, Democrats finally defeating him was "proof of concept that their progressive ideas such as Medicare for All and universal childcare can appeal to swing voters in battleground areas like the historically conservative and agriculture-rich Central Valley."
With six races having yet to be called, only two of California's 52 congressional districts (districts 5 and 40) belong to Republicans at the time of publication.
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