With tens of thousands of votes remaining to be counted, the campaign of longtime Republican U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California was not conceding defeat Saturday after the Associated Press called the House in favor of his Democratic Party opponent.
The AP declared that Harley Rouda, 56, a Republican-turned-Democrat who criticized Rohrabacher for his skepticism over climate change and depicted him as an out-of-touch abettor in Washington gridlock, had won Tuesday’s election in California’s 48th Congressional District in Orange County, south of Los Angeles.
The AP projection of a Rouda win came several hours after the Democrat declared victory on his own, the Los Angeles Times reported.
With the vote count still underway, Rouda’s advantage was growing Saturday, to 52 percent of the vote and about 8,500 more votes than Rohrabacher.
But Rohrabacher’s campaign said in a statement that tens of thousands of ballots remained uncounted, and the campaign would not have a statement until the vote count is complete. That could take as long as two weeks, Neal Kelly, Orange County’s registrar of voters, told the Sacramento Bee. – READ MORE