CBS News reports that Vince Fong, a California lawmaker backed by former President Donald Trump, is a state legislator. captured a special election to complete the remaining term He sacked former Speaker Kevin McCarthyIt will run until January.
Fong — a McCarthy supporter with the former speaker’s endorsement — defeated fellow Republican and Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux on Tuesday in the 20th Congressional District in the state’s Central Valley farm belt.
With 65% of the votes counted Tuesday evening, Fong led Boudreaux by a margin of 60% to 39%.
Orange County Register via Jeff Gritsen/Media News Group/Getty Images
McCarthy He resigned last year After being Expelled from the House. His dramatic fall — the only speaker in history to be voted out of the job — left a messy race to follow him, exposing rivalries within his own party. He worked behind the scenes to promote Fong’s candidacy — a political action group linked to McCarthy directed more than $700,000 into the 20th District race to boost Fong’s campaign.
The special election covers only the remainder of McCarthy’s term. Fong and Boudreaux will face off again in November for a full, two-year term in the district, although the winner of the special election will receive the incumbency advantage.
Because of Trump’s involvement, the race will be seen as a potential proxy vote on the former president’s influence as he heads toward an all-but-certain race against President Biden in November.
Trump called Fong a “real Republican” in February. Boudreaux’s supporters include Richard Grenell, the former acting director of national intelligence in the Trump administration, and a Republican Sen. Shannon Grove of Bakersfield, Fang’s hometown.
Republicans hold just 11 of the state’s 52 U.S. House seats. With the district once held by McCarthy in GOP hands, it would give Republicans 12 seats in the state House and increase the party’s tenuous edge in Congress by one vote.
there are present The House has 217 Republicans, 213 Democrats and five vacancies. Those vacancies include McCarthy’s former seat.
Some voters may be confused because Fong and Boudreaux have already appeared on two House ballots this year — the March 5 statewide primary and the March 19 primary for the full House term. In a special election to complete McCarthy’s term.
Both conservative Republicans and Trump supporters occupy much of the same policy terrain. Boudreaux has pledged to tighten the country’s porous border, drawing on his decades of law-and-order experience. Fang promises to “end the chaos” along the border with Mexico, while prioritizing water and energy needs in the farm belt.
Fong, a onetime McCarthy aide who has the former speaker’s endorsement, entered the race with advantages beyond Trump’s and McCarthy’s endorsements.
In the March primary, Fong received 42% of the vote, Boudreaux received nearly 26%, and the remainder was split between the other candidates. Fong is from Kern County, the most populous part of the district, and he has outspent the sheriff 3 to 1 in campaign finance, according to federal records through the end of March.
