BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — Early results show Valadao leading, but many votes remain uncounted in a race that could shape the House's future
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Voters throughout the Central Valley came out to cast their ballot in the 22nd congressional district race. This race between Republican Representative David Valadao and challenger Rudy Salas is one of the most contentious races, especially when it comes to control of the house.
After polls closed Tuesday, Republican Representative David Valadao took an early lead, finishing the night with over 50 percent of the preliminary results. However, in a district that encompasses over 300,000 registered voters, more than half of whom come from Kern County, there's still many votes left to be tallied.
"I still feel like we have the opportunity to hold the house but it's going to be really tight," Valadao said Tuesday.
The Secretary of State's office as of Wednesday has tallied less than 98,000 votes in this 22nd district, making up only around 30.6 percent of registered voters. Even if only half came out to vote in the election, that still leaves tens of thousands of votes.
"We know it's one of the closest elections in the entire county, we know it may be days if not weeks before we know the results," said Salas Tuesday.
During their first showdown in 2022, Valadao won the overall vote, but Salas beat out Valadao with Kern County voters. If Valadao maintains a lead in Kern County this time around, political analyst Ian Anderson said that could be due to how Kern voters view Democratic stances across the state.
"The reason that that matters is, what are the policy initiatives, what are the narratives that are speaking to voters? I think oil and gas, I think was a big, a big thing for Kern County when you look at especially policies that are coming out of Sacramento with the governor," said Anderson.
Still only a day later, Decision Desk HQ puts a ten percent margin between Valadao and Salas, with almost 10,000 votes.
"It's already so large, right? And so I don't necessarily think it's going to shrink too much. I could be wrong there," Anderson said.
While Anderson said he's wary of how much of a shift there will be in this race, Salas took to social media reminding voters there could be anywhere between 60 to 100 thousand untallied votes left.
Again, eyes throughout the nation are closely watching this race — which is heavily rooted in Kern County — to see what this means for the future of the house of representatives.
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