In the Antelope Valley and Orange County, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is calling on Democrats this weekend to volunteer and raise money for congressional candidates George Whitesides and Derek Tran.
And on Sunday in Riverside County, House Majority Leader Mike Johnson will appear at an event with incumbent Rep. Ken Calvert in an effort to boost Republican enthusiasm in one of the nation’s most competitive congressional districts.
With just over three weeks until the Nov. 5 election, both top party leaders campaigning in Southern California on the same weekend are underscoring the state’s importance in the battle for control of the House of Representatives.
Democrats must win four seats nationwide to regain control of the House of Representatives next year. Republicans currently hold a razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives, defending fifteen seats that are considered toss-up. Five of those races are in California, where Republican House members are waging costly and bitter reelection battles.
“California is more important than any other state when it comes to determining who will control the House of Representatives next year,” said Erin Covey, editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
Read more: Six California House races that could help determine control of Congress
The visits follow former President Trump’s campaign stop on Saturday at a polo field in the Coachella Valley, boosting California Republicans, who are often overlooked by Republican presidential candidates as the state remains a Democratic stronghold.
Those races are in Orange County’s 45th District, where Derek Tran will face Rep. Michelle Steel (R-Seal Beach); Riverside County’s 41st District, where Will Rollins is running against Calvert (R-Corona); Antelope Valley’s 27th District, where Whitesides is running against Rep. Mike Garcia (R-Santa Clarita); and the always contentious Central Valley, where Adam Gray and Rudy Salas are facing off against Reps. John Duarte (R-Modesto) and David Valadao (R-Hanford).
Read more: Will a Vietnamese-American candidate help Democrats win a congressional seat in Little Saigon?
A sixth seat, the 47th District in coastal Orange County, is also a battleground. There is no incumbent candidate for the seat because Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine) made a bid for the U.S. Senate, losing in the primary, rather than seeking re-election to the House of Representatives.
Sen. Dave Min is facing former Orange County GOP Chairman Scott Baugh in the 47th Congressional District, a race Cook describes as “lean Democratic.” Baugh is looking for a rematch from 2022, when he narrowly lost to Porter in a painful and expensive campaign.
There are so many seats in play in California this year in part because Republicans exceeded expectations in California in 2022, Covey said. She said Democrats running for Congress sensed voters’ displeasure over how state leaders, all of whom are Democrats, had handled crime and other issues.
But Democrats are expected to have a stronger shot at these districts in a presidential year, when turnout is higher.
Jeffries spoke with Vietnamese artists at a rock-the-vote event for Tran on Saturday afternoon. The 45th Congressional District, home to Little Saigon, has the largest population of people of Vietnamese descent outside of Vietnam, but has never had a Vietnamese American representative in Washington.
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
