Democrat TJ Cox Projected Winner in California 21; Party Gained 40 Seats in Midterms

Democrat TJ Cox is the projected winner in California's 21st congressional district, defeating incumbent Republican David Valadao.  This was the final House race to be called. Democrats have a net gain of 40 seats, and will hold a 235-200 edge on the GOP when the new House is seated during the first week of January.

It is over for Congressman David Valadao in #CA21. His best county's provisionals reported today, and broke for the Democrat, TJ Cox. Outstanding votes are going to be more of the same.
That makes a forty seat gain for the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives.

— Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) November 28, 2018

Almost all media outlets had initially called the race for Valadao, who led by 8% on election night. However, his lead steadily shrunk as more votes were counted, and these same outlets were forced to retract that call. Cox took the lead for good two days ago.

California 21st District Results

Seven of California's 53 congressional districts sided with Hillary Clinton in 2016 while re-electing a GOP member of Congress. All seven of these districts were flipped to the Democrats this year. That party will now hold 46 of those 53 seats. This spreadsheet shows the change in partisan composition by state as a result of the midterm election.

Related: 2018 House Interactive Map - Actual Results