Weiss’ campaign has criticized Min for a drunken driving arrest last year. Min has accused Weiss of funding her campaign from money her husband made as a lawyer defending Catholic priests found guilty of molesting children. Weiss’ campaign says her husband never defended a Catholic priest, saying she loaned money to the campaign from a home equity line of credit.
Porter backs Min, who also has the endorsement of the state party. Weiss is backed by EMILY’s List, which supports Democratic women who favor abortion rights and by Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis.
District 45: A Republican seeks to hold on to a seat in the Asian community
Republican U.S. Rep. Michelle Steel has advanced to defend her Orange County seat in November.
Steel, a South Korean immigrant who has been in Congress since 2020, represents a district drawn to give Asian Americans a stronger voice in Washington. It’s home to the nation’s largest Vietnamese community.
It was not yet clear who Steel would face in the general election.
Democrats Derek Tran, the son of Vietnamese refugees, and Kim Nguyen-Penaloza, the daughter of a Vietnamese refugee father, and two others were trailing Steel. Nguyen-Penaloza has the endorsement of the state Democratic Party.
District 49: Democrats seek to defend a coastal seat
Democratic U.S. Rep. Mike Levin has advanced to defend his seat in this Southern California district that includes portions of Orange and San Diego counties.
It’s not yet clear who he will face in November.
California’s coastal districts tend to lean Democratic, but Republicans believe they have a chance to oust Levin. Republican Matt Gunderson, an auto dealer, was leading a trio of other GOP challengers.
Voters chose Levin in 2018 to replace longtime Republican Darrell Issa, who has since returned to Congress in a neighboring district. Levin has since been reelected twice — by 6 percentage points in 2020 and 5 points in 2022.
“I think we’ve built the best ground operation of any congressional campaign in the United States,” Levin said in a video posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
District 27: A Republican tries to hang on in liberal Los Angeles
Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Garcia has advanced to the November general election, where he’ll defend his position as the last GOP House member anchored in Los Angeles County.
Garcia has won the seat repeatedly despite a sizeable advantage for registered Democratic voters in the district.
“Tonight’s results are a testament to the fact that our mission and message is resonating with CA-27: Ensure the security of California families,” Garcia said in a statement.
His main competition was from Democrat George Whitesides, who was leading another Democrat in the count. A former NASA chief of staff, Whitesides, has campaigned on abortion rights and environmental protection.
Garcia gets help from both his background as a former Navy fighter pilot and his surname, which comes from his Mexican immigrant father and is familiar in a district with a significant Latino population.
District 41: A veteran Republican defends his seat
Republican U.S. Rep. Ken Calvert has advanced to defend his seat in November and will face off against Democrat Will Rollins.
Calvert is the longest-serving Republican in the California congressional delegation, having held his seat in this district east of Los Angeles since 1993. He won by about 5 percentage points in 2022 in a district that is about equally split between Republican and Democratic voters.
Rollins, a former federal prosecutor who lost to Calvert in 2022, gets another chance this year. As a gay man, Rollins could garner significant support in Palm Springs, which has a sizable LGBTQ+ population.