Christy Smith and Rep. Mike Garcia square off in a rematch of 2018 midterm elections to represent California's 25th Congressional District.
Michael Blood/AP
Rep. Mike Garcia and former Assemblywoman Christy Smith are competing in a re-match in California's 25th Congressional District, which includes portions of Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
After Democrats took back control of the US House in 2018 by flipping 40 seats, Republicans are now looking to make up lost ground in the House.
For Republicans, Garcia was an ideal recruit as a political newcomer and a Latino with a military background for a racially diverse district where the defense and aerospace industries are major employers.
As a first-time candidate, he also had no legislative record to attack, allowing Republicans to focus on negatively highlighting some of Smith's votes in the state assembly.
In addition to facing attacks on her legislative record, national Democrats were reportedly dismayed with Smith's lagging fundraising performance, and a couple of unfortunate gaffes hurt her campaign.
"May is going to be harder than November will be," a national Democrat told The Washington Post before the special election. "We think the candidate is going to get better and it's going to be a much better election."
California's 25th district is a battleground district in Southern California and includes parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, as well as the cities of Simi Valley, Santa Clarita, and Palmdale.
It is one of several Democratic-trending districts in California that voted for Sen. Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election and Hillary Clinton in 2016.
In the 2018 midterm elections, former Rep. Katie Hill flipped the district from Republican to Democratic with an 8-point victory over incumbent GOP Rep. Steve Knight.
Hill resigned from office in late 2019 amid a scandal over a relationship she had with a campaign staffer and a suffered subsequent cyber-exploitation, in which nude photos of her were published on conservative blog RedState and the tabloid site The Daily Mail.
Hill's resignation triggered a May 12 special election, which Garcia won by nearly 10 points. His victory marked the first time since 1998 that Republicans flipped a Democratic House seat in California and made him the third House Republican to represent a district that Clinton won in 2016.
Garcia has raised over $4.3 million this cycle compared to $3.4 million for Smith, with Garcia outraising Smith by $1 million in 2020's second fundraising quarter. Garcia currently has $738,000 in cash on hand compared to about $403,000 for Smith, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
The Cook Political Report and Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics rate the race as a tossup while Inside Elections rates it as tilt Democratic.
