LOS ANGELES (AP) - Two Democrats are headed to a June runoff for an open U.S. House seat in Southern California, but the party is already looking ahead to challenging Republicans in 2018 in a bid to retake Congress.
The contest Tuesday in the strongly Democratic 34th Congressional District that includes downtown Los Angeles attracted 19 Democrats among a field of nearly two dozen candidates.
Party activists and leaders see the robust field as another sign of energy within Democratic ranks with President Donald Trump in the White House, in a state that will be an important battleground in the fight for control of Congress next year.
There’s no question Democrats will easily hold the district, where state Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez finished at the top of the large field and secured one of two spots in the June 6 runoff. His opponent will be former city planning commissioner Robert Lee Ahn, a fellow Democrat hoping to become the first Korean-American in Congress in more than two decades.
The crowded field could be a sign of things to come, as Democrats covet a number of Republican-held House districts in the state where Hillary Clinton defeated Trump in November.
Republicans control the House, 237-193, with five vacancies.
The 45th Congressional District, for example, cuts a swath across historically conservative Orange County and is held by Republican Mimi Walters. But Democrats were emboldened when Clinton defeated Trump in the district by about 5 points.
Katie Porter, a Democrat and public-interest lawyer who teaches at the University of California, Irvine, entered the race this week and was quickly endorsed by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a favorite of the Democratic Party’s liberal wing.
“I’ll take on Donald Trump and the powerful Washington special interests who control Congress,” Porter said.
A second Democrat has also entered the race - David Min, another law professor from the University of California, Irvine, and a former aide to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. The son of Korean immigrants, he said Trump’s travel bans, now blocked by courts, motivated him to enter the race.
“I just felt outraged at that … idea of excluding people from this country based solely on religion,” he said, calling it in conflict with the nation’s founding principles.
Seeing opportunities to flip seats, national Democrats are spending early to hire organizers in several California districts, including the San Diego-area turf of Rep. Darrell Issa, a Republican who faced a tough race last year from Marine-turned-lawyer Doug Applegate.
The two could be headed for a rematch in 2018. Another Democrat, environmental attorney Mike Levin, has also said he will run.
Clinton trounced Trump by more than 4 million votes in strongly Democratic California, and Democrats are hoping opposition to the president’s environmental, immigration and health care policies in the state will drive voters to the polls.
“With Democrats on offense across an expanded national battlefield, we’re already seeing a lot of impressive candidates stepping up to run for office, in many cases for the first time,” Tyler Law, press secretary for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in an email.
Republicans have been losing ground in California for years.
It’s one of the most reliably Democratic-voting states in the U.S., and the party controls every statewide office and both chambers in the Legislature by hefty margins. Republican registration has dipped below 26 percent.
The 34th District seat was left vacant when seven-term incumbent Xavier Becerra became California attorney general this year.
The Harvard-educated Gomez, 42, is the son of Mexican immigrants who came to the U.S. in the 1970s. His record in the Legislature reflects the liberal-leaning city and state where he lives. He’s backed by leading environmental groups, who credit him for supporting clean energy, and has been an outspoken supporter of expanding paid family leave for workers.
Ahn, 41, is an attorney who until February was a Los Angeles city planning commissioner appointed by Mayor Eric Garcetti. Ahn was far ahead of the field in fundraising and enjoyed strong support among the district’s Korean-Americans. His parents are from South Korea.
“The Korean-American community hasn’t had a voice in Congress for over 20 years,” Ahn said Tuesday.
The 34th District race was the first congressional primary since Trump was elected in November and was being watched nationally for signs about the direction of the Democratic Party.
But several candidates who pointed to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders as an inspiration lagged in Tuesday’s tallies.
The race generated little interest with L.A. voters, who tend to shrug at local politics. The ballots counted Tuesday represented just under 10 percent of registered voters.
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AP writer Andrew Dalton contributed to this report.
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