The special election to fill former Rep. Devin Nunes’s vacant seat in the soon-to-be nonexistent 22nd California Congressional District will be decided in a June runoff after no one in the crowded field gained a majority of the votes Tuesday.
Connie Conway emerged as the front-runner with 34%, according to preliminary returns, in the heavily Republican district but did not garner the requisite 50% or more to win outright. She will face off against an opponent yet to be determined. The race for the second runoff spot was too early to call after election officials paused counting early Wednesday morning with 63% of the votes tallied. State election officials said no additional results will be released until Thursday in Tulare County and Friday in Fresno County, both in the district.
CANDIDATES DROP OUT OF RACE TO REPLACE TO DEVIN NUNES
Conway, 71, has said she only intends to serve out the six remaining months of the term and will not seek reelection. She has name recognition for serving as minority leader in the California Legislature from 2010 to 2014. Republican Elizabeth Heng, 37, also has some name recognition after she unsuccessfully ran against Democratic Rep. Jim Costa in 2018.
“If there was a place to go on, I think Congressman Nunes probably would have taken that opportunity and we wouldn’t be having this special election,” Conway told the Los Angeles Times. “But then I have to even ask myself, ‘Would I seek it even if there was?’ and at this point in my life, it appealed to me to just finish this job.”
Heng was the front-runner in terms of fundraising. The daughter of Chinese and Cambodian immigrants, she has made water, immigration, and education her central campaign topics. She has received the least amount of votes in the special election thus far, with 6.5% as of Wednesday morning when counting was paused.
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Lourin Hubbard, a Democrat, currently sits in second place with 19.7% of the vote. Three candidates, Eric Garcia, a Democrat, and Republicans Matt Stoll and Michael Maher, are also running against Costa in the new version of the 21st District.
The winner will serve only a short time in Congress to finish the remainder of Nunes’s term until January. Nunes stepped down from his seat, which he held for 10 years, to work for former President Donald Trump’s social media initiatives. His district has been absorbed into other districts as the result of redistricting.
