Congressman John Duarte (Photo: John Duarte for Congress)
13th House District Race Between Gray, Duarte Separated By Only 182 Votes
RNC calls for end of late mail-in vote counting as Gray overtakes Duarte
By Evan Symon, November 29, 2024 7:09 am
According to the latest vote totals, only 182 votes separate Congressman John Duarte (R-CA) and former Assemblyman Adam Gray (D) in the 13th Congressional District race, with Gray having a razor thin lead in the last open House race in the country.
During the 2022 midterms, the 13th Congressional district, which spans the San Joaquin Valley, covering, all of Merced County, most of Madera County, and parts of Stanislaus, Fresno, and San Joaquin Counties, was the location of the closest House race in the country. Modesto pistachio farmer and businessman John Duarte managed to get a surprise victory in the district, defeating Gray by 564 votes. The race wasn’t even called until early December thanks to the harrowingly close figures. This only encouraged Gray to run in 2024, sure that he would be victorious the second time around.
Initially, 2024 didn’t look much different. The primary decided it would be Gray and Duarte yet again, with every election prediction hub labeling the race as a toss-up. Polls showed that Gray had a narrow 46% to 45% lead with a 9% undecided vote and 5.6% margin of error going into election day. Gray also ran on more “DINO” and moderate stances than in 2022, to appeal to centrist and undecided voters. However, Gray was hit particularly hard in the weeks before Election Day following new information revealed that he had given around $40,000 to family members from previous campaign funds. Duarte, meanwhile, managed to win debates and shored up critical centrist and Latino support. Trump managing to help reawaken the GOP in California also brought in support.
On election day, initial results showed that surge. Duarte was up over Gray 56,785 to 53,596, or 51.4% to 48.6% with only about half the vote in. Like many other races, it was expected that mail-in votes would melt away some of his lead, with Gray possibly even coming out ahead the next week. But the updated results from the state on the 14th were a bit of a surprise. Duarte stood at 79,456 votes and Gray at 75,693 with a total of 73% of the vote in. In terms of percentages, it is at 51.2% to 48.8%. This led a few outlets to begin calling the race, and many others expected to do so at the next tally.
However, in the next week votes for Gray seemed to pour in, leading many to back off calling Duarte the victor. Last week the race only grew closer with Duarte only up 101,217 votes to 100,866, or, 50.1% to 49.9%. Then, on Wednesday, Gray finally pulled ahead with the last mail-in votes being counted, 104,503 votes to Duarte’s 104,321 votes.
Neck to Neck
The closeness of the race, and California’s decision to continue counting votes that arrived up to 7 days past election day, has caused the Republican National Committee (RNC) to file lawsuits against California.
“It is absurd for California to accept ballots by mail up to 7 days after Election Day and take almost a month to count them,” said RNC Chairman Michael Whatley on Wednesday. “The RNC, alongside the California Republican Party, will continue to fight aggressively to force all states to stop accepting ballots after Election Day.”
However, despite the lawsuit, the last of the votes will be counted in the district, with current trends pointing now to Gray being the likely victor in the race by early next week, when vote counts are due. Should Gray win, it would cap a come from behind victory in the nation’s tightest district. While it is too late for the Democrats to gain control of the House, a victory in the 13th District would keep the Republican majority within only a few members, as well as increase the number of Democratic members of the House after a few other House race flips earlier this month, including several contested races in Orange County.
“The GOP is doing everything they can to get cured vote signatures right now, but the mail-in ballot are what turned things around here last minute,” said Anne Granger, a researcher who keeps track of close House races in Western states, to the Globe on Thursday. “If there was no acceptance of mail-in ballots up to a week after, Duarte would have won and Steel probably would have won too. The RNC is really going to go after California on his. Democrats know that mail-in ballots favor them, so they’ll fight too.
“In 2022, the Duarte-Gray race brought into question recounts and vote counting. It’s deja vu right now, but now with the Republicans pressing the latter issue more. And if Duarte loses, you can bet that the RNC and the CAGOP will push hard on late vote counting.”
Final votes in the race are expected soon.
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Unless you believe there is < .5% vote fraud in CA, this is another stolen election.
When will Republcans, other than Donald Trump, stop rolling over for Dem Party vote fraud?
Like all Republican maga, you spew nonsense and unproven conspiracy theories, but for some reason, can’t prove any of it. Why is that?
The criminal Democrat mafia thugs that control this state refuse to have same day voting along with voter identification and paper ballots because they know they can’t win without cheating while their RINO cronies let them get away with it. They’ve turned the once great state of California into a lawless, crime infested, third-world hellhole. While average Californians struggle, Gavin “Hair-gel Hitler” Newsom and his fellow criminal Democrat mafia thugs live like royalty in uber wealthy enclaves like Kentfield in Marin County behind their walled and gated mansions with 24 hour armed security.
why is it that Dems oppose any and every effort to ensure there is NO voter fraud?
Like all Democrats, you continue to run cover for the vote cheating Democrats. Why else would Democrats oppose voter ID and this corrrupt Democrat run state pass a law prohibiting voter ID, when 86% of the public, including Republicans, Democrats and Independents, support its. Why aren’t the voter rolls being cleaned up in this state? Why is there no verification of citizenship with voter registration in this state?
The Democratic Party is corrupt to the core. Democrats can’t win a fair election, and they know it.
Count them until the Democrat wins as always in Kalifornia. Can they scream FRAUD any louder? Noisome and Pelosi are attempting to overthrow the legitimately elected government. This is TREASON.
As always
So as usual, there’s not a peep from CAGOP Chairwoman Jessica Patterson and the rest of the RINO establishment about Democrats blatantly stealing these elections.
Explain how these elections are being stolen? The process in district 13 is the same process used in every California house district .
Democrats are creating bogus mail-in ballots that are submitted without a chain of custody. Neither Democrat Secretary of State Shirley Weber (who was appointed by Gavin Newsom) nor local election officials update voter lists or cross-check voter lists with state and local death records, prison records or address changes. Voting machines are not secure and have known backdoors that are subject to manipulation.
With Musk supporting Trump, that’s what I believed happen with the voting machines being manipulated by Musk! Otherwise I can’t imagine so many Americans voting for a fascist !
Musk has nothing to do with voting machines in California or anywhere else and only a totally brainwashed and deluded Democrat leftwing dingbat would think so. The real fascists are Gavin “Hair-gel Hitler” Newsom and the rest of your criminal Democrat mafia thug masters who steal elections and issue dictates just like their CCP cronies do in China. Now run along, put at least two masks on, and get your COVID boosters like your Democrat thug masters have dictated.
This is a prime example of Democrat mental illness.
Salty republicans call cheating whenever something doesn’t go their way. Grow up and accept the loss like you expect democrats to do. Snowflakes
The criminal Democrat mafia thugs that control this state refuse to have same day voting along with voter identification and paper ballots because they know they can’t win without cheating.
“It’s not the people who vote that count, it’s the people who count the votes.” – Joseph Stalin, Communist thug
So this is another close election with endless vote counting weeks after election day. It’s not surprising since we all know that Democrat party hacks continue to submit fake mail-in ballots until they can install their candidate. It’s pathetic.
So, when were all of these late ballots postmarked?? Surely before election day if they’re not fraudulent. I, and a lot of others would like to know.