Derek Tran Leads Rep. Michelle Steel by 500 Votes for 45th District House Seat
A recount is likely to occur as a result of the final total
By Evan Symon, November 23, 2024 2:45 am
Attorney Derek Tran (D) slightly improved his narrow lead on Friday against Congresswoman Michelle Steel (R-CA) in the 45th Congressional District Race, with him now up 157,075 votes to 156,556 votes in a race still officially too close to call.
In this year’s 45th Congressional District race, which covers parts of both Orange County and Los Angeles County, Tran took on the incumbent Steel. While Steel was up in May in polls, by July it was a 47%-47% tie. Tran, aided by targeting Asian communities in the District and Vice President Kamala Harris’ goodwill going down ballot, was soon up, with him being two points ahead in September. However, that began to change last month when Tran went from scandal to scandal, including lying about being able to speak fluent Vietnamese, false claims about his military record, and then the biggest roadblock so far, his legal career – such as representing a rapist for profit and defending someone who had put up a noose in his office.
Tran, fueled by money coming in from the national party, drastically increased ads in response. In mid-October, a new poll found that Steel was four points ahead 45% to 41%. This only caused them to break out more last minute ads. However, that flurry of activity has brought to light some of Tran’s more questionable claims, with one including his traffic commission attendance. With Tran’s 60% commission attendance exposed and compared heavily to Steel’s 99% voting attendance in Congress, the Tran team latched to the only major allegation to rise since – one that dated back to her time as an Orange County Commissioner. Desperate, Tran tried a last minute gambit alleging that she gave a senior meal program contract to a printing company she used in order to regain the majority vote.
Early on, results after election day showed that Steel had all but won. On the day after election day, with 66% of the vote in, she was over 10,000 votes ahead, with 123,361 compared to Tran’s 113,225. However, this swiftly changed. As more votes were counted, Steel’s lead progressively narrowed. Her all but called race soon turned out to be the closest race in the entire nation. Last week, updated voting results from the state showed her to be only 236 votes ahead with 93% of the vote in. In total, this is 152,021 votes to 151,785 votes, with it all but being a tie percentage-wise.
The closeness of the race has even led to some accusations by members of Congress. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (D-GA) posted on X this week that “The Democrats are stealing a House seat right out from under us in CA. We barely control the House and will have a 1 seat majority in January when Trump takes office while we fill 3 seats through special elections. We have to stop election rigging, this is a continuing battle.”
However, new results this week had Tran go slightly ahead of Steel as the final votes were counted in the District. And on Friday, Tran’s lead moved up to 519 votes with 98% of the vote counted. While Steel still has a chance to regain the lead, it is looking increasingly likely that Tran could eke out a victory. But it is also highly likely that there will be a recount in the District, making the question of who won the race possibly go down to the wire on vote certification day on December 3rd.
“At this point, yeah, we’ll get a recount,” explained James Garcia, a pollster who works in Orange County and San Diego County, to the Globe on Friday. “We knew it would be close, but everyone had Steel as having an edge because of how Orange County was this year. Asian-American voters were crucial for Tran, and it appears that strategy worked. But right now, neither side has conceded or announced that they won. We’ll see what happens.
“Tran is on track for a narrow win, but we also don’t know these last ballots, and a recount could still shake things up. What Green and others said don’t have much bearing at this point. It’s a simple count. But yeah, for Steel, she should be looking into asking for a recount at this point.”
Neither candidate has reacted to the new vote total as of Friday night.
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It looks like the criminal Democrat mafia has continued to manufacture mail-in ballots in order to install an unethical attorney like Derek Tran? Hopefully Michelle Steele will not concede and demand a recount?
I’m not sure why but Michelle Steele conceded as of 11/28/24, in spite of the article in the California Globe about the violent robbery of all the mail from a postal worker who was taking the mail from a large blue mailbox. The violent thief took all the mail. Wonder how many ballots were in there? I don’t understand conceding, we should have at least had a recount. I don’t understand…did someone threaten Michelle Steel? Why would she concede?
They’re obviously counting ballots that were cast after the polls closed.
Prove me wrong.
STOP THE STEAL ON STEEL!
Kevin Kiley
@KevinKileyCA
Anyone telling you California’s month of ballot processing is necessary to “count every vote” should have their motives questioned. Here is one of many Democrat election experts who say California’s process is unacceptable. Every other state does way better.
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Lakshya Jain
@lxeagle17
Nov 11
Replying to @CodyJ14968362
Reporting results on time is critical. California will not always be safe Democratic. One day, it is going to be in play for some office, and the tabulation process here is a joke, even allowing for the (generally good!) rules we have. Already seeing issues congressionally.
Kevin Kiley
@KevinKileyCA
Yes, I am working on legislation to require California (and all other states) to report election results in a timely manner. Enough is enough.
As Native Californian these corrupted “elections” are pushing hard on me to move out of State. David Min in the 47th district was upsetting enough but now this. Mail-in ballots are always suspect especially weeks after the polls have “closed”. David Min had substantially more mail-in ballots Baugh which was a very narrow race.
Ah yes, the “California Way”: Keep counting ballots until the Democrat wins.
It’s never going to change until we get rid of mandatory vote by mail and ballot harvesting (and have non-partisan operatives in charge of the counting). Sadly, better chance that pigs will learn to fly before that happens.