Bay Area Democrats Hold On To House Seats By Wide Margins

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF/AP) -- The staunchly liberal Bay Area turned out for Democratic Representatives Tuesday night, giving eight incumbents an easy ride to victory.

Incumbent Democrats ruled the day in all 12 House races involving Bay Area congressional districts.

The only race in which a significant number of ballots were still being counted 12 hours after the polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday night was in District 9, where incumbent Democrat Jerry McNerney led Republican Antionio
C. Amador with 61.7 percent of the vote, to Amador's 38.3%, with 55 percent of precincts reporting.

The closest contest was in District 3 9- covering much of Solano County and areas north of the Bay Area 9- in which John Garamendi defeated Republican Tamika Hamilton with 58.1 percent of the vote.

As expected, San Francisco's District 12 Representative and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi easily defeated her Democratic opponent Shahid Buttar, taking over 79 percent of the vote to hold on to her seat.

Veteran Oakland politician Rep. Barbara Lee retained her 13th District seat in the East Bay by an even wider margin, taking almost 92 percent of the vote to opponent Nikka Piterman's less than nine percent.

Lee's fellow East Bay Representative Mark DeSaulnier of Contra Costa County's 11th District won over 75 percent of the vote while opponent Nisha Sharma received under 25 percent, even after a near brush with death following a fall while running back in March that led to broken ribs and an eventual bout with pneumonia.

Rep. Jackie Speier, the longtime District 14 congresswoman for the southern part of San Francisco as well as much of San Mateo County earned over 81 percent of the vote to defeat her GOP opponent Ran Petel.

Rep. Eric Swalwell, whose 15th Congressional District covers most of eastern Alameda County and part of central Contra Costa County, easily retained his seat with nearly 73 percent of the vote over his GOP opponent Alison Hayden.

South Bay representatives Ro Khanna and Zoe Lofgren both dominated their races, respectively taking 74.5 percent and 75 percent of the vote to keep their congressional seats.

Anna Eshoo, another South Bay Representative, was leading her Democratic competitor Rishi Kumar by 66 percent to 34 percent. Eshoo's district covers parts of Santa Clara, San Mateo, and Santa Cruz counties.

District 2 Representative Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) won his fifth term, beating Republican Dale K. Mensing with 78% of the vote.

Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) won his 12th term in Congress, easily defeating Scott Giblin with 78.6% of the vote.

Two years ago, Democrats pulled off a series of upsets as suburban voters nationally recoiled from the Trump agenda, grabbing seven GOP-held districts, including four all or partly in the one-time Republican stronghold of Orange County.

Those losses were humiliations for the state GOP, which has seen its standing with voters steadily erode.

Republican presidential candidates carried California in nine of 10 presidential elections from 1952 to 1988. But the state has become increasingly Democratic with its diversifying population.

Republicans hold only seven of the state's 53 House seats, the party hasn't won a statewide race since 2006 and registered Democrats outnumber GOP voters by nearly 2 to 1.