California Republican Rep. Mike Garcia Continues to Lead in Reelection Bid as Votes are Still Tallied

California Republican Rep. Mike Garcia continues to hold a significant lead Friday afternoon in his reelection bid as he faces Democrat Christy Smith for the third time.

Garcia, who has already declared victory in California’s Twenty-seventh Congressional District race, maintains a sizable lead against Smith.

As the Associated Press has not officially called the race, the New York Times has Garcia in the lead with 56.4 percent of the votes by Friday at 5:00 p.m. eastern, compared to Smith’s 43.6 percent of the vote, with 59 percent reported.

This will be the third rematch between Garcia and Smith after he defeated her during a May 2020 special election to succeed disgraced former Rep. Katie Hill (D-CA) after she resigned from Congress following inappropriate relationships with staffers in her congressional office and campaign. He also beat her in the 2020 general election for a full term by 333 votes — which made it the third-closest House race in that election cycle.

Garcia was a former U.S. Navy pilot who worked for Raytheon Technologies after his retirement. At the same time, Smith repeatedly ran for public office after only having one successful campaign in 2018 when she ran for state assembly.

The state’s once-in-a-decade redistricting effort following the census made the congressional district slightly more competitive after the loss of Simi Valley, the old district’s most conservative region, ultimately giving Democrats a slight edge.

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.