California’s GOP faces losses

In a speech to fellow Republicans in May, U.S. Rep. Mimi Walters issued a warning about the coming election — California Democrats, she said, were "coming for all of us."

She was right.

The congresswoman's stunning defeat yesterday in the heart of Orange County, once a nationally known Republican stronghold, extended a Democratic rout that has seen five GOP-held House seats fall in the state, with another one threatened.

Last week's election delivered mixed results around the U.S. — Republicans held the Senate, Democrats seized the House — but in California voters turned the state an even deeper shade of Democratic blue.

With Walters' loss to newcomer Katie Porter, Democrats will hold a 44-9 edge in U.S. House seats, with another Orange County GOP seat in peril. The county was once home to President Richard Nixon and was considered a foundation of the modern conservative movement, gaining the moniker "Reagan country."

Democrats are on track to hold every statewide office — again. And there wasn't even a Republican on the ballot for U.S. Senate.

The 39th District, anchored in the northern part of the county, remains undecided in a contest between Republican Young Kim and Democrat Gil Cisneros. In returns yesterday, Cisneros climbed into a 941-vote lead, after Kim held the early edge in a district held by retiring Republican Rep. Ed Royce.