By Tyler Sonderholzer
On June 7, California voters will be voting in the 2022 midterm primary elections to set the matchup for the governor, Senate, House of Representatives and state Senate and assembly seats. Unlike most states, California has a jungle primary system where voters can vote for a candidate regardless of party affiliation, and the top two candidates in the primary will face off in the general election in November. This means there could be the traditional one Democrat and one Republican matchup or there could be two Democrats or Republicans facing off against each other.
While redistricting has left most of California’s districts mainly Safe-Democratic, meaning that Democrats are expected to easily win those seats, most of Orange County’s districts are largely seen as competitive seats that are vital to either party’s bid to control the House.
In the 45th district, incumbent Republican Representative Michelle Steel will face Democrat Jay Chen and Republican Long Pham, who is running to the right of Steel on the political spectrum. Due to Steel’s incumbency, she is seen as an automatic lock-in and will face either Pham or Chen in November. Steel defeated former Democratic representative Harley Rouda in 2020. This district is one of the key battleground districts in the country as it is essential to either party’s chances to control the House of Representatives. CA-45 has a D+5 rating, meaning that the district had voted an average of five points more Democratic than the nation did as a whole.
The district includes portions of Orange County, such as the cities of Garden Grove, Fountain Valley, Westminster and Midway City, and in Los Angeles County, the cities of Artesia, Cerritos and Hawaiian Gardens. The demographics of this district are 36.9% Asian, 35.6% White, 23.0% Latino and 2.9% Black.
The 46th district is the only district in Orange County that is not competitive, due to its D+29 rating. Incumbent Democratic Representative Lou Correa, elected in 2016 is running for reelection and is facing Democrat Michael Ortega and Republicans Christopher Gonzales, Mike Nguyen and Felix Rocha in the primary. Correa is expected to easily be in the top two and win in November.
This district includes the Orange County cities of Santa Ana, Anaheim, Fullerton and Orange. This district has a 50.5% Latino population, 26.0% White, 19.1% Asian and 2.7% Black.
The 47th district is currently held by incumbent Democratic Representative Katie Porter, who was elected in 2018. Porter has four Republican challengers in the primary, Scott Baugh, Brain Burley, Amy Phan West and Errol Webber. Just like Steel’s seat, Porter holds a key battleground district that is critical to the Democrats’ bid to retain control of the House or Republicans’ attempts to take back control of the House, which they lost in 2018. This district has a D+6 rating.
The boundaries of this district include the cities of Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, and Irvine. The demographics of this district are 63.6% White, 19.3% Asian, 13.5% Latino and 1.9% Black.
