Democratic Rep. Mike Levin has won reelection in a coastal congressional district that straddles Orange and San Diego counties.
Levin beat Brian Maryott, a Republican businessman and former San Juan Capistrano mayor, in a rematch of the 2020 contest. The Associated Press called the race Wednesday, though official results will take longer.
The contest had appeared so close that President Biden campaigned with Levin just days before the election — a sign of Democrats’ concern about holding on to the seat as they battled for control of the House of Representatives. Control of the House tipped to Republicans on Wednesday.
The 49th Congressional District stretches from Laguna Beach to Del Mar and includes Camp Pendleton and a mothballed nuclear power plant. It’s one of several blue-state districts that overwhelmingly supported Biden in 2020 and were targeted by Republicans in the midterm election. The GOP had hoped Biden’s low approval ratings and the nation’s economic straits would boost their candidates.
Democrats have a scant 3.1-percentage-point edge in voter registration in the district, which is home to many commuters.
Levin, who worked as an environmental attorney before being elected to the House in 2018, has pushed a bold clean energy agenda, supporting zero-emission vehicles and banning new drilling off the California coast.
But he has also prioritized issues that are of particular importance to the district’s voters, including improving services for veterans and moving the radioactive waste buried at the closed San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.
And he pointed to recent administrative successes, such as the Inflation Reduction Act, which protects Medicare recipients from high drug prices and establishes a $35 cap for a month’s supply of insulin.
Though Maryott supported traditional Republican goals such as reducing the national debt, making the country energy independent and trimming what he described as onerous regulations on businesses, much of his campaign’s focus was on pocketbook matters at a time of surging inflation.
He was also representative of the type of Republicans who have typically been successful in coastal regions in Southern California. He opposes new drilling off the California coast and acknowledges climate change.
