Businessman and former Navy fighter pilot Mike Garcia won a special election Tuesday in California’s 25th Congressional District to reclaim the seat for the Republican Party.
Garcia scored a double-digit win, 56% to 44%, over Democrat Christy Smith, a member of the California State Assembly, with roughly 80% of the ballots counted.
Smith conceded defeat in a Facebook statement Wednesday afternoon. “While it’s critical that we ensure every vote is counted and recorded, we believe that the current tally shows Mike Garcia is the likely victor in the May 12 special election” to fill the seat through late January 2021, Smith said.
In November, the same pair of major party candidates will square off again for a full two-year term.
California’s 25th, which includes portions of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, is adjacent to Sana Susana Field Laboratory, a 2,850-acre site contaminated by decades of rocket testing and nuclear energy research. The Energy Department is one of the parties responsible for its cleanup.
Rep. Katie Hill (D), who resigned from Congress in November 2019 after the House Ethics Committee announced plans to investigate allegations that she had an affair with a member of her staff, won the seat a year earlier by defeating incumbent Republican Rep. Steve Knight.
Smith was the top vote-getter during an open primary in March, with Garcia second. Knight, seeking to reclaim his seat, came in third.
