Republicans won half of California’s U.S. House seats they lost in 2018. Here’s how

After narrowly losing a congressional seat to Democrat Gil Cisneros in 2018, Republican Young Kim focused her comeback effort on the burgeoning Asian American enclaves of Orange County. “The Asian community really came out in force.” Kim was one of four Republicans who won congressional races in California this year, delivering the largest GOP gains in the party’s congressional ranks in 40 years. Republicans showed “we were the ones that were wanting to get something done and work across the aisle,” said Republican David Valadao, a former congressman who recaptured a Central Valley seat from Democratic Rep. T.J. Cox. “The fact that they’re back in Republican hands should under no circumstances be viewed as an unexpected and shocking development.” Republicans recruited candidates who resonated with voters, Democrats acknowledge. They accused Democrats of trying to defund the police and of supporting socialism — messages that Democrats reject as false but which appear to have resonated with Asian American voters in the 39th and 48th Districts, with the expansive Latino population in the 21st District and with voters who had law enforcement or military backgrounds in the 25th.