Donald J. Trump is on track to be the first Republican presidential nominee to win Orange County since Mitt Romney edge out President Barack Obama in 2012.
Trump trailed Vice President Kamala Harris in the initial returns, but had overtaken her by the final update around midnight, taking a nearly 18,000 vote lead county-wide:
Trump lost Orange County to Hillary Clinton in 2016:
He also lost OC to Joe Biden in 2020:
It’s reasonable to assume Trump’s triumph in OC has lifted Republican candidates in other Orange County races, as Scott Baugh has surged past Democrat Dave Min since the early returns. In the 37th Senate District, former GOP Assemblyman Stephen Choi has pulled ahead of Democrat Senator Josh Newman. If Choi’s lead holds, it would be a huge upset: Newman and allied independent expenditure committees have vastly outspent Choi, out-mailing Choi by a factor of 10-1.
It will be interesting to map Trump’s areas of strength in Orange County and see where those intersect with local GOP and/or conservative victories.
Does this man Orange County is a red county once again? That remains to be seen. But it does undercut the view that OC is inexorably turning blue. The political realignment manifesting itself nationwide appears to have touched down here, as well.
