{"id":1682,"date":"2024-11-12T03:32:56","date_gmt":"2024-11-12T03:32:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/democrat-george-whitesides-ousts-gop-rep-mike-garcia-from-los-angeles-house-seat\/"},"modified":"2024-11-12T03:32:56","modified_gmt":"2024-11-12T03:32:56","slug":"democrat-george-whitesides-ousts-gop-rep-mike-garcia-from-los-angeles-house-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/democrat-george-whitesides-ousts-gop-rep-mike-garcia-from-los-angeles-house-seat\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrat George Whitesides ousts GOP Rep. Mike Garcia from Los Angeles House seat"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/2024-election\/results\/california\/house\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">George Whitesides has defeated<\/a> three-term GOP Rep. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/337678\" data-person-id=\"337678\">Mike Garcia<\/a>, flipping a long-coveted Los Angeles area House seat to the Democrats\u2019 column.<\/p>\n<p>Garcia \u2014 who <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/electmikegarcia\/status\/1856170146118893597?s=46\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">conceded the race<\/a> Monday \u2014 was a top target for multiple cycles, given the Democrats\u2019 10-point registration advantage in the district and his conservative votes in the House. But he had proven surprisingly durable in the blue-leaning seat, leaning on his fighter-jet pilot past to appeal to voters in a district dominated by aerospace.<\/p>\n<p>This time, Democrats were able to successfully use Garcia\u2019s record against him, particularly as they hammered him on his past support for a national abortion ban.<\/p>\n<p>The party also fielded a stronger challenger to take on Garcia. Whitesides, the former CEO of Virgin Galactic, delivered his own aerospace bona fides and a strong fundraising performance. He was aided by millions of dollars in spending from Democratic outside groups, a stark contrast from 2022 when they pulled out of the pricey Los Angeles media market in the closing weeks of the campaign.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>George Whitesides has defeated three-term GOP Rep. Mike Garcia, flipping a long-coveted Los Angeles area House seat to the Democrats\u2019 column. Garcia \u2014 who conceded the race Monday \u2014 was a top target for multiple cycles, given the Democrats\u2019 10-point registration advantage in the district and his conservative votes in the House. But he had [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1682\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}