Republican Vince Fong wins California special election for McCarthy seat

By Eric Bradner, CNN

(CNN) — California state Assemblyman Vince Fong has won the special election to succeed former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in the state’s 20th Congressional District.

Fong’s victory in an all-GOP clash against Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux will help House Republicans buttress their razor-thin majority on Capitol Hill.

McCarthy, after being deposed as speaker, announced in December that he would resign from his heavily Republican Central Valley seat. He endorsed Fong, a former staffer, as his successor.

Fong will serve out the remainder of McCarthy’s term through January next year. The pair are set for another rematch in November, when they compete for a full two-year term.

The first round of the special election took place in March with all candidates, regardless of party, running on the same ballot. Fong, who also had the support of former President Donald Trump, finished first in that race ahead of Boudreaux and Democrat Marisa Wood. But as he did not take a majority of the vote, the race moved to this month’s face-off between the top two finishers.

The 20th District contest was the first of three House special elections taking place for vacant GOP seats over the next five weeks.

The next is on June 11 in Ohio’s 6th Congressional District. Voters there will decide on a successor to former Rep. Bill Johnson, who resigned to become the president of Youngstown State University. Then, on June 25, Colorado’s 4th District will hold a special election to succeed former Rep. Ken Buck, a hard-line conservative who clashed with his own party at times. Following his resignation announcement in March, Buck told CNN in March that Congress had “devolved into this bickering and nonsense and not really doing the job for the American people.”

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