The Kamala Harris effect is working its way through Orange County’s Congressional races, and, in particular, CA-45 where new polling shows Derek Tran tied with Rep. Michelle Steel according to Politico.
From the story:
How is Kamala Harris’ rise affecting the Democrats running for Congress in her home state of California? Look no further than Derek Tran in Orange County.
Tran’s effort to unseat GOP Rep. Michelle Steel was considered by Democrats to be competitive but a bit of a reach — Steel had herself ousted a Democratic incumbent in 2020 and batted away a challenger in 2022.
Then Joe Biden dropped out of the race.
Voters, especially those under the age of 30, were flooding the office phone lines, asking to volunteer and how to get yard signs. Donors he had never spoken to before were suddenly calling Tran back, eager to give.
“We saw a big bump in fundraising,” Tran said in an interview with POLITICO. “It was just like this amazing momentum and energy, and just the way people were talking about this race again — it was like 2008.”
And now new data — one of the first publicly released House polls since Harris took over the top of the ticket — shows he’s neck-and-neck with the incumbent. Tran and Steel are tied at 47 percent each, according to a poll from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee shared exclusively with POLITICO.
The Steel campaign denies this, saying their polling shows Steel in the lead, but Politico tends to learn right in its coverage.
While not mentioned, the CA-47 race and CA-40 race, featuring Dave Min and Joe Kerr are both positively impacted by the Harris/Walz ticket as well. Look for both campaigns to ramp up messaging after the Democratic Convention in Chicago.