Politics & Government

Xavier Becerra Wins 34th Congressional District Seat

Becerra retains his congressional seat in a huge electoral victory over Republican rival Stephen Smith.

Final Update:

Congressman Xavier Becerra defeated his Republican challenger Stephen Smith by a margin of more than 70 percent of votes cast for the 34th Congressional District of California seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Becerra got 90,579 of the votes, while Smith got 15,186—an 85.64-percent and 14.36-percent share respectively of the total, according to figures posted on the County of Los Angeles Registrar-Recorder's website.

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In a message posted on his Becerra for Congress Facebook page, Becerra thanked voters in Los Angeles for their support. "I'm proud to represent the hardest working people in America and I look forward to being your voice in Congress," read the message. "Let's get to work!"

 

Find out what's happening in Eagle Rockwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Updated:

Democratic incumbent Xavier Becerra had a strong lead over Republican challenger Stephen Smith Tuesday night in the election to the newly redrawn 34th congressional district of California.

Shortly after midnight Tuesday, Becerra was leading with 42,917 votes—almost six times as many as the 7,538 votes that Smith had won at the time, according to figures posted on the County of Los Angeles Registrar-Recorder's website.

 

Previously:

The newly redrawn 34th congressional district of California will hold an election to the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday, Nov. 6.

The district, which stretches from downtown Los Angeles to the neighborhoods of Huntington Park and Bell Gardens, has two contestants with markedly contrasting backgrounds: Democratic incumbent Xavier Becerra and Republican challenger Stephen Smith.

Xavier Becerra: Career 'Progressive' Politician

Becerra is the U.S. House incumbent from the 31st Congressional District, whose boundaries have been redrawn and largely included in the 34th Congressional District following the 2010 U.S. Census. He and Smith won the June 5 primaries, defeating Howard Johnson from the Peace and Freedom Party.

Becerra, 54, is the vice chair of the U.S. House Democratic Caucus, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and ranking member of the House Social Security Subcommittee. Since 1993, he has served in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he is a senior member of the Committees on Ways and Means, which presides over issues related to national tax, social security, Medicare and trade laws.

Born in Sacramento, Becerra is a graduate of the Stanford Law School. He has served as a deputy attorney general in California and was elected to the California State Assembly in 1990.

Stephen Smith: Former Radio Shack Manager

Smith, 63, is a native Angeleno and UCLA graduate in psychology who worked for 30 years at Radio Shack in positions ranging from store clerk to store manager. An ecumenical Christian, he is married to Andrea Anderson, a church choir director who was recently elected as the faith-based director of the Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council. A longtime chorale singer himself, Smith performs at houses of religious worship ranging from Catholic to Jewish, most notably in he choir at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

This is Smith’s second consecutive bid to unseat Becerra from the U.S. House, elections for which are held every two years. A fiscal conservative with libertarian ideas, Smith opposes wealth redistribution and believes capital gains tax should be used to stimulate private investment.

“Today, the ruling elite some 3,000 miles from Los Angeles know what is better for us than we do, and they can regulate every aspect of our lives for our own good,” Smith told Patch in an e-mail message on the eve of the Nov. 6 vote. “This progressive movement is represented by Xavier Becerra [and its] ideas are flawed, for they fail to recognize human nature and historically have been doomed to failure.”

Click here to view how Becerra voted in the U.S. House on issues ranging from education and abortion to crime and free trade.

Click here to view Smith’s campaign website and his political beliefs.


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