Democrats Tom Umberg and Cottie Petrie-Norris declare victory in state legislative races, flipping GOP-held districts

Orange County Democrats Tom Umberg and Cottie Petrie-Norris have declared victory in their respective state legislative races, flipping two GOP-held districts and ahdding to the Democratic Party’s supermajority control of the state house.

Umberg, 63, a retired U.S. Army colonel and former three-term assemblyman, is poised to unseat one-term Republican state Sen. Janet Nguyen in Senate District 34, which stretches from Little Saigon up to Long Beach.

Petrie-Norris, 43, a Laguna Beach businesswoman, defeated two-term GOP Assemblyman Matthew Harper in the 74th District, which spans coastal central Orange County and Irvine.

Both Democrats trailed on election night but overtook their Republican opponents as provisional and late mail-in ballots have been counted.

On Wednesday evening, Umberg led his race by 2,898 votes, or 1 percentage point, while Petrie-Norris was ahead by 10,243 votes, or 5 percentage points. More than 17,000 ballots remained uncounted. Nguyen and Harper have not conceded.

In ousting Harper, Petrie-Norris, a political newcomer, will replace one of the more conservative Republicans in the Assembly. The GOP still has a 4.5 percentage point voter registration advantage in the 74th District, but Petrie-Norris benefited from campaigning alongside Democrat representative-elects Katie Porter and Harley Rouda, who both brought out voters in their successful bids to win GOP-held House seats.

Petrie-Norris said one of her first Assembly bills will focus on bolstering coastal and wetlands preservation in the district. She also hopes to reform local control over sober living homes.

“I think that we were able to flip this seat and elect a Democrat here for the first time in 40 years speaks to what a watershed moment this has been in Orange County politics across the board,” Petrie-Norris said on Wednesday. “My focus will be on making sure that our local issues are getting addressed.”

Harper said he’d wait to comment on the contest until all the votes are counted.

Meanwhile, Umberg issued a statement Wednesday declaring victory and thanking his supporters. Umberg had trailed by 7 percentage points on election night but clawed back as late ballots were counted. He said his top priority would be to ensure his district “gets its fair share of resources, particularly for education and transportation.”

“I was surprised that any candidate could come back from as far back as we came,” Umberg said. “But I knew that we worked really hard and that I was in sync with the district in terms of the issues people care about.”

Nguyen, a moderate Republican and former Orange County supervisor, won election to the state senate in 2014, becoming the first Vietnamese American elected that office.

Meanwhile, Democrats also are positioned to win their first seat on the Orange County Board of Supervisors in more than a decade. Tabulations late Wednesday showed that Fullerton Mayor Doug Chaffee had widened his edge over Republican La Habra Mayor Tim Shaw. Chaffee leads by a slim margin – 1,266 votes, or less than 1 percentage point. Chaffee hasn’t declared victory and Shaw hasn’t conceded, but Chaffee has seen his vote count gain or pass Shaw every day since election night.

Elsewhere in the county, Westminster City Councilman Tyler Diep, a Republican, defeated Democrat Josh Lowenthal in the contest for Assembly District 72, which covers Little Saigon and northern coastal Orange County. The seat had been held by GOP Assemblyman Travis Allen since 2012. Lowenthal conceded shortly after the election.

Republican state Sen. Pat Bates defeated Democrat Marggie Castellano to win re-election to Senate District 36, which spans Orange and San Diego counties.

And Democratic Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva won re-election to the 65th District, which covers northeast Orange County.