2 Calif. Democrats Deadlocked in Bid to Unseat GOP Incumbent
*By Christian Smith*
Democrats are in a holding pattern, waiting to see who will take on California Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher in one of the key districts their party needs to flip in November to retake control of the House of Representatives.
Initially, California Democrats wanted to box Rohrabacher out of the race by stacking the ballot with two of their own candidates, but they were unable to game California's "jungle primary" system, said Jon Miller, the White House correspondent for CRTV.
"We know that the Democrats, they sunk millions of dollars into the 48th District," Miller told Cheddar. "They wanted to load the ballot with two Democrats, but we know that they're not going to be able to do that because Dana Rohrabacher is a confirmed winner there."
In California, the top two vote getters, regardless of party affiliation, get spots on the November ballot.
Rohrabacher, a 30-year incumbent, received more than 30 percent of the vote Tuesday, and will face either the businessman Harley Rouda, or the biomedical researcher Hans Kierstead. Those two Democrats were separated by fewer than 100 votes as of the [New York Times' last count](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/05/us/elections/results-california-primary-elections.html).
Democrats are hoping to pick up seven Republican-held districts in California that Hillary Clinton won in 2016. California's 39th and 49th districts are at the top of the target list; two longtime Republican representatives are retiring.
Congressman Ed Royce announced in January that he would vacate his seat in the 39th district after 26 years in office, drawing 17 candidates from both major parties into the race. (Two of them bowed out before Tuesday's vote.) The Republican former assemblywoman Young Kim and a Democratic philanthropist, Gil Cisneros, appear to be the winners of the primary.
In California's 49th district, Republican Congressman Darrell Issa is stepping down from the seat he has held for 16 years. Republican State Board of Equalization member Diane Harkey has guaranteed herself a spot in the November midterms. And 29-year-old Sara Jacobs, the granddaughter of the billionaire co-founder of Qualcomm, Irwin Jacobs, is waiting to hear if she or the lawyer Mike Levin, another Democrat, will earn the right to run for Issa's seat. Levin led Jacobs by more than a thousand votes as of Wednesday afternoon.
Results won't be official for a few weeks as the state still has to count the larger-than-expected number of provisional ballots.
The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder said [in a statement](https://www.lavote.net/docs/rrcc/news-releases/06052018_E-Day-Release.pdf) that the names of 118,522 voters were omitted from poll workers' rosters of registered voters at almost a third of L.A.'s voting locations. Voters left off of the roster were given provisional ballots.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/too-early-to-call-winners-in-key-california-house-districts).
With the Russian invasion of Ukraine raging on, millions have turned to TikTok to stay up-to-date on the latest developments and get a first-hand look. The social media platform has been so prominent that the war has been dubbed "the first TikTok war" by many publications — and even the White House has taken notice. The Biden administration held a virtual briefing with 30 social media creators to discuss their role in communicating to their followers by countering what it deems as being misinformation. Ellie Zeiler, an 18-year-old TikTok star who attended the briefing, joined Cheddar to talk about the conference and her responsibilities as a social media creator. "How could you not be a little nervous or scared when you're getting your information and media all from this app? But also then you think back to, I guess, when media was changing between newspapers and TV, and I'm sure people were nervous about that too," she said. "So the fact is, is that people do really look to Tiktok and social media for their news."
U.S. markets closed the day at session lows as the Dow marked its fifth straight week of losses. Investors continue to weigh inflation and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and growing economic risk factors. George Seay, CEO of Annandale Capital, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
U.S. stocks ended Thursday's session lower as new CPI data show inflation continues to rise and the Russia-Ukraine war continues. Philip Palumbo, founder, CEO, & Chief Investment Officer of Palumbo Wealth Management, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
It's been an eventful past few weeks for the WNBA. One of the league's top players, Brittney Griner, remains in Russian custody after being detained at an airport last month. The league is also dealing with a scandal after fining a team for providing charter flights to their players. Emily Caron, sports business reporter for Sportico, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
School nutrition experts warn that millions of children could go hungry as soon as this summer, after Congress excluded waivers that would extend universal lunch for children in school from the $1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill. Cheddar News speaks with Jessica Gould, chair of the public policy and legislation committee at the School Nutrition Association, about the issue.
The ongoing semiconductor chip shortage has been impacting everything from the purchase of cars to smartphones. Deputy Commerce Secretary Don Graves spoke with Cheddar about the Biden administration's efforts to combat the issue and if the current crisis in Ukraine will have any impact on the global supply chain problems for semiconductors. "We're working very closely with all of our partners and allies around the globe, just as we have on the export controls and sanctions that we've applied to Russia to deal with that needless aggression," he said. "We're also working with them on the challenges of raw materials for a range of industries, including the semiconductor industry. We believe that we are going to be able to meet the demand for the for the near term."
Deputy Commerce Secretary Don Graves spoke to Cheddar's Alex Vuocolo about the ongoing semiconductor shortages and the push from the Biden administration to cover the supply chain problem as well as look ahead to future-proofing it.
President Maxx Fenning and Vice President CJ Walden of PRISM, a Florida non-profit providing resources for LGBTQ youth, joined Cheddar News to discuss the negative repercussions of a Florida bill banning discussions of sexuality and gender identity in some classrooms.
