Calvert widens lead over Rollins in 41st Congressional Race
The new 41st Congressional District race remains tight, with Congressman Ken Calvert taking the lead over Will Rollins.
As of Thursday evening, Calvert has 51% of the votes, while Rollins has 49%.
The district is almost evenly divided in registration between Democrats and Republicans after it was redrawn to include a number of valley cities along with part of western Riverside County.
Supporters of each 41st Congressional District candidate are not backing down.
Joy Meidecke supports Ken Calvert and is the president of the East Valley Republican Women Patriots.
"I'm very confident, you know, we don't ever want to say that, but I feel really good about his chances to win. I really do," said Meidecke. "We're going to win this. There's no doubt about it."
Elle Kurpiewski supports Will Rollins and is the political director for the Democratic Headquarters of the Desert.
"We are remaining very hopeful. I believe that Will Rollins ran an excellent, excellent campaign," said Kurpiewski. "We feel that we have a very good shot at this. It's not over yet."
Approximately 231,000 Vote-by-Mail and 10,000 Provisional ballots still must be processed.
Rollins said it's going to take a few days for all the votes to be counted.
"I'm confident that I'm going to win. And I promise you that when I'm the next Congressman in California's 41st, I will reach out to you no matter who you voted for, and I will advocate for you in Washington, DC," said Rollins.
Calvert sent out a statement Thursday morning regarding the election results:
"As we expected, as more votes are counted from around Riverside County we would close the early gap. After this morning’s update we’ve not only closed the gap but are now in the lead. We fully expect that lead will grow as more ballots are counted. Again, we will prevail! I truly appreciate the overwhelming support I’ve received from volunteers and voters throughout Riverside County.”
Ken Calvert
Both parties are not surprised the race has been a close one.
"We can get our anxiety levels up pretty high. And it's best right now to just stay calm. Let's see what the results are," said Kurpiewski.
