LOS ANGELES (AP) – California state legislator Jimmy Gomez can count a lot of advantages in his bid to claim a vacant U.S. House seat Tuesday, including the blessing of the state Democratic establishment and a political committee inspired by Bernie Sanders.
But his runoff against fellow Democrat Robert Lee Ahn in the 34th Congressional District has been made competitive by an energized Korean-American community that wants to see Ahn become the first Korean in Congress in nearly two decades.
The special election in the heavily Democratic district that runs through downtown Los Angeles will not change the balance of power in Congress. The seat was held for years by Xavier Becerra, another Democrat who stepped down after being appointed state attorney general.
Rather than party rivalry, the contest, for which a low turnout is expected, has been influenced by racial politics.
Ahn, 41, the son of Korean immigrants, has emerged as a favorite in the district’s bustling Koreatown neighborhood. Gomez, 42, the son of Mexican immigrants, is hoping to win a district where half the voters are Latino, compared with a relative sliver of Asian voters.