Republicans in a majority-Latino district in California that includes Indio and Coachella are on course to flip a Democratic state Assembly seat red.

Jeff Gonzalez, an Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran, is set to beat out Democrat Joey Acuña, a school board member, for the 36th Assembly District.

Gonzalez is ahead by an insurmountable 4,362 votes, or 3.1%, as of Friday, per official count numbers. 

If Gonzalez gets over the line, it will be the first time since 1992 that Republicans in California have picked up a seat in the state legislature during a presidential cycle, according to California state Assembly member Bill Essayli.

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If elected, Gonzalez will replace longtime Democratic legislator Eduardo Garcia as the next state assembly member in a sprawling district. Garcia, from Coachella, decided not to seek re-election this year and instead endorsed Acuña, the Coachella Valley Unified School District board president, per the Desert Sun.

The soon-to-be stunning seat win is underlined by the fact that Democrats make up about 42.3% of the 245,500 people registered to vote in the district, while Republicans account for 28.7%. Voters with no party affiliation were 21.6% of the total, according to the Desert Sun.

In the March primary, Gonzalez received about 21,000 votes compared to about 12,000 for Acuña. However, Democratic candidates overall earned about 4,500 more votes than Republicans.

California, a deep blue state, was easily won by Vice President Harris, who is currently leading President-elect Trump by 58.8% to 38% with 92.85% of the votes counted. 

Gonzalez is a 21-year veteran of the Marine Corps who also served on embassy protection missions in Honduras and the Czech Republic, working closely with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, according to his campaign website.

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Jeff Gonzalez speaks with voters during an election fair and voter registration drive at College of the Desert in Palm Desert, Calif., Oct. 21, 2024. (Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

He is also a pastor and the owner of three small businesses, per his website. He is married with four sons, one of whom is physically and mentally challenged and lives with he and his wife for caregiver support.

Gonzalez ran on a platform of cutting red tape, lowering taxes and fees on groceries and gas and “reviving the California Dream.”

He also wants to address inflation by passing “the largest middle-class tax cut in California history.”

Gonzalez is also vowing to improve education, saying he is concerned about falling test scores and graduation rates. He wants to hire more teachers and more school security to create a safer learning environment as well as promote bipartisanship by supporting good ideas from both parties.

Acuña ran on tackling affordability, housing and public safety.

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California, a deep blue state, was easily won by Vice President Harris, who is currently leading President-elect Trump by 58.8% to 38% with 92.85% of the votes counted.  (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

“I want to make sure the kids who grow up in our district have access to good-paying jobs, safe neighborhoods, world-class schools, and clean air and water,” he states on his website. 

Acuña is serving his fifth term on the Coachella Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees. In this role, he said he has worked to improve graduation rates, enhance after-school programs, and expand the district’s college and career pathway programs, according to his website.

He works professionally as development manager for health clinics and a grant writer for a local tribe.

The California Public Utilities Commission this week unveiled a proposal that could potentially close the Aliso Canyon gas storage field in the coming years, but local activists and politicians say it doesn’t provide a fast or clear enough timeline to shut down the site of the largest natural gas leak in American history.

Residents in Porter Ranch and surrounding San Fernando Valley communities have been clamoring to close the Southern California Gas Co.-owned site ever since the leak took place over a four-month period in late 2015 and early 2016. The disaster spewed about 100,000 tons of methane and other chemicals into the air, forcing more than 8,000 families to flee their homes, with many reporting headaches, nosebleeds and nausea.

On Wednesday, the CPUC unveiled a proposed decision regarding the future of Aliso Canyon. The plan, which will be discussed at the commission’s Dec. 19 meeting, calls for moving ahead with potentially closing the site once Southern California’s demand for natural gas declines to a level at which peak demand can be served without Aliso Canyon.

Demand is expected to continue its downward trajectory in the coming years as California increases its utilization of renewable energy sources.

The CPUC proposes initiating proceedings to review and potentially close the facility once the peak demand forecast for two years out decreases to 4,121 million metric cubic feet per day — and a biennial assessment shows that doing so would not jeopardize natural gas reliability or reasonable rates. Current peak demand forecast is 4,618 million metric cubic feet per day, and that is expected to drop to 4,197 million in 2030, according to a CPUC information sheet.

“We continue to review the decision but share the commission’s view that Aliso Canyon is a necessary part of California’s energy infrastructure today,” SoCalGas spokesperson Chris Gilbride said in a statement Friday.

Several politicians who represent Porter Ranch and support closing Aliso Canyon said they are frustrated by what they see as a lack of urgency and clarity around when the site will realistically cease operation.

“The optimism part is that there is a path to shut it down,” Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo (D-Chatsworth) said in a phone interview. “The skeptical side, however, is there really is no timeline. It’s unclear.”

State Sen. Henry Stern (D-Calabasas) said he wants the CPUC to provide evidence for why a gradual timeline is in the public’s best interest.

“The burden is on the CPUC to prove to the public that this proposal to extend the life of Aliso Canyon is not just a give away to the SoCalGas Company at the expense of the community,” he said in a statement on X.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath called the draft decision “unacceptable” in a statement, and said it “fails to prioritize the health and wellbeing of a community that bore the brunt of the worst natural gas leak in American history.”

“My position is unchanged: We need a clear end date and plan for full closure,” she said.

This sentiment was echoed by Matt Pakucko, the president of the advocacy group Save Porter Ranch, which has fought to close the storage facility since shortly after the leak.

He said the commission was “kicking the can down the road” with its proposed biennial assessment process.

“They’re checking every two years instead of immediately closing down the facility as residents and our group have been asking for for years,” Pakucko said.

The company has a contentious relationship with the Porter Ranch community and, in the aftermath of the leak, faced a litany of lawsuits alleging it knew about issues at the site and failed to address the problems. Firefighters also filed suits alleging that the company failed to inform them about the extent of their exposure to harmful chemicals when responding to the leak.

In 2016, SoCalGas pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor count of failing to immediately report the gas leak and, in 2021, agreed to pay up to $1.8 billion to settle the claims of more than 35,000 victims.

Since then, the company has implemented a number of safety improvements at Aliso Canyon as part of various legal settlements and agreements with government agencies.

This includes installing an infrared methane monitoring system, having a state agency complete safety tests on all 114 wells, hiring employees to operate new leak-detection systems 24 hours a day, adopting new reporting policies for releases of hazardous materials and increasing employee safety training.

Pakucko said he places the blame for the gas facility’s continual use on Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“This isn’t an energy issue, it’s a health issue,” Pakucko said.

In 2019, Newsom called on the CPUC to look into accelerating the facility’s permanent shutdown. But in 2023, his appointees to the CPUC voted 5-0 in favor of allowing SoCalGas to store far more fuel at the site to help bring down gas rates.

In a 2023 email, Newsom spokesperson Alex Stack said the governor “appreciates the [Public Utilities Commission’s] efforts to maintain affordable and reliable energy for ratepayers, and he continues to encourage the commission to expedite their work to permanently close the facility as part of California’s transition away from fossil fuels.”

Rising natural gas costs were a big issue last winter when SoCalGas said the average bill for its 21.8 million customers in January 2023 was about $300, more than twice the average of January 2022.

The company blamed unusually cold winter weather and constraints on pipelines and gas storage facilities for the spike in prices. Others blamed the company for mismanaging its inventory and increasing exports to Europe to take advantage of high prices due to the Russia-Ukraine war.

Longtime Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., has won re-election in California’s 21st Congressional District after more than a week of counting ballots, according to the Associated Press.

He successfully kept his seat against Republican challenger Michael Maher.

The race was one of the final pending House races of the 2024 cycle, called more than a week after Election Day.

Costa has represented the district since 2005, which includes the San Joaquin Valley, but the Democrat’s political work in California stretches back decades. 

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Costa served in the California State Assembly from 1978 to 1994, before being elected to the California State Senate from 1994 to 2002.

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The Democrat faced Republican opposition from California native Michael Maher, a veteran and former FBI agent.