STANISLAUS COUNTY, Calif. — California Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, one of former President Donald Trump's most ardent loyalists in Congress, announced he was leaving the House at the end of the year to join Trump's media company.
ABC10 spoke to Stephen Routh, a political science professor at Stanislaus State University, about how the state's redistricting commission would leave some members of Congress with a challenging midterm election, including Nunes.
Routh said Nunes won easily in 2016 with about 60% of the vote, but the races tightened up for him in both 2018 and 2020.
"With the potential change of the redrawing of the lines, and I think that probably motivated him to hit the road," Routh said. "He's obviously has been a devoted Trump supporter."
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, a special election must be held to fill in Nunes' remainder term through 2022.
Voters will also have to cast their vote the same year to elect someone to represent in June and November of the same year to elect someone to represent that district.
Routh said the likely candidate to replace Nunes is someone who is an already established politician like a state senator, a mayor or an assemblyperson.
Dave Wasserman, with the Cook Political Report, published a tweet in November saying that Nunes could have potentially taken his campaign money to challenge Democratic Rep. Josh Harder. He said that Nunes' district would turn from having voted for Trump in 2020 by five percentage points to backing President Joe Biden by 9.
With four Democratic challengers in the Tulare district, there are no Republicans running in that district.
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CalMatters reporter and political expert Emily Hoeven discuss how California's redistricting could impact various representatives.
