After a quick and convincing win for President Trump that had been anticipated to take weeks to decide, the local races produced few surprises.
The one exception was Visalia Unified School District incumbent Megan Casebeer Soleno falling to newcomer Kenneth Dejonge. Dejonge received 60.28% to Casebeer-Soleno’s 39.72%.
Two seats were up for re-election for Visalia City Council and both incumbents won. In District 1 Liz Wynn received 78.52% of the vote to Efrain Becerra’s 21.48%
In District 2 Brett Taylor received 78.04% to April Treona Lancaster at 21.96%.
In the State Assembly District 33 race, political newcomer Alexandra Macedo was predicted to win and she did so convincingly. Assemblymember Devon Mathis made the surprise decision last year not to defend his seat and instead endorsed Macedo.
Though candidate Xavier Avila touted his experience in holding public office, Macedo produced a convincing win with 63.7% of the vote to Avila’s 36.3%.
What was anticipated to be one of the closest races for Congress in the country ended in a clear victory for Representative David Valadao. Democrat challenger Rudy Salas lost for the second time to Valadao with 46.1% of the vote to Valadao’s 53.9%.
As of 12:30am Wednesday morning 93.7% of the votes had been counted in the state elections and 87.5% of the precincts had been tallied in Tulare County.