David Valadao and Rudy Salas are in a close race for Congress in California

According to the Associated Press, Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford, led former Rep. Rudy Salas, D-Bakersfield, in the early return from California's 22nd Congressional District on Tuesday night.

The race is expected to be one of the closest elections in the country in 2024 and the winner may not be determined for weeks.

The rematch between Valadao and Salas in 2024 could help decide which party controls the House of Representatives in 2025.

Their 2022 contest was one of the closest in the country and helped Republicans win a slim majority in the House. Valadao was declared the winner two weeks after election day, prevailing by 3 percentage points.

Valadao had 54% of the vote and Salas had 46%, with an estimated 41% of ballots counted as of 10:10 p.m. Tuesday.

The 22nd District includes most of Kings County and parts of Tulare and Kern counties.

It is one of more than a dozen congressional districts across the country held by Republican members of Congress where President Joe Biden would have beaten former President Donald Trump in 2020 if current legal boundaries had existed. Boundaries were redrawn to reflect the 2020 census. Voters in the new 22nd constituency would have voted for Biden by 13 points in 2020.

It is a Latino-majority constituency with a large population of young people. Compared to the rest of California, voter turnout in this district tends to be low, resulting in older, whiter, and more conservative voters disproportionately influencing elections here. Still, voter turnout tends to be highest in general presidential elections.

Valadao, 47, is a dairy farmer who served one term in the Assembly before Congress. He was first elected to Congress in 2012. He lost his seat in the 2018 “Blue Wave” midterm elections and won it back in 2020, both times by narrow margins.

Valadao is a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, which drafts government budgets, and the House Appropriations Committee.

Salas, 47, served the Assembly for a decade before leaving as part of his run for Congress in 2022. He served on the Bakersfield City Council before being elected to the Legislature and grew up working in the fields with family members.