California's 50th congressional district

California's 50th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of California, and encompasses the central and northeastern parts of San Diego County and a small part of Riverside County. It has been vacant since the resignation of Duncan D. Hunter on January 13, 2020. [5]

"CA-50" redirects here. For California State Route 50, see U.S. Route 50 in California.

California's 50th congressional district
California's 50th congressional district since January 3, 2013.
Representative	Vacant
Population (2013)	730,427[1]
Median income	$77,155[2]
Ethnicity	58.6% white[3] 29.9% Hispanic 5.1% Asian 4.0% other 2.3% black
Cook PVI	R+11[4]

From 2003 through 2013, California's 52nd consisted of many of San Diego's northern and eastern suburbs, Santee, including Lakeside, Poway, Ramona, La Mesa, Alpine, Winter Gardens, Borrego Springs and Spring Valley. Due to redistricting after the 2010 United States Census, much of this area is now part of the 50th District.

Despite being indicted by a federal grand jury for misusing campaign funds, Hunter narrowly won re-election in 2018.[6] On December 3rd, 2019, he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy misuse of campaign funds, and it was expected he would resign before being sentenced on March 17, 2020.[5] On January 7, 2020, he submitted letters of resignation to both Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Governor of California Gavin Newsom indicating that his resignation would take effect at close of business on January 13.[7] A day later, Newsom's office stated that there would be no special election to fill the seat, and so it will remain vacant until being filled in January 2021, subsequent to the regularly scheduled 2020 election.[7]

Geography

The 50th district is based in San Diego County. It includes suburban and outlying areas of the county, including Fallbrook, San Marcos, Valley Center, Ramona, Escondido, Santee, Lakeside, parts of El Cajon and mountain and desert areas stretching east to the Imperial County line. It extends slightly into southwestern Riverside County and covers much of the city of Temecula.

Competitiveness

In statewide races

Election results from statewide races
Year	Office	Results
1992	President[8]	Clinton 48.8% – 30.0%
	Senator[9]	Boxer 49.8% – 39.0%
	Senator (Special)[10]	Feinstein 54.5% – 35.6%
1994	Governor[11]	Wilson 50.6% – 44.1%
	Senator[12]	Feinstein 44.4% - 40.0%
1996	President[13]	Clinton 59.7% - 32.3%
1998	Governor[14]	Davis 63.4% - 32.1%
	Senator[15]	Boxer 59.0% – 36.1%
2000	President[16]	Gore 59.0% – 37.2%
	Senator[17]	Feinstein 64.4% – 27.8%
2002	Governor[18]	Simon 55.6% – 37.3%
2003	Recall[19][20]	Yes 68.0% – 32.0%
		Schwarzenegger 63.1% – 20.3%
2004	President[21]	Bush 55.2% – 43.9%
	Senator[22]	Jones 48.2% – 48.1%
2006	Governor[23]	Schwarzenegger 69.9% – 26.3%
	Senator[24]	Feinstein 50.8% – 45.2%
2008	President[25]	Obama 51.3% – 47.1%
2010	Governor[26]	Whitman 55.2% – 39.8%
	Senator[27]	Fiorina 55.2% – 39.8%
2012	President[28]	Romney 60.4% – 37.6%
	Senator[29]	Emken 60.5% – 39.5%
2014	Governor[30]	Kashkari 64.0% – 36.0%
2016	President[31]	Trump 54.6% – 39.6%
	Senator[32]	Harris 54.9% – 45.1%
2018	Governor[33]	Cox 59.1% – 40.9%
	Senator[34]	de León 52.1% – 47.9%

List of members representing the district

District created January 3, 1993.

Member	Party	Dates	Cong ress(es)	Electoral history	Counties
Bob Filner	Democratic	January 3, 1993 – January 3, 2003	103rd 104th 105th 106th 107th	Elected in 1992. Re-elected in 1994. Re-elected in 1996. Re-elected in 1998. Re-elected in 2000. Redistricted to the 51st district.	1993–2003 San Diego (Southern suburbs)
Duke Cunningham	Republican	January 3, 2003 – December 1, 2005	108th 109th	Redistricted from the 51st district and re-elected in 2002. Re-elected in 2004. Resigned after pleading guilty to multiple felonies.	2003–2013 San Diego (Northern suburbs)
Vacant		December 1, 2005 – June 13, 2006
Brian Bilbray	Republican	June 13, 2006 – January 3, 2013	109th 110th 111th 112th	Elected to finish Cunningham's term. Re-elected in 2006. Re-elected in 2008. Re-elected in 2010. Redistricted to the 52nd district and lost there.
Duncan D. Hunter	Republican	January 3, 2013 – January 13, 2020	113th 114th 115th 116th	Redistricted from the 52nd district and re-elected in 2012. Re-elected in 2014. Re-elected in 2016. Re-elected in 2018. Resigned after pleading guilty to misusing campaign funds.[35]	2013–present Inland San Diego (Escondido and Santee)
Vacant		January 13, 2020 – January 3, 2021	116th	There will be no special election to finish the term.[7]
TBD		January 3, 2021 –	117th	To be determined in the 2020 general elections.

Elections results

1992

1992 United States House of Representatives elections in California[36]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Bob Filner	77,293	56.6
	Republican	Tony Valencia	39,531	28.9
	Libertarian	Barbara Hutchinson	15,489	11.3
	Peace and Freedom	Roger Bruce Batchelder	4,250	3.1
	Independent	Pickard (write-in)	63	0.1
Total votes			136,626	100.0
	Democratic gain from Republican

1994

1994 United States House of Representatives elections in California[37]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Bob Filner (Incumbent)	59,214	56.7%
	Republican	Mary Alice Acevedo	36,955	35.4%
	Libertarian	Richardo Duenez	3,326	3.2%
	Peace and Freedom	Guillermo Ramirez	3,002	2.9%
	Green	Kip Krueger	1,954	1.8%
Total votes			118,340	100.0%
	Democratic hold

1996

1996 United States House of Representatives elections in California[38]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Bob Filner (Incumbent)	73,200	58.9%
	Republican	Jim Baize	38,351	32.5%
	Reform	Dan Clark	3,253	2.7%
	Natural Law	Earl Shepard	2,138	1.8%
	Libertarian	Philip Zoebisch	1,398	1.1%
Total votes			118,340	100.0%
	Democratic hold

1998

1998 United States House of Representatives elections in California[39]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Bob Filner (Incumbent)	77,354	99.2%
	Independent	Jon Parungoa (write-in)	596	0.8%
	Republican	Petra E. Barajas (write-in)	41	0.0%
Total votes			77,991	100.0%
	Democratic hold

2000

2000 United States House of Representatives elections in California[40]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Bob Filner (Incumbent)	95,191	68.3%
	Republican	Bob Divine	38,526	27.7%
	Libertarian	David A. Willoughby	3,472	2.4%
	Natural Law	LeAnn S. Kendall	2,283	1.6%
Total votes			139,472	100.0%
	Democratic hold

2002

2002 United States House of Representatives elections in California[41]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Duke Cunningham (Incumbent)	111,095	64.4%
	Democratic	Del G. Stewart	55,855	32.3%
	Libertarian	Richard M. Fontanesi	5,751	3.3%
Total votes			172,701	100.0%
	Republican hold

2004

2004 United States House of Representatives elections in California[42]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Duke Cunningham (Incumbent)	169,025	58.5%
	Democratic	Francine Busby	105,590	36.5%
	Green	Gary M. Waayers	6,504	2.2%
	American Independent	Diane Templin	4,723	1.6%
	Libertarian	Brandon C. Osborne	3,486	1.2%
Total votes			289,328	100.0%
	Republican hold

2006 (Special)

Representative Cunningham resigned on November 28, 2005, as a result of a bribery scandal. An open special election was held on April 11, 2006. The top vote getter was Democrat Francine Busby, who won 44% of the vote. The second-place finisher was Republican Brian Bilbray, who won 15% of the vote. Paul King was the top Libertarian party vote getter, with 0.6% of the vote. Since no candidate received a simple majority, the top vote-getters in each party competed in a runoff or special general election on June 6, 2006 (the same day as the statewide California primary). Bilbray was sworn in on June 13, based on unofficial counts, two weeks before the election was certified. As a consequence of this action, a court challenge to the election results filed by voters was denied on jurisdictional grounds.[43] This decision was appealed unsuccessfully.

2006 California's 50th congressional district special election[44]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Brian Bilbray	78,341	49.6%
	Democratic	Francine Busby	71,146	45.0%
	Independent	William Griffith	6,027	3.8%
	Libertarian	Paul King	2,519	1.6%
Invalid or blank votes			882	0.5%
Total votes			158,915	100.0%
	Republican hold

2006

2006 United States House of Representatives elections in California[45]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Brian Bilbray (Incumbent)	118,018	53.2%
	Democratic	Francine Busby	96,612	43.5%
	Libertarian	Paul King	4,119	1.8%
	Peace and Freedom	Miriam E. Clark	3,353	1.5%
Total votes			222,102	100.0%
	Republican hold

2008

2008 United States House of Representatives elections in California[46]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Brian Bilbray (Incumbent)	157,502	50.2%
	Democratic	Nick Leibham	141,635	45.2%
	Libertarian	Wayne Dunlap	14,365	4.6%
Total votes			313,502	100.0%
	Republican hold

2010

2010 United States House of Representatives elections in California[47]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Brian Bilbray (Incumbent)	142,236	56.7%
	Democratic	Francine Busby	97,813	39.0%
	Libertarian	Lars B. Grossmith	5,546	2.2%
	Peace and Freedom	Miriam E. Clark	5,470	2.1%
Total votes			251,065	100.0%
	Republican hold

2012

2012 United States House of Representatives elections in California[48]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Duncan D. Hunter (Incumbent)	174,838	67.6%
	Democratic	David B. Secor	83,455	32.4%
Total votes			258,293	100.0%
	Republican hold

2014

2014 United States House of Representatives elections in California[49]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Duncan D. Hunter (Incumbent)	111,997	71.2%
	Democratic	James H. Kimber	45,302	28.8%
Total votes			157,299	100.0%
	Republican hold

2016

2016 United States House of Representatives elections in California[50]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Duncan D. Hunter (Incumbent)	179,937	63.5%
	Democratic	Patrick Malloy	103,646	36.5%
Total votes			283,583	100.0%
	Republican hold

2018

2018 United States House of Representatives elections in California[51]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Duncan D. Hunter (Incumbent)	134,362	51.7%
	Democratic	Ammar Campa-Najjar	125,448	48.3%
Total votes			259,808	100.0%
	Republican hold

Historical district boundaries

44th District

In the 1980s, California's 44th Congressional District was one of four encompassing San Diego. The district had been held for eight years by Democrat Jim Bates and was considered the most Democratic district in the San Diego area. However, Bates became bogged down in a scandal involving charges of sexual harassment.

Randy "Duke" Cunningham won the Republican nomination and hammered Bates about the scandal. Cunningham won by a point. The San Diego area was represented entirely by Republicans for only the second time since the city was split into three districts after the 1960 U.S. Census. After his victory, Cunningham changed his official residence from his Del Mar home to a condominium in the Mission Valley neighborhood in San Diego, so he could reside in the district that he represented in Congress.

41st District

In the 1980s, California's 41st congressional district was another of four encompassing San Diego. The northern San Diego County district had been held for 12 years by Republican Bill Lowery and was considered the most Republican district in the San Diego area. Most of the district became the California's 51st congressional district after state redistricting following the 1990 U.S. Census.

In 1992, Cunningham campaigned against Lowery in Lowery's district in the Republican primary. The new 51st District was more dominated by ethnic whites and was more conservative than Cunningham's more urban, former 41st District located farther south. Lowery was tainted by the House check kiting scandal and lost the primary to Cunningham. The latter, a Navy career officer, had run on a campaign theme of "A Congressman We Can Be Proud Of." After winning, Cunningham changed his official residence back to his Del Mar home in the old 41st/new 51st District.

2000s

From 2003 to 2013, the 50th district consisted of the northern coastal region of San Diego County and included the suburbs of San Marcos, Carlsbad, Encinitas, Solana Beach, and Escondido.

In popular culture

On November 29, 2005, Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report declared on his show that the 50th Congressional District was "dead" to him after its insufficient support for his "friend" Duke Cunningham. Colbert placed the district on the show's ever-changing "Dead to Me" board, saying that he now considered the number of congressional districts in the United States to be 434. (The number became 433 when he retired the 22nd District of Texas for its insufficient support for Tom DeLay.) On March 1, 2006, he "downgraded" the 50th District's status from "dead to me" to "never existed to me."[52]

See also

• List of United States congressional districts
• United States congressional delegations from California

References

1. "American Fact Finder - Results". United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on February 13, 2020. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
2. US Census
3. LA Times
4. "Partisan Voting Index – Districts of the 115th Congress" (PDF). The Cook Political Report. April 7, 2017. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
5. Rep. Duncan Hunter pleads guilty to misusing campaign funds, is expected to resign from Congress, Los Angeles Times, Sarah D. Wire and Seema Mehta December 3, 2019. Retrieved December 3, 2019.
6. Washington Post
7. Rep. Hunter Announces Resignation Date, Newsom Will Not Call Special Election, KNSD, Julie Watson and NBC 7 Staff January 7, 2020. Retrieved January 10, 2020.
8. Statement of Vote (1992 President)
9. Statement of Vote (1992 Senate)
10. Statement of Vote (1992 Senate)
11. Statement of Vote (1994 Governor)
12. Statement of Vote (1994 Senate)
13. Statement of Vote (1996 President)
14. Statement of Vote (1998 Governor) Archived September 29, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
15. Statement of Vote (1998 Senate) Archived September 29, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
16. Statement of Vote (2000 President)
17. Statement of Vote (2000 Senator)
18. Statement of Vote (2002 Governor)
19. Statement of Vote (2003 Recall Question)
20. Statement of Vote (2003 Governor)
21. Statement of Vote (2004 President)
22. Statement of Vote (2004 Senator)
23. Statement of Vote (2006 Governor)
24. Statement of Vote (2006 Senator)
25. Statement of Vote (2008 President)
26. Statement of Vote (2010 Governor)
27. Statement of Vote (2010 Senator)
28. Statement of Vote (2012 President)
29. Statement of Vote (2012 Senator)
30. Statement of Vote (2014 Governor)
31. Statement of Vote (2016 President)
32. Statement of Vote (2016 Senator)
33. Statement of Vote (2018 Governor)
34. Statement of Vote (2018 Senator)
35. "Rep. Duncan Hunter to resign Jan. 13 after guilty plea". UPI. Retrieved January 8, 2020.
36. 1992 election results
37. 1994 election results
38. 1996 election results
39. 1998 election results
40. 2000 election results
41. 2002 election results
42. 2004 election results
43. "Judge throws out 50th District election lawsuit". North County Times. August 29, 2006. Retrieved October 3, 2006.
44. 2006 special election results
45. 2006 election results
46. 2008 election results
47. 2010 election results
48. 2012 election results
49. 2014 election results
50. 2016 election results
51. 2018 election results
52. List of The Colbert Report episodes, episodes 122 and 226.

External links

• sdvote.com: San Diego Voter Registrar
• sos.ca.gov: Secretary of State Padilla Announces Results of Randomized Alphabet Drawing for June 7 Presidential Primary Election Ballots
• GovTrack.us: California's 50th congressional district