Last November, along with seven U.S. House seats in California, five state Assembly seats flipped from Republican to Democrat, shrinking the already small Republican delegation from 25 to 20 in the 80-seat legislature. To make matters worse for Republicans, in early 2019, state Assemblyman Brian Maienschein joined the Democratic Party, shrinking the size of the GOP delegation to 19.
One of the five flipped seats was the 74th Assembly district, formerly represented by Republican Matthew Harper, who had held the seat since 2014. The district covers much of Orange County, including Costa Mesa, Laguna Beach, Laguna Woods, Newport Beach, parts of Huntington Beach and Irvine. Harper’s Democratic opponent, Cottie Petrie-Norris, defeated him by 4.6 percentage points in a district with an 8 percent Republican registration advantage.
