Tran Defeats Steel in House Pickup for Democrats

Derek Tran, a consumer rights lawyer and Army veteran, defeated Representative Michelle Steel, a Republican two-term incumbent, according to The Associated Press, flipping a battleground seat in Orange County, Calif.

The win was the second House pickup in California for Democrats in an otherwise disappointing year for the party.

After that call and a Republican win in Iowa on Wednesday, Republicans held a 220 to 214 advantage in the House with only one race left to be determined, in the 13th Congressional District in California. Though Republicans have won more than the 218 seats necessary to control the House, Mr. Trump wants two House members to serve in his administration and a third, Matt Gaetz, resigned his seat this month.

In the last uncalled House race, in California’s Central Valley, the Democratic challenger, Adam Gray, nudged past Representative John Duarte, a Republican, for the first time on Tuesday. Mr. Gray had a 182-vote lead in the latest count.

While Ms. Steel had a large war chest and strong party backing in the 45th Congressional District, Mr. Tran, a first-time political candidate, won in part by attacking her shifting positions on abortion.

During her time in Congress, Ms. Steel was twice a co-sponsor of the Life at Conception Act, a bill that amounted to a nationwide abortion ban. She later withdrew her support from the bill, but Mr. Tran seized on Ms. Steel’s earlier position to paint her as having extreme views on reproductive rights.