Maxine Waters is headed back to Washington. The 88-year-old Democrat has won reelection to represent California’s 43rd Congressional District, which stretches across Inglewood, Compton, Hawthorne and Torrance, extending a congressional career that began in 1990.
NBC News projected the win, according to NBC Los Angeles, with the race called as ballots continued to be tallied statewide. The outlet reported that Waters had captured 81.8 percent of the vote, totaling 74,762 ballots, against Republican challenger Cristian Morales, who drew 18.2 percent, or 16,631 votes, with the NBC News Decision Desk noting that 56.5 percent of expected votes had been counted at the time of the projection. The margin tracked with the June primary, when Waters pulled in roughly four times as many votes as Morales, per the same report.
Tuesday’s election marked the first general election held under California’s newly redrawn congressional maps, a change voters approved last year through Proposition 50, according to NBC Los Angeles. Republicans had held a slight edge in the House heading into the November election, the station reported, raising the stakes for races like this one even in a seat as safely Democratic as the 43rd.
A District Rooted in South LA and the South Bay
The 43rd District has a sizable Black and Latino population and has long been considered one of Waters’ political strongholds, encompassing South Los Angeles and South Bay communities including Inglewood, Compton, Hawthorne and Torrance, per NBC Los Angeles’s reporting. Waters, known affectionately by supporters as Aunty Maxine, has represented versions of this district since she was first elected to Congress in 1990, following 14 years in the California State Assembly, where she served as Democratic Caucus chair…