The Associated Press has called California's 48th Congressional District for Democrat Marni von Wilpert, flipping one of the five Republican-held seats that California voters redrew last year under Proposition 50 and giving Democrats the open San Diego–Riverside seat that retiring Republican Representative Darrell Issa is vacating. Von Wilpert, a San Diego city councilwoman and former civil prosecutor, defeated Republican San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond in a race Decision Desk HQ called at 11:14 p.m. Eastern on election night, Tuesday, November 3, 2026.
Source: Associated Press election results, CA-48 (Race 8149) — race called for Marni von Wilpert
The clearest districtwide snapshot on Wednesday morning, reported by City News Service, put von Wilpert on 92,924 votes, or 59.6 percent, to Desmond's 63,015, or 40.4 percent, as of 9 a.m. — a lead of 29,909 votes. The Associated Press count, still being updated on Wednesday, credited von Wilpert with 95,547 votes with 371 of the district's 692 precincts reporting. Tens of thousands of ballots likely remain to be counted — California counts mail ballots for days after election day — and Desmond had not conceded on Wednesday, City News Service reported. Von Wilpert declared victory on Tuesday night.
What she told supporters
“Tonight the voters of this district are sending a clear message — they're tired of a corrupt Congress and out of control costs and ready for a representative who will fight for them,” von Wilpert said in a message to supporters late Tuesday, quoted by City News Service. “I've spent the last year hearing from parents struggling to afford groceries and seniors scared of losing healthcare and I will carry their stories with me to Washington. I've spent my life fighting for working families — from defending workers' rights to taking on the powerful corporations ripping our families off — and I'm ready to take that fight to Congress.” She said she would fight to bring down costs, protect healthcare, hold President Donald Trump accountable and undo the tariffs his administration introduced, which she blames for pushing up prices.
A seat created by a map, vacated by a retirement
The 48th District spans portions of San Diego and Riverside counties — including Escondido, San Marcos, Vista, Murrieta and Temecula, and desert communities toward Palm Springs. It became an open seat when Issa, who has represented the area in Congress for a quarter of a century, announced his retirement earlier this year — on March 6, 2026, according to the district's election history — and endorsed Desmond, who also received President Trump's endorsement in April. The district's lines were redrawn after California voters passed Proposition 50 in the fall of 2025: the measure replaced the Citizens Redistricting Commission's map with a legislatively drawn one designed to help Democrats in five Republican-held districts, answering Texas Republicans' own mid-decade remap. In the 48th, Proposition 50 flipped the balance of registered voters, KPBS reported, turning a longtime Republican seat into a district rated about D+2.
Who von Wilpert is
Von Wilpert has represented District 5 on the San Diego City Council since 2020, when she flipped what she describes as the city's most conservative council district from red to blue. Before that she was a civil prosecutor with the San Diego City Attorney's Office, counsel to the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee — where she helped write the PRO Act on workers' rights — and a Peace Corps volunteer in Botswana who later helped establish a legal clinic in Mississippi for people facing HIV discrimination, according to The Advocate's profile of her career. On the council she authored California's first ghost-gun ban and took on the opioid industry, her endorsers at the National Union of Healthcare Workers said. She is openly bisexual, and her win adds an out LGBTQ+ member to the House, The Advocate reported.
The campaign she ran while being treated for cancer
Healthcare was not an abstract issue in this race. Earlier this year a routine mammogram led to a diagnosis of early-stage breast cancer for von Wilpert; after surgery she said the cancer was gone and she would not need chemotherapy, and she campaigned through treatment and recovery, KPBS reported. “I know personally that health care can save your life,” she said, in an interview quoted by Out magazine. She campaigned on affordability, workers' rights, restoring healthcare funding and bringing down grocery, gasoline and medical costs, and she told The Advocate in October that she would defend transgender people's rights while keeping kitchen-table costs at the centre of her campaign.
The man she beat, and where they differed
Desmond is a San Diego County supervisor, a U.S. Navy veteran, a former Delta Air Lines pilot and a former mayor of San Marcos. His campaign prioritised border security and affordability; he says on his campaign site that he supports a “strong, fair, and dignified immigration system” that prevents illegal crossings while creating an efficient legal process for those who follow the rules, City News Service reported. Von Wilpert says she supports “meaningful reform” that keeps borders secure and provides legal pathways to citizenship, while holding federal immigration enforcement agencies “accountable” for what she calls “terror tactics and un-American, unconstitutional attacks on our community.” On the City Council she backed a resolution authorising the City Attorney to support other states' lawsuits against the Department of Homeland Security — a direct local-versus-federal fight that she now carries into a Democratic House majority.
Why this district matters to our readers
The 48th sits on the Interstate 15 corridor between San Diego and the Inland Empire — one of Southern California's busiest commuting and freight routes — and takes in fast-growing suburbs in Temecula and Murrieta where many South Asian and Punjabi families have settled in the last two decades, alongside the established Indian-American communities of San Diego. Its voters' verdict — a near 20-point win in a seat Republicans held for a generation — is one of the clearest measures of how far the Proposition 50 map, and the national swing against the president's party, reached on Tuesday: Democrats won control of both the House and the Senate nationally, and in California they also took the governor's race, where the AP called the state for Xavier Becerra.
Counting continues: California will keep tallying mail and provisional ballots for days, and the result must still be certified before it is final, though a lead of nearly 30,000 votes is not expected to be overturned. Desmond had not conceded as of Wednesday morning. Von Wilpert is due to be sworn in with the new Congress in January 2027, in a House that Democrats will control for the first time since 2023.
Sources: Associated Press election results for California's 48th District (race called for von Wilpert); City News Service report published by the North County Chronicle, November 4, 2026 (Wednesday 9 a.m. vote count, victory statement, candidate positions); The Advocate / Out, November 4, 2026 (Decision Desk HQ call at 11:14 p.m. ET, career and health background); KPBS reporting on Proposition 50 and the district (redistricting background). All vote figures are unofficial results as reported by those sources on November 4.