Election 2012: Congressman Honda Wins Re-Election

Democratic Mike Honda, coasted to victory Tuesday night against Republican challenger Dr. Evelyn Li in their battle for a congressional seat.

Honda will take the helm over newly drawn District 17, which now includes Cupertino, Milpitas, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Newark and part of Fremont.

With all precincts reporting, Honda had 73 percent of the vote compared to 27 percent by Li.

In June, Honda took 66 percent of the vote in the primary election while Li had 28 percent.

The Races and Redistricting blogspot calls this district "Safe Democratic", saying "Honda's district almost becomes an Asian majority district and if population trends continue, the district should become Asian majority. Honda remains safe from a Republican challenge."

The demographics of District 17 are: 49% Asian, 17% Hispanic, 27% White.

In 2012, FairVote did a study on partisanship in the congressional districts, giving each a percentage ranking (D/R) based on the new 2012 maps and comparing that to the old 2010 maps. California's 17th District became more Democratic because of redistricting.

According to the California Secretary of State's Office, there are 123,245 registered Democrats in District 17, and 56,442 registered Republicans. So-called Other and Unaffiliated voters number 100,554.

The new 17th district is composed of the following percentages of voters of the old congressional districts.

• 28 percent from the 13th congressional district
• 19 percent from the 14th congressional district
• 50 percent from the 15th congressional district
• 4 percent from the 16th congressional district

Results