In a replay of their 2022 match-up and its results as well as a reversal of the early returns on election night, incumbent Greg Wallis has defeated Christy Holstege in this year’s race to represent the 47^th Assembly District.
On Wednesday afternoon, November 20 at which point Wallis had taken a 115,639 vote to 110,658 vote lead, Holstege conceded, doing so on her social media account Wednesday afternoon.
The state of the vote tally this week contrasted with what the initial returns showed on election night and shortly thereafter. Holstege held a narrow lead over the incumbent when the votes from both San Bernardino and Riverside counties, over which the 47th District is spread, were counted on the night of November 5. That lead held through the following day, with the California Secretary of State’s website showing that Holstege was leading 50.2 percent to 49.8 percent just after 5 p.m. on November 6. Over the next three days, however, Wallis (R-Rancho Mirage) closed the gap and surpassed the challenger.
As was the case in 2022, Holstege won by a respectable margin in the more populous Riverside County portion of the district, but was hopelessly outdistanced in San Bernardino County.
The 47th District covers Banning, Beaumont, Calimesa, Cathedral City, Desert Hot Springs, Indian Wells, La Quinta, Yucaipa, Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage and San Jacinto in Riverside County and Yucca Valley, Yucaipa, Redlands and Highland in San Bernardino County
A factor in the election was the particular brand of Holstege’s liberal populism. A sexual assault survivor, she is married to a man and has a child, but celebrates her bisexuality. This has played well in Palm Springs, which has a city council composed entirely of those within the lesbian-bisexual-gay-transsexual-queer community and where she is currently a councilwoman and was formerly mayor. Her orientation and the causes she espoused served her well on the Democratic side of the political divide, enabling her to handily capture the Democratic nomination for Assembly, but her presentation has alienated and galvanized the Republicans and more conservative elements of the district, including members of her own party, against her.
Holstege might also have been wounded by negative publicity that came her way this year when Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin, himself a conservative Republican, publicly stated that his office had looked into and confirmed accusations that Holstege was not living in the district she represents in Palm Springs but was residing elsewhere in that desert city.
Wallis falls basically within the mainstream of the GOP, sounding indistinguishable from roughly two-thirds to three-quarters of the members of the Republican legislative delegation in Sacramento.
In that regard, he highlights reducing taxes as his highest continuing priority, which he insists is not meant as a sop to industry and business, but rather as something that will reduce the rising cost of living that is impinging upon everyday individuals and families. “My constituents are hardworking and are still falling further and further behind,” he said. “My goal is to have them regain economic security and make goods more affordable.”
Wallis maintains he is opposed to “reckless government spending that causes inflation.”
Further, he said he is “committed to eliminating the gas tax,” a tall order given that the entire state’s highway system has grown dependent on that form of revenue and Sacramento is currently struggling to overcome a $68 billion deficit.
As of today, in Riverside County, Holstege had logged 92,983 votes, or 52.54 percent of the vote, while Wallis had 83,980 votes or 47.46 percent in the lower county. In San Bernardino County, Holstege had garnered 19,626 votes or 36.7 percent in that jurisdiction, with Wallis claiming 33,855 votes or 63.3 percent of that vote. In this way, throughout the district, Wallis has 117,835 votes to Holstege’s 112,609.
While Holstege has characterized Wallis as a legislative lightweight, in terms of electoral performance, the 51.13 percent of the vote he pulled in tips the scales more convincingly than her 48.87 percent. The 5,226-vote lead Wallis has achieved this year is substantially greater than the 85-vote victory he scored in 2022, which was one of the narrowest differences in a California Assembly race since 1900.