page_title: Dana Rohrabacher
section_title: Elections
hierarchical_section_title: Dana Rohrabacher / U.S. House of Representatives / Elections
caption_attribution_description: English: at the 2013 California Young Americans for Liberty State Convention in Fullerton, California
context_page_description: Dana Tyrone Rohrabacher is a former American politician, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1989 to 2019. A Republican, he formerly represented California's 48th congressional district for the last three terms of his House tenure.
  Following the election of Donald Trump in 2016, Rohrabacher was on the shortlist for Secretary of State along with Mitt Romney and eventual pick Rex Tillerson. Rohrabacher ran for re-election to Congress in 2018, losing to Democrat Harley Rouda. He was the longest-serving House incumbent to lose reelection in 2018. Rohrabacher has expressed strong pro-Russia and pro-Putin opinions, which have raised questions about his relationship with Vladimir Putin and the Russian government.
context_section_description: Rohrabacher left the Reagan administration in 1988 to pursue Dan Lungren's recently vacated House seat. With his friend Oliver North's  fundraising help, Rohrabacher won the Republican primary with a plurality of 35%. He won the general election with 64% of the vote. He twice experienced serious primary competition, in 1992 and 1998. After redistricting, he won a three-candidate primary election in 1992 with a plurality of 48%. In 1998, he won an open primary with 54% of the vote. In general elections, only one time, in 2008, did he receive less than 55% of the vote, until he was defeated.
  2008
  In 2008, Rohrabacher defeated Democratic nominee Debbie Cook, mayor of Huntington Beach, 53%–43%, the lowest winning percentage of Rohrabacher's career.
  2010
  In 2010, Rohrabacher defeated Democratic nominee Ken Arnold 62%–38%.
  2012
  After redistricting, Rohrabacher announced in 2012 that he would run in the newly redrawn 48th Congressional district. He said "The new 48th District is a good fit and something that will enable me to serve my constituents and the country well." He won re-election in this Orange County district, with 61% of the vote.
  2014
  Rohrabacher won reelection with 64.1% of the vote.
  2016
  Rohrabacher won reelection with 58.3% of the vote.
  2018
  On October 12, 2018, the Los Angeles Times reported that the Congressional Leadership Fund, a Super PAC closely associated with House Speaker Paul Ryan, had passed over Rohrabacher in its initial round of broadcast television advertising across Southern California. Rohrabacher's campaign denied this, saying that CLF had spent "about $2.4 million and they have an additional $1 million in media buys scheduled" for Rohrabacher.
  Democrat Harley Rouda was declared the winner on November 10, 2018.
caption: Rohrabacher shakes hands with a supporter wearing a Guy Fawkes mask in 2013
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