Representative--elect Kevin Kiley has captured a highly coveted U.S. House seat in northeastern California, putting Democrats on the back foot and shoring up Republican strength in Washington, D.C.

The election

After two weeks of vote-counting, the Associated Press called the race for Kiley on Tuesday. Kiley received roughly 53% of the votes, leading his Democrat opponent, Kermit Jones, by over five points.

This is the second time this year that Kiley has beaten Jones, a fellow in former President Barack Obama's White House. When facing off against Kiley on June 7 in the nonpartisan primary race for the seat in U.S. House California District 3, Jones came up short.

The newly redrawn 3rd Congressional District seat had been occupied by a Democrat since 2012, but the people evidently wanted a change.

Kiley told Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle" that "the House of Representatives is the part of our government that is most responsive to public opinion. That's the way the framers designed it. That's the way our Constitution was designed. So by electing a new majority in the House, the American people have said, 'We need change."

Kiley added that he was excited to get to work "to deliver that change."

Kevin Kiley: Voters sent a signal that they are looking for change youtu.be

Kiley campaigned on:

• attacking Congress' out-of-control spending;
• reducing the tax burden on middle-income families and small business;
• cutting red tape and reducing the regulatory burden;
• opposing abortion except in cases of incest, rape, and when the mother's life is at risk;
• toughening laws against violent and repeat offenders;
• ending illegal immigration and opposing sanctuary city laws; and
• recognizing that communist China is not a friend, but rather an American adversary to be taken seriously.

According to the Sacramento Bee, Kiley has also criticized the election counting system, which not only impacted his race but still affects other midterm races nationwide, weeks after Election Day.

The candidate

Kiley began his career as a high school teacher in inner-city Los Angeles. He went onto become an attorney. In 2016 he was elected to the California State Assembly.

The New York Times noted that Kiley's fierce criticism of Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom inspired Trump's confidence, along with that of a host of others.

Kiley told CalMatters last year, when supporting Newsom's recall, that "Newsom came into office and his top priority was simply to reward his top campaign donor, the California Teachers Association."

"We've seen that the education establishment in California is unwilling to serve students, and so I think we need a paradigmatic shift," said Kiley, who was formerly a teacher and adjunct professor.

According to CalMatters, Kiley introduced a resolution to end Newsom's emergency power and sued the governor over the constitutionality of a vote-by-mail executive order.

\u201cToday @J_GallagherAD3 and I took Gavin Newsom to court for overstepping his powers and won a Temporary Restraining Order. The Judge ordered the Governor\u2019s latest Exexutive Order suspended as a violation of the Constitution. To save costs, we represented ourselves.\u201d

— Kevin Kiley (@Kevin Kiley) 1591982375

Trump said in May, "No one has fought Gavin Newsom harder than Kevin. ... He doesn't wait for the fight, like the do-nothing RINOs who have watched California get absolutely destroyed by the radical maniacs in Sacramento."

When announcing that he would run for office again in 2024, Trump reiterated that Kiley is "fantastic."

The significance

With Representative-elect Kiley's victory, the GOP now has 220 seats in the House. While the midterm elections didn't bring with them the red wave some voters had anticipated, the Republican majority may nevertheless bring with it a significant undertow in the form of oversight and investigations.

Kiley told Newsmax that as soon as the new Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3, "We are going to get to work right away to reverse these damaging Biden policies and to hold his administration accountable."

\u201cAfter a two-year train wreck, we can now move our country in a new direction.\u201d

— Kevin Kiley (@Kevin Kiley) 1668980948

When asked about his priorities in the House, Kiley said, "We need to get our economy back on track, we need to secure the border and reverse these disastrous open-border policies of the Biden administration, we need to get crime under control, and we need to stop the assault on parental rights."

\u201cCongress will investigate the Administration's "misuse of federal criminal and counterterrorism resources to target concerned parents at school board meetings."\u201d

— Kevin Kiley (@Kevin Kiley) 1669062842

Noting that the Republicans now have subpoena power, Kiley said, "We have the ability to bring Cabinet officials before the House of Representatives, before committees, make them answer questions under oath. We have the ability to do investigations ... so we can stop a lot of harmful policies from being enacted."