59 in 60

Chance the Democrat wins (98.2%)

1 in 60

Chance the Republican wins (1.8%)

us_map2See the national overview
Forecasted turnout
Partisan lean

# What goes into the
icon_classic_2
classic forecast in the California 16th

The Classic version of our model projects a race’s outcome by taking a weighted average of polls of a district (if available), polls of similar districts (CANTOR) and non-polling factors (fundamentals). It is then reverted toward a mean based on long-term trends in midterms and presidential approval ratings.

  • D+10.8

    Adjusted polls

  • D+23.5

    CANTOR

  • D+21.7

    Fundamentals

  • D+15.9

    Experts

  • D+15.7

    icon_lite_2

    Lite

  • D+16.8

    icon_classic_2

    Classic

  • D+16.5

    icon_deluxe_2

    Deluxe

  • <0.1

  • <0.1

Historical adjustment

Key

More weight

Less

#Latest polls

We've collected one poll for the California 16th. We’re adjusting poll results in three ways: Polls of registered voters or all adults are adjusted to a likely-voter basis; older polls are adjusted based on shifts in the generic congressional ballot since the poll was conducted; and polls are adjusted for house effects (the tendency for a firm’s polls to lean toward Democrats or Republicans). Polls with larger sample sizes and those conducted by higher-quality polling agencies are given more weight, as are more recent polls.

Adjustments
datespollstersampleweight
Costa
Heng
marginlikely voterTime-lineHouse effects Adjusted margin
Sep. 14-19
9/14-19
SurveyUSA515LV
1.22
51%40%D+11.0 0.1 0.1 D+10.8
Weighted averageD+10.8

Key

A = adults

RV = Registered voters

V = voters

LV = likely voters

R
D

= partisan poll

Our latest coverage

#Similar districts and CANTOR

Our district similarity scores are based on demographic, geographic and political characteristics; if two districts have a score of 100, it means they are perfectly identical. These scores inform a system we use — CANTOR, or Congressional Algorithm using Neighboring Typologies to Optimize Regression — to infer what polling would say in unpolled or lightly polled districts, given what it says in similar districts.

Districts most similar to the California 16th
Sim. score Polling avg.
AZ-367
CA-2161R+11.2
CA-4157
CA-3152
NV-148D+30.6
CA-5147
CA-947
CA-1047D+2.1
CA-3545
TX-2843

#The “fundamentals”

The Classic and Deluxe versions of our model use several non-polling factors to forecast the vote share margin in each district.

FactorImpactExplanation
Incumbency
1.9
Jim Costa has been elected to 7 terms. Congress has only a 20.1% approval rating, reducing the incumbency advantage.
District partisanship
3.6
CA-16 is 16.8 percentage points more Democratic-leaning than the country overall, based on how it has voted in recent presidential and state legislative elections. It voted for Clinton in 2016 and Obama in 2012.
Incumbent's margin in last election
4.2
Costa won by 16.1 percentage points in 2016.
Generic ballot
4.1
Democrats lead by an average of 8.6 percentage points in polls of the generic congressional ballot.
Fundraising
1.0
As of Oct. 17, Elizabeth Heng had raised $909,000 in individual contributions (57% of all such contributions to the major-party candidates); Costa had raised $699,000 (43%).
Incumbent's voting record in Congress
0.6
Costa has voted with Democrats 72% of the time in roll-call votes in recent sessions of Congress.
Challenger experience
0.4
Heng has never held elected office.
Scandals
0.0
Neither candidate is involved in a scandal.
Top-two primary margin
7.9
Democrats won the aggregate vote by 6.0 percentage points in the June primary. However, turnout patterns can differ in the general election, so the model compares the primary result to others in California. On that basis, it treats the primary result as equivalent to a 19.5-point win for Democrats.
Total
D+21.7

#Expert ratings

The Deluxe version of our model calculates an implied margin for each race based on expert race ratings from The Cook Political Report, Inside Elections and Sabato's Crystal Ball; it then adjusts that margin toward its estimate of the national political environment.

Equivalent Margin
ExpertRatingRaw Adjusted
Cook Political Report
Likely D
D+12.1D+12.7
Inside Elections
Solid D
D+22.3D+23.2
Sabato's Crystal Ball
Likely D
D+12.1D+11.7
AverageD+15.5D+15.9

How this forecast works

Nate Silver explains the methodology behind our 2018 midterms forecast. Read more …

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