Incumbents Zoe Lofgren and Jimmy Panetta lead in Congressional Districts 18 and 19 races.

Dalila Epperson had a mishap on Election Day.

Long before results began to roll in, the Republican U.S. House of Representatives District 19 hopeful took a tumble over her mountain bike, breaking two fingers on her right hand. Yet neither the accident nor the early results that put her behind Democratic incumbent Jimmy Panetta and Republican competitor Jeff Gorman could dampen her enthusiasm.

“I still think we’ve got this,” she says shortly after 9pm on Tuesday night, June 7 at her election party in Monterey Tides.

Early reports placed Epperson well behind Gorman for the second slot in the November general election. By 11pm, Gorman had captured 18,288 votes district-wide, for 22.4 percent of the total. Epperson held 4,698 votes, or 5.7 percent.

As expected, Panetta was cruising with 68.9 percent of the vote. Panetta has held the District 20 seat since the 2016 election. As a result of redistricting, representation changed to District 19.

Panetta’s Democratic challenger, Douglas Deitch, was in the distance with 3 percent of the vote.

Meanwhile, in the District 18 race, Democratic incumbent Zoe Lofgren led with 24,235 district-wide votes, or 57.6 percent of the total, as of 11pm. Republican Peter Hernandez sat in second place with 12,720 votes (30.3 percent).

Hernandez told the Weekly by phone on Tuesday afternoon that he was surprised to find resistance among voters due to his political party. “Initially, because they heard I was a Republican, they weren’t going to vote for me,” he said. “That was a little bit of a surprise. But after a conversation, they said they might give me a chance.”

Democrat Luis Acevedo-Arreguin trailed with 5,084 votes, or 12.1 percent of the total. 

Despite his encouraging early numbers in District 19, Gorman struck a realistic tone over the phone as he rode to an election gathering in San Luis Obispo. “I’m not fooling myself,” he says of his chances in November. “But I really think the Republican message is right.”

Gorman’s day began as usual—a cup of coffee and then off to work. “That’s the extent of it,” he shrugs. “I have a day job.”

He planned to remain in the San Luis Obispo area for a barbecue on Wednesday before beginning work on the fall campaign.

“We’ll vote for him, of course,” Epperson says of Gorman. But at the Tides on Tuesday night, the first-time candidate and her supporters remained enthusiastic, even if it means a candidacy two years from now. “I would do this again for Dalila,” says Sharon Field, one of her backers.