San Diego elects youngest House representative in California

SAN DIEGO —  San Diego has elected the youngest U.S. House representative in California.

At 31, Democrat Sara Jacobs will join a growing contingent of millennials elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. They include North Carolina’s 25-year-old Republican Rep.-elect Madison Cawthorn, who is believed to be one of the youngest people to ever serve in the U.S. Congress.

Jacobs handily beat fellow Democrat Georgette Gómez in the diverse 53rd District that covers much of the urban core of San Diego. Gomez, a 45-year-old San Diego city councilwoman who was endorsed by the local Democratic Party, conceded the race hours after the polls closed on election day.

Jacobs, a U.S. State Department contractor under the Obama administration, will succeed veteran Rep. Susan A. Davis (D-San Diego), who was reelected to 10 terms before announcing her plan to retire.

Jacobs is the granddaughter of Qualcomm founder and billionaire Irwin Jacobs. She said her priorities will be pandemic relief for small businesses and battling climate change, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Jacobs, who worked at UNICEF and the United Nations, has also vowed to help improve the relationship of the U.S. with its allies.

Jacobs told the Union-Tribune she has “big shoes to fill,” pointing out that Davis is respected by Republicans and Democrats alike in the district.

Davis congratulated Jacobs for the win.

“I’m really confident she’ll demonstrate to people her competence and ability to get things done,” Davis told the newspaper.

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But she said Jacobs should not be surprised if people underestimate her as a young woman.

“She may experience people thinking she’s a staff member. That could happen,” Davis said. “I certainly had my stories initially.”