Former Assemblymember Adam Gray, D-Merced, Tuesday declared victory over Rep. John Duarte, R-Modesto, in their tight House of Representatives race.

“Thank you #CA13! Let’s get to work,” Gray tweeted Tuesday.

Latest unofficial results show Gray leading Duarte by 187 votes. The Associated Press has not called the race, the last in the nation to be decided.

Gray and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, though, said the race in California’s 13th Congressional district was over.

“The final results confirm this district is ready for independent and accountable leadership that always puts the valley’s people ahead of partisan politics,” Gray tweeted on X.

The Duarte campaign did not respond to an effort for comment by deadline. The congressman has not conceded the race.

A Gray win would narrow the already-tight Republican House majority to a point where a handful of dissidents can have enormous influence on legislation. The GOP would control 220 seats in the session that begins next month, while Democrats would have 215.

But two Republicans have been nominated by President-elect Donald Trump for administration jobs, and Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said he will not return to the House. For a few weeks or perhaps months, that means the Republican to Democratic ratio will be 217 to 215 — and since a tie means legislation doesn’t pass, any one member can have enormous influence.

Nonpartisan election analysts had thought that the 2024 rematch between Duarte, a farmer and businessman turned congressman, and Gray could have gone either way.

The 2022 contest between Duarte and Gray was also one of the nation’s closest, helping pad Republicans’ slim House majority that year. Duarte was declared the winner several weeks after Election Day, with the freshman prevailing by about four-tenths of a percentage point.

Gray, 47, served Merced in the California State Assembly for a decade before leaving his seat in 2022 for the congressional bid. Duarte, 58, serves on House committees concerning agriculture, natural resources and transportation and infrastructure.

The 13th District includes all of Merced County and chunks of Madera, Stanislaus, Fresno and San Joaquin counties.

It is a Latino-majority voting-age district with a large population of young people. Compared to the rest of California, this area has tended to have low turnout, leading older, white, more conservative voters to disproportionately influence elections. Presidential general elections usually spur the most turnout.

The 13th is one of more than a dozen congressional districts across the country held by GOP members of Congress where President Joe Biden would have beaten former President Donald Trump in 2020 had current legislative boundaries been in place. Lines were redrawn to reflect the 2020 census. Voters in the new 13th would have picked Biden by 11 percentage points in 2020.

Preliminary results show Trump topping Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, 50.8% to 46.6% in Merced County, according to the California Secretary of State. Trump won Madera County by about 21 points, Stanislaus by 11, Fresno by 4.5 and San Joaquin by about 1. Harris won statewide by 20 percentage points.

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(David Lightman from the Bee’s Washington Bureau contributed.)

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