For all their worrying about Orange County, it could be San Bernardino County where Democrats are once again shut out of a congressional race.

Unofficial results posted by the California Secretary of State on Wednesday, June 6 showed Republican Tim Donnelly leading Democrat Marge Doyle by 760 votes for second place in the 8th Congressional District, a sprawling district covering the High Desert, Lake Arrowhead and Crestline along with Inyo and Mono counties.

If that holds, Donnelly, who ran for governor in 2014 and served in the Assembly from 2010 to 2014, will take on Rep. Paul Cook, R-Yucca Valley, in the Nov. 6 general election. Cook, a former state lawmaker first elected to Congress in 2012, finished comfortably in first place with close to 42 percent of the vote.

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Due to California’s top-two primary, which advances the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, Democrats would be shut out of the race if those numbers hold. That result would mirror what happened in 2012, when Democratic candidates split the vote to allow two Republicans to run in the 31st Congressional District.

GOP Rep. Gary Miller only lasted one term before bowing out. The 31st is now represented by Redlands Democrat Pete Aguilar.

Going into Tuesday, Democrats were worried about being shut out in competitive primaries for four Orange County congressional seats they hope to flip in November. Though ballot counting remains to be done, it appears a Democrat will appear in the run-off in all four seats. Unlike those districts, the 8th is seen as a safely Republican; Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton there, 55 to 40 percent, in 2016.

A nurse and local health care district board member, Doyle, who raised almost $400,000 for her campaign, ran alongside Democrats Ronald J. O’Donnell and Rita Ramirez, who received more than 10,000 votes between them.

“Not over yet. 760 behind with (77,000) votes to count,” Doyle wrote on her campaign Facebook page. “Chins up. Grateful to all of you.”

On his Facebook page, Donnelly wrote: “I’m cautiously optimistic and I believe our lead will hold. Grateful to all who voted for and helped me! Godspeed.”

Neither Donnelly nor Doyle responded to requests for comment.

Assuming Donnelly finishes in second place, it sets up a race between Cook, a Vietnam combat veteran and the GOP establishment’s choice, and Donnelly, a founder of the Minutemen border-patrol group who is known for his hard-line stance against illegal immigration.

Donnelly, who lags well behind the incumbent in fundraising and failed to advance beyond the 8th district primary in 2014, has attacked Cook as a faux conservative who is insufficiently supportive of Trump’s agenda. Before the primary, he offered to mail “border wall bricks” to lawmakers on his supporters’ behalf.

On May 31, CNN reported that Donnelly, via social media, repeatedly compared Parkland, Florida school shooting survivor David Hogg and participants in the “March for Our Lives” gun control movement, to Adolf Hitler. In a Facebook post, he called Hogg a “media whore” who showed up at the school after the shooting, according to CNN.