Good morning.

Today’s introduction comes from Adam Nagourney, the Times’s Los Angeles bureau chief.

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Democrats looking to win back Congress have said for months that the road to success leads through California and its lonely outpost of Republican House members. That has seemed increasingly true, as President Trump and congressional Republicans promoted policies that seemed particularly damaging to California — most recently, the tax reform bill, which could be costly for many California homeowners because it eliminates deduction for state and local taxes.

The Democrats’ task got a little bit easier on Monday after one of their top Republican targets — Representative Ed Royce of Orange County — announced that after 13 terms, he would join a flood of House Republicans who have decided not to run for re-election. He is the first from California.

Mr. Royce is chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee and, under House rules, would have to give up that position at the end of this year. Mr. Royce said he wanted to use his last year in that position to focus on “urgent threats facing our nation,” including “Vladimir Putin’s continued efforts to weaponize information to fracture western democracies.”