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After 30 years representing the longtime conservative bastion of Orange County, California, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher will not be returning to Congress next year. 

Democrat Harley Rouda led the 15-term Republican congressman by more than 8,500 votes in the 48th District, 52 percent to 48 percent, when The Associated Press called the race Saturday night. 

The campaign signs are in the trash and the ads have gone dark. The midterm elections may not be over yet, but these defeated Democrats have had plenty of time to think about what went wrong.

A surge of Democratic energy earlier this year led to crowded primaries around the country, and that meant more losers than usual. Now first-time candidates like Laura Moser, Sam Jammal and Pat Ryan — a deep-blue activist, a son of immigrants and a moderate veteran, respectively — are looking at their dashed campaigns in the rearview mirror.

President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser warned Democrats Thursday that he would fight any tax increase to reduce the deficit if they take control of the House in the midterm elections next Tuesday.

Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, said tax increases won’t be needed to curb red ink because the administration is counting on robust economic growth of at least 3 percent a year.

We’ve entered the homestretch, with Election Day just a week away. Roll Call’s coverage of all things midterms continues with dispatches from the road, the latest polls and ratings changes in competitive Senate and House races, hot takes from our political analysts and much more.

Here are some of our top political stories, videos and podcasts from recent weeks. 

TUCSON, Ariz. — Former Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick served three terms representing Arizona’s largely rural 1st District. She’s seeking a comeback this year from a new seat, the neighboring 2nd, anchored here in the state’s second largest city. But she finds not much has changed.

“The issues are the same,” she said Saturday at the Pima County Democratic Party headquarters. “People are just really concerned about protecting social security and medicare, about keeping their health care. Students are really concerned about getting good paying jobs to pay off their student loans.”

OPINION — Does Amazon’s embrace of the Fight for $15 mean Congress should do the same? 

New Jersey Rep. Donald Norcross recently made that case in these pages, arguing that the retail giant’s embrace of a $15 minimum wage meant other businesses could afford it as well. But Norcross’ argument confuses a voluntary raise with an involuntary mandate: One boosts paychecks; the other could leave employees without any pay at all.

OPINION — This week marks the 50th anniversary of that electrifying moment at the summer Olympics in Mexico City when Tommie Smith and John Carlos, accepting their gold and bronze medals in the 200-meter dash, each raised a black-gloved fist in a protest of racism and equality in the year of the “Olympic Project for Human Rights.”

They are now immortalized in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and by a sculpture at their alma mater San Jose State University — their bravery noted, their impact on society acknowledged.

OPINION — As the country awaits an announcement about where Amazon’s next headquarters will be located, there is equally big news coming from the online giant — they’re rightfully raising their minimum wage to $15 an hour.

This is a big win for America’s workers, and I know because I once worked for minimum wage. I was a young single dad raising my son and having to balance work, family life and a checkbook. After completing an apprenticeship, I became an electrician and spent my adult life fighting for working families through the labor movement.

President Donald Trump and his team convinced Canada to join a revised North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico. Now, the hard part begins: Convincing congressional Democrats, who could control one or both chambers next year, to approve it.

Trump and White House officials contend the deal, if approved by Congress, would benefit American dairy farmers and automakers. They have also highlighted new e-commerce and intellectual property protections, as well as a new six-year review mandate. And they say each should appeal to Democrats.