USA California Election Results

USA California Election Results

Who Won and Who Lost in Tuesday’s Primary Elections

USA California was still counting, and USA President Donald Trump saw a rare setback as results came in from primary elections across the country.

November’s general election matchups are taking shape as voters in USA California, New Jersey, Iowa, Montana, South Dakota and New Mexico took to the polls in primary elections on Tuesday to select their party’s candidates.

The highest profile race of the day, the California election to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom, was still too close to call Wednesday afternoon, but Republican Steve Hilton was leading the crowded field.

One theme of the primary USA season across the country thus far has been the string of victories for Republican contenders backed by President Donald Trump. But Tuesday’s contests saw a high-profile defeat for a Trump-endorsed candidate. Despite an endorsement from the president, Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra was rejected by voters in his bid for the GOP nomination for governor.

California: Governor, Mayor 

The USA California gubernatorial election was still too close to call. Approximately 57.7% of the votes were in, with an estimated 3,687,000 ballots remaining to be counted. Known for a slow vote-tallying process, statewide results may take some time to file in.

Republican Steve Hilton as of Wednesday morning held 27.8% of the vote. The Trump-endorsed former Fox News USA political commentator had pledged to turn the historically blue state toward the GOP this midterm election and reverse a two-decade losing streak for Republicans seeking statewide office.

Democrat Xavier Becerra sat slightly behind Hilton, with 25.4% of the vote. A former U.S. secretary of health and human services under President Joe Biden and the state's former attorney general, Becerra surged late in the race after Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell stepped down amid sexual assault allegations.

USA Democratic billionaire activist Tom Steyer sat in third, earning 19.6% of the vote. With over 2 million votes scattered between the two Democratic candidates, the progressive bloc in California's jungle primary – which sees the top two vote-getters advance to the general election, regardless of party affiliation – was heavily fragmented.

The Los Angeles mayoral election was another race to watch. Incumbent Democrat Karen Bass advanced to the general election with 34.8% of the vote. Republican Spencer Pratt, a former reality TV star, had a comfortable hold on second place with 30.4% support.

New Jersey: Senate, House

Incumbent Sen. Cory Booker was the projected winner of New Jersey’s Democratic primary. Booker, who has held the Senate seat since 2013, ran unopposed.

A potential 2028 presidential contender, Booker will face Justin Murphy, the projected winner of a crowded Republican primary. Murphy, a Navy veteran and former Senate candidate, secured 33.3% of the ballots cast. Murphy won with little to no money in his campaign account – which was in debt $24, according to the Federal Election Commission. 

Democrats in New Jersey's 7th District voted for former healthcare executive Rebecca Bennett, who was victorious with 45.5% of the vote in the primary. Bennett handily defeated three competitors, garnering nearly half the vote. Bennett in November will take on Republican incumbent Rep. Thomas Kean Jr, who has drawn headlines after months out of the public eye and scores of missed votes in the House.

New Mexico: Governor, Senate 

Rep. Deb Haaland pulled out a decisive win in the Democratic primary for New Mexico’s open gubernatorial seat. As of Wednesday, she secured 72.3% of the vote over prosecutor Sam Bregman. Haaland will face off against former Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull, who won 47% of the vote in a race against small business owner Doug Turner. If elected, Haaland would become the first Native American woman governor in the U.S.

Incumbent Democratic Sen. Ben Ray Lujan fought off democratic socialist Matt Dodson to claim 84.2% of the vote. Although no Republican candidate officially ran in the primaries, businessman Larry Marker mounted a successful campaign to appear on the ticket in the general election. Marker took over 4,000 write-in votes Wednesday morning, well ahead of the state threshold of 2,531 to qualify for the ballot.

Iowa: Senate, House, Governor 

Rob Sand, the Democratic state auditor, went unopposed in the gubernatorial primary, while Republican businessman Zach Lahn narrowly edged out Rep. Randy Feenstra, 38% to 37.2%. Although Feenstra secured a late endorsement by Trump, it was not enough to carry him through.

Meanwhile, Ashley Hinson comfortably won the Republican Senate primary with 74.2% support.

Josh Turek, looking to flip the GOP-held seat, secured 62.7% of the vote to win the Democratic Senate primary. Turek, a Paralympian, is backed by Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer.

Montana: Senate, House

Montana’s Senate seat, left vacant by retiring Republican incumbent Sen. Steve Daines, will see a matchup between former U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme and Air Force veteran Alani Bankhead. Independent candidate and former University of Montana President Seth Bodnar, who has outraised every one of his opponents, will also run in the general election.

Alme secured a decisive win in the Republican primary over opponents Lee Calhoun and Charles Walking Child. Endorsements from Daines and Trump, as well as other top state Republicans, helped him to 76.2% of the vote.

Bankhead’s nomination was an unexpected one. Largely unknown before announcing her candidacy earlier this year, she held 43.8% of the vote – ahead of former Rep. Reilly Neill’s 33%. Neill was the front-runner, with five times more campaign cash than her four opponents combined, according to The Associated Press. 

In Montana’s 1st District, Trump-backed Army veteran and talk show host Aaron Flint clinched the Republican nomination. The Democratic race had yet to be called, but union leader Sam Forstag held 37.3% of the vote. Former gubernatorial candidate Ryan Busse trailed with 33.1%.

Democrats face challenges, with Montana’s recent red voting history, but they could be looking to take advantage of the state’s more independent leanings. The state’s most recent Democratic senator, Jon Tester, held the seat for 18 years until losing reelection in 2024.

South Dakota: Senate, House, Governor

A heated Republican primary contest for incumbent Gov. Larry Rhoden’s position will advance to a runoff election between Rhoden and businessman Toby Doeden, who led with 30.6% of the vote. The eventual winner will face former state Sen. Dan Ahlers, who ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination.Finishing third among Republicans and narrowly missing the runoff was Rep. Dusty Johnson, who gave up his House seat in South Dakota’s 1st District to seek the governor’s mansion. In the running for his congressional seat are Republican state Attorney General Marty Jackley and Democratic business owner Nikki Gronli.Echoing his false claims about the 2020 presidential election, Trump suggested that the pace of the vote count in the closely watched gubernatorial and mayoral primaries, and Republicans losing ground as mail-in ballots were tallied, was evidence of fraud. “They are dropping fast because it’s a rigged election,” he said on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, referring to Republican candidates losing ground as mail-in ballots were counted. “Four days and they aren’t even close to coming up with… You know why they are doing that? Because they are cheating on the election?” he continued.  

When pressed by Meet the Press host Kristen Welker whether he had any evidence for his claims, Trump replied: “All I have to do is look.” He then attacked Welker as “crooked” and “stupid.” Unsubstantiated claims about the California elections have spread in recent days among Republicans and right-wing commentators. Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk made similar spurious claims regarding the Los Angeles mayoral race, saying: “They're not even trying hard to hide the fraud anymore.”

USA Republican commentator Meghan McCain wrote: “For whatever it’s worth, people in my life who have never ever spoken about stolen elections in any capacity are now saying this about California…” It comes as U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles and a Trump appointee, said Friday his office had opened “multiple election fraud investigations” related to California’s elections and sent a prosecutor to the county’s vote-counting center. 

Most of the claims of fraud appear to stem from a misunderstanding of how California counts its ballots—and specifically, the time it takes the state to complete its tally. 

The state has a unique “jungle” primary system, in which the two candidates with the most votes, regardless of party, advance to the general election. With heavy reliance on mail-in ballots and millions of votes to count accurately, it can take weeks to see the final results of the consequential races. 

The primaries will determine which two candidates in the races for both California Governor and Los Angeles mayor will compete in a general election in November. In the crowded field for the California Governor’s race, Biden-era Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra has already advanced to the runoff, while Republican and British-American former Fox News host Steve Hilton and Democrat billionaire Tom Steyer are close behind, vying for the second spot. In the race for Los Angeles mayor, incumbent Karen Bass is in the lead with 34.81% of the vote, while the gap between votes for progressive Councilmember Nithya Raman and Republican Spencer Pratt grows tighter. 

USA California election officials warned that counting could take longer than expected in the run-up to the vote, and prepared for people to claim the delays were the result of fraud. 

USA Governor Gavin Newsom sent a letter to election officials last month, warning that misinformation could spread if results are delayed.

“We face an assault on our democratic values unlike anything we have seen in our lifetimes, and it’s our job to safeguard those values,” Newsom said in the letter. 

As of June 5, over 6 million gubernatorial primary ballots have been counted, and an estimated 3 million remain to be processed. On election night, California Secretary of State Shirley Weber confirmed the delayed results are “normal,” and it could take weeks to get final results. “We have a process that by law ensures both voting rights and the integrity of elections, so I would call on all Californians to be patient,” she said. 

Mail-in ballots account for around 80% of votes in California, and state law allows ballots to arrive up to seven days after Election Day as long as they are postmarked on Election Day. According to the Secretary of State, about 13 million of the approximately 16 million votes in the 2024 presidential election in California were cast by mail.  

Election officials in all of California’s 58 counties then have up to 30 days to count final ballots and the California Secretary of State will certify results on July 10. California is the most populous state in the country and home to 23 million registered voters, and as such, election officials need ample time to count. 

When a ballot contains errors, the state gives voters 22 days to “cure” it—a timeline already cut by the state assembly last year.
California is far from the only state to allow for ballot curing—34 states and the District of Columbia, including battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Nevada are among others that allow for the fixes, which is part of why national elections can similarly take weeks to finalize.While voters of every political affiliation cast ballots by mail, Democrats tend to use them more. Because mail ballots take longer to count than in-person votes, the count tends to shift toward Democrats over time, a phenomenon known as “the blue shift” or “red mirage.” This pattern has been seized upon by the President and other Republicans to attack mail-in voting. Trump has baselessly characterized the voting tactic as a source of fraud in elections, and claimed without proof that the 2020 election, won by President Joe Biden, was “stolen” from him through mail-in ballots.  

A study published by the Brookings Institution in November found that cases of mail-in voting fraud accounted for only 0.000043% of all mail ballots, or roughly four out of every 10 million. While neither Republican candidate in the two races has outright claimed fraud, both Hilton and Pratt have been critical of the process. Hilton, Trump’s pick for governor in California, said his team has not seen anything illegal in the primaries, even as he called for an overhaul of the election system.He called the California ballot counting system “a national and international laughingstock,” but said that he and his team “certainly haven’t seen anything of that nature that would warrant legal action,” according to the Associated Press.With the California primary election in the rearview mirror, we're getting a glimpse of how the Bay Area and the rest of California voted in the governor's race.

Below you'll find a county-by-county breakdown of how Californians voted in the gubernatorial race. Just click/tap on a county to see the number and percentage of votes candidates received in that area.As of early Friday afternoon, with nearly 60% of the expected vote in, Republican Steve Hilton was in the lead with 27.2% of the vote, followed by Democrat Xavier Becerra with 26%. Democrat Tom Steyer was in third with 20.2%. Republican Chad Bianco sat in fourth with 11.2%.The top two vote-getters, regardless of party, will advance to the general election in November.

California, which rapidly gained population during the Gold Rush of 1848, joined the union in September, 1850 as part of the Compromise of 1850. Until 2010, the state gained at least one electoral vote after each Census reapportionment (there was no reapportionment after the 1920 Census). In 1972, California reached 45 electoral votes, passing New York for most in the country. The state lost an electoral vote for the first time after the 2020 Census, but with 54 it still has more than 10% of the 538 total.

While growth in the Latino population has helped make California a reliably Democratic state today, this was not always the case. In fact, from 1952 through 1988, Republicans won every presidential election except the landslide loss of Barry Goldwater in 1964. Kamala Harris easily won the state in 2024. However, her 20% margin over Donald Trump was the closest result here since 2004.

Posted on 2026/06/08 04:28 PM