Below are the results of the races in the Riverside County June primary. The top two vote getters for each U.S. and state elected position will be the candidates on the November Election ballot. Regardless of party, the two candidates with the most votes will face off during the fall campaign.
For Riverside County elected positions, if a candidate receives more than 50% of the votes cast, they are declared the winner and will not have to battle in November.
As of Monday evening, June 13, with 100% of county precincts reporting, 308,249 ballots had been counted. That is 23.6% of the 1.3 million registered voters in the county. In March 2020, for the presidential primary, 43.2% of registered county voters cast ballots. In 2018, for the last gubernatorial primary, turnout was 35.2% and, four years earlier, in 2014, only 22.3% of registered voters came to the polls.
The Registrar of Voters site states 36,000 vote-by-mail ballots and 2,000 provisional ballots have not yet been counted.
U.S. Representative District 41
Running in a slightly modified district, Republican Congressman Ken Calvert was the leading candidate with 47.9% of the votes. His November challenger will be Democrat Will Rollins, a former federal prosecutor. Rollins and his fellow Democrat Shrina Kurani together collected 47,989 votes, or 46.4%, which is slightly less than Calvert’s 59,778 votes.
In the closely balanced district, this may indicate a close race in November between Calvert and Rollins. However, if Republican John Michael Lucio’s 5,000 votes switch to Calvert, he will protect his incumbency.
After early results were posted, Calvert issued a press release Wednesday morning. In it, he said, “It’s truly an honor to receive the most votes once again in this election. The election results send a clear message that voters in the 41st Congressional District want to move our country in a different direction from the constant state of crisis and inflation we have found ourselves under President Biden.”
State Senate District 32
With only two candidates, both Assemblyman Kelly Seyarto (R) and Brian Nash (D) will be on the November ballot. But Seyarto did receive 62.4% of the votes.
State Assembly District 47
Four candidates were in this race. Christy Holstege, Democrat from Palm Springs, garnered 52.3% of the vote followed by Republican Greg Wallis, who had 29.0% of the votes.
State Assembly District 36
Assembly District 36 includes Garner Valley, Anza and Aguanga. Eduardo Garcia, a Democrat, and Ian Weeks, a Republican, received 91% of the total vote and will compete in November. Since election day, June 7, Weeks trailed Garcia until the June 13 results were released. Weeks is currently outpolling Garcia by 700 votes with 46.8% of vote to Garcia’s 44.6%.
District Attorney
In a three-way race, incumbent Michael Hestrin was reelected Riverside County district attorney. He garnered 54.9% of the total vote, outpolling his two rivals, Judge Burke Strunsky and Lara Gressley, who together had only 45.1% of the ballots.
With each new report of votes counted, Hestrin’s lead has gradually increased since Tuesday night.
Sheriff
Similarly, incumbent Sheriff Chad Bianco was reelected with 60.6% of the voter over his challenger Michael Lujan.
Auditor Controller
As more vote-by-mail ballots are counted, Ben Benoit has gradually taken and widened his lead over the county’s incumbent Auditor-Controller Paul Angulo. As of Sunday, June 12, Benoit has received 45.4% of the ballots cast and Angulo has 40%.
From Tuesday night through Thursday, Angulo had the lead in the close race. The third candidate, Marshall Campbell, received 14.7% of the votes, consequently it is unlikely either Angulo or Benoit can avoid another battle in November. Both will be on the November ballot.
Assessor-County Clerk and Treasuer Tax Collector
In two separate races, the incumbent was not challenged. Peter Aldana, assessor-county clerk, and Matthew Jennings, treasurer-tax collector, were elected and will not have to face any November challenge.
County Superintendent of Schools
Incumbent Edwin Gomez was unopposed.
County Supervisors
Two incumbent supervisors, Karen Speigel (2nd District) and Manual Perez (4th District, which now includes the Hill communities) were unchallenged and, therefore, reelected.
Current Board of Supervisors Chair Jeff Hewitt of the 5th District had three opponents. As of Monday evening, he trails Moreno Valley Mayor Yxstian Gutierrez by 720 votes. Neither candidate polled more than 35%. So the fall campaign will focus on gaining support from the voters of the other three candidates, especially Lloyd White who represents 25.7% of the voters.
Judges
There were four Superior Court judgeships on the ballot.
Office #4
Deputy District Attorney Natalie Lough, with 49.9% of the vote counted, may face Senior Deputy District Attorney Amy Barajas (28.2%) in November.
Office #11
Jay Kiel, a deputy district attorney, has a 11,360-vote lead over Superior Court Commissioner Laura Garcia. Kiel has 52.1% of the counted vote and trailed Garcia until Friday’s votes were counted. This race could flip several more times as the final 38,000 votes are counted.
With only two candidates, one will garner the 50% plus one to be the victor without needing a runoff in November.
Offices #26 and 28
In these two races, the top vote-getter has more than 50% of votes cast. In Office 26, Jason Stone has 63.8% of the votes and for Office 28, Kristi Kirk has 55%.
Statewide votes
Comparing the top two vote getters in the Statewide races, Riverside County voters and the rest of the state were remarkably the same except for two second-place candidates. In the race for controller, local voters favored Yvonne You (D) over Malia Cohen (D).
While Riverside County and statewide voters were in step on which candidates they favored, local voters were decidedly less Democratic than the rest of the state. For example, Gov. Gavin Newsom gained 56% of the state voters, but only 46% of Riverside County voters. And the differences were similar in the other races.
In the nonpartisan race for superintendent of public instruction, Riverside County voters supported Ainye Long over George Yang.