Below are the results of the statewide June primary. The top two vote getters for each office 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. Even if one candidate polls more than 50%, the top two move to November.
As of Monday evening, June 13, only 4.9 million (22% of registered voters) ballots had been counted. This compares with a 37.5% turnout in the June 2018 gubernatorial primary and 46.9% in the March 2020 presidential primary.
Incumbents easily garnered the most votes in each race. With 2,721,302, Secretary of State Shirley Weber had the most votes of any candidate in Tuesday’s election. So far, she has outpaced Gov. Gavin Newsom by about 41,375 votes.
Governor
Less than a year after successfully defeating a recall effort, incumbent Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, outpolled his 24 other challengers garnering 56.3% of the vote. He will face Republican challenger Brian Dahle, who received 17.4% of the vote. None of the other 23 candidates gained more than 4% of the votes cast.
Lt. Governor
The lieutenant governor candidates will be incumbent Eleni Kounalakis, a Democrat, and Republican Angela Underwood Jacobs. Together they received nearly 72.4% of the total votes.
Secretary of State
The pattern continues for this office, too. The top voter getter was incumbent Shirley Weber, a Democrat, followed by Republican Rob Bernosky.
Controller
The two candidates on the November ballot will be Republican Lanhee Chen, who garnered 37% of the voter, and Democrat Malia Cohen, who received 21.9% of the voter. Democrat Yvonne Yiu was third with 15.5% of the vote. Incumbent Betty Yee was ineligible for a third term.
Treasurer
In November, incumbent Treasurer Fiona Ma will face Republican Jack Guerro. Together they received nearly 80% of the votes cast.
Attorney General
Incumbent Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, received nearly three times the votes of his November challenger, Republican Nathan Hochman.
Insurance Commissioner
The insurance commissioner contest was the closest of the state office races. Democrat incumbent Richardo Lara was the top voter getter, but he received only 36.5% of the votes. The race for his challenger is tight. Republican Robert Howell is currently second with 819,354 votes (18%). But he was closely trailed by Democrat Marc Levine, 800,047 votes (17.6), and Republican Greg Conlon, 744,242 votes (16.3).
U.S. Senator
Incumbent Democrat Alex Padilla, appointed after his predecessor Kamala Harris was elected vice president, was the top voter getter for both the partial term to finish in January 2023 and for the full-six-year term beginning in January 2023. His challenger will be Republican Mark Meuser.
Superintendent of Public Instruction
This is a nonpartisan race, but the incumbent Tony Thurmond was the top vote-getter followed by Lance Ray Christensen. Thurmond’s total was nearly four times Christensen’s votes.
But Christensen is only 3,950 votes ahead of George Yang who is only 5,770 votes ahead of the fourth place candidate Ainye Long.