Votes were being counted in California’s gubernatorial primary Tuesday, with three men locked in a tight race for two run-off spots, as officials in Los Angeles began tallying ballots for mayor of the second biggest city in the United States.
The state’s so-called ‘jungle primary’ pits all comers against each other in one mega-poll. The top two vote-getters, regardless of party, advance to the November general election to replace term-limited Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom.
Xavier Becerra, a career politician who served as former president Joe Biden’s health secretary, was in the box seat as the early numbers rolled in.
Democrat Tom Steyer and Steve Hilton, a Republican backed by President Donald Trump, are competing for second place.
Hilton, a former British political strategist, has campaigned on blaming Democrats for the state’s deep-rooted housing, affordability and homelessness problems.
Nancy Gillette said that she had voted for the erstwhile Fox News commentator and was furious at the cost of living in California.
“There’s no reason why our gas prices should be seven dollars a gallon,” she told the New York Times.
Steyer, a billionaire hedge fund manager, has spent more than $200 million of his money on a campaign advocating for higher taxes on rich people and lower utility bills for California’s squeezed middle class.
Voter Carly Boyajian said that she was backing him.
“Steyer’s done an impressive job at being very charismatic and talking about the things that matter to me,” she said.
California is notoriously slow at counting ballots, and the results might not even start to take shape properly until Wednesday. Large amounts of postal voting could delay that even further.
Late-arriving ballots were expected to favour the Democrats.
Despite its huge economy, California would have the world’s fourth largest if it were a country, and pockets of unbelievable wealth, but America’s most populous state is disgruntled.
While the tech bros of Silicon Valley enjoy fabulous homes, the soaring cost of houses and an almost pathological aversion to building new ones leave millions struggling to pay the rent.
Eye-watering utility bills and the nation’s priciest gas, coupled with high taxes and crumbling public services, add to a general sense of unfairness.
There is also the very visible, and seemingly intractable, problem of homelessness in cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The high stakes and the wall-to-wall advertisements notwithstanding, the race has never really caught fire, and the public has seemed decidedly unenthusiastic, even if the vote could have national implications.
Incumbent Newsom is thought to be aiming for the White House in 2028, while Republicans would relish the chance to win the governor’s mansion in the Golden State.
People in Los Angeles were also voting Tuesday in the city’s mayoral primary.
Incumbent Karen Bass, who is making her case for a second term, is sandwiched between a left-wing former ally on the city council and a pugnacious reality TV star coming in hard from the right.
Bass, an ex-US congresswoman and Democratic Party stalwart, had an unremarkable start to her stint at the helm of the city and seemed headed for easy re-election.
But her flat-footed handling of the giant fires that tore through the area in January 2025 left her in trouble.
Her response to federal immigration raids in the proudly diverse city helped her recover somewhat, but she remains vulnerable.
Early results revealed a strong showing from Spencer Pratt, a one-time reality TV villain whose house burnt down in the devastating fires.
Pratt has channelled widespread anger over the slow rebuild process, LA’s potholed roads, its drug-addled homeless and a city hall considered inefficient and in thrall to special interests.
Council member Nithya Raman, a Democratic Socialist, was also likely to make the November run-off.
Primary votes were also held Tuesday in Iowa, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota.
