California Election Updates
The race for mayor in Los Angeles saw a slight tightening between reality star Spencer Pratt and City Council member Nitya Raman. Meanwhile, in the gubernatorial race, Republican candidate Steve Hilton is still ahead of Democratic contenders Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer.
The recent wildfires in Los Angeles have made this year’s key elections in California rather critical, almost a microcosm for the future of progressive leadership.
Spencer Pratt, who is running as a Republican, is currently trailing Democratic Mayor Karen Bass, who has already garnered enough support to move on to the November general election. Bass received a total of 163,549 votes. Pratt, on the other hand, is leading Raman by nearly 6 percentage points, having received 130,473 votes, according to the latest figures from the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder and County Clerk.
Interestingly, a review found discrepancies in the vote counts: the recent tally shows Raman gaining over 10,000 votes, while Pratt collected fewer than 6,000 in another count. Previously, Pratt had managed 157,116 votes compared to Raman’s 119,809.
Gubernatorial Race Insights
In the gubernatorial race, Steve Hilton holds a narrow margin over former HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. As of Friday afternoon, Hilton’s total sits at 1,533,435 votes, while Becerra trails with 1,470,100 votes. Billionaire Tom Steyer is in third place with 1,139,517 votes.
Like the mayoral contest, if no candidate crosses the 50% threshold in the gubernatorial election, the top two will face off in a runoff in November.
The polls in California closed on June 2. However, it may take several weeks before all results are finalized. In past elections, such as the one in 2024, the official results weren’t certified until December—38 days later. A bipartisan bill passed in 2025 mandated that “non-disputed” votes be counted within 13 days.
California leads the nation in mail-in voting, with a significant 81% of voters choosing this method in 2024, which is almost double the national average.
