JUNE 7, 2026
California primary results still delayed as Becerra advances in governor's race and LA mayoral runoff remains undecided
Days after California's primary election, officials are still counting mail-in ballots in two major races: the gubernatorial primary and the Los Angeles mayoral race. The Associated Press projected Democrat Xavier Becerra would advance to the November general election for governor, while incumbent Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass also advanced but her November opponent has not yet been determined. Roughly 68% of ballots had been counted as of Saturday afternoon, according to AP totals.
Xavier Becerra led the California gubernatorial field with 26.8% of the vote as of Saturday, with Republican Steve Hilton at 26.4% and Democrat Tom Steyer at 21.1%, per AP totals. The AP projected Becerra would advance to the November general election; the second spot remained unresolved. Becerra's campaign noted that his advance makes him the first Latino candidate to move from a California gubernatorial primary to a general election, and that if elected in November, he would become the state's first Latino governor since Romualdo Pacheco briefly served in 1875.
The California governor's race drew markedly different editorial emphasis from outlets across the spectrum. Fox News led with Hilton's new campaign ad targeting Becerra's "36 years" as a career politician and framed Hilton as a political outsider challenging the Democratic establishment. NPR's coverage, drawing on LAist reporter Frank Stoltze, framed the race primarily through the question of whether the general election would be Democrat-versus-Democrat or Democrat-versus-Republican in a heavily Democratic state, with Stoltze noting that either outcome looks favorable for Democrats.
In the Los Angeles mayoral race, Bass secured first place in the primary with roughly one-third of the vote, but her runoff opponent — either Republican reality TV personality Spencer Pratt or Democratic socialist city councilmember Nithya Raman — had not been determined. NPR's coverage described several factors contributing to Bass's vulnerability: a reported 18% drop in homelessness under her tenure alongside more than 40,000 unhoused residents, high housing costs, deferred city maintenance, and criticism of her response to the Palisades Fire, which began while she was on a diplomatic trip to Ghana.