10:30 pm: Hilton and Becerra lead race, Steyer says it’s not over
Steve Hilton, a former Fox News commentator and Republican candidate for California governor, shows a crowd of supporters an American-flag embroidered suit jacket during a rally on Tuesday June 2, 2026 in Huntington Beach, Calif. (Photo: Steve Hilton Youtube channel)
As millions of ballots continued to be counted Tuesday night, a clear trend was emerging: Republican Steve Hilton and Democrat Xavier Becerra were pulling away from the pack. And speculation weeks ago that the top two finishers heading to the November election would both be Republicans was fizzling out.
At about 10:30 pm Hilton, a former Fox News commentator from England who became a U.S. citizen just five years ago, led the race with 26.8% of the vote. Becerra, the former California attorney general, was close behind with 25.8%. And billionaire Democrat Tom Steyer was trailing in third place with 19.7%. Republican Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco was a distant fourth, at 11.2% and all other candidates were at 5% or below.
“Change is coming to California, and it’s long overdue,” Hilton told a crowd of supporters at a rally in Huntington Beach at about 10 pm. “For every single person who has voted for me — we’re not there yet, but it’s looking good. It looks very much as if Californians really will have the chance to vote for change in November and take our state in a new direction, a fresh start for our state.”
Becerra addressed his supporters shortly afterward in Los Angeles.
“Here in Hollywood’s home town we love a good underdog story. I’ve got one for you,” he said, talking about how his parents came to California as a construction worker and clerical worker.
“The underdog stayed in the fight,” he said. “Like my parents I never gave up. Never stopped putting one foot in front of the other. Never stopped believing in the beacon light of California.”
A Steyer spokesman, Anthony York, issued a statement saying his campaign was optimistic that polling showed a late surge for Steyer and that many of his voters cast ballots in the final hours that have yet to be counted.
“The outcome may not be known tonight,” York’s statement said. “In fact it could take a couple of days, or even weeks, for the final result to become clear.”
Steyer took the stage in San Francisco and said the race wasn’t over.
“Together we demanded more and better for the best state of them all, and now we just have to be patient,” he said, walking off the stage as Tom Petty’s “Won’t Back Down” played over the speakers.
Democrat Katie Porter, a former Southern California congresswoman who ran unsuccessfully two years ago for U.S. Senate, conceded the governor’s race in a YouTube video.
“Running a race like this isn’t easy,” she said. “And coming up short is hard, but democracy is worth doing hard things for. Stay in the fight, stay in touch, and thank you for believing in me.”
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9:50 pm: Democrat Scott Wiener advances to general election in race to succeed Pelosi
From left, San Francisco Supervisor and congressional candidate Connie Chan stands with U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., at the “Get Out the Vote” rally in San Francisco on Friday, May 29, 2026. (Gabrielle Lurie/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Democratic State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, has secured one of the two spots in November’s general election in the race to succeed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is retiring this year after 40 years in Congress.
“Tonight the people of San Francisco sent a very clear message,” Wiener said at a campaign party. “San Franciscans are ready for bold, forward-looking leadership. For real results, not just words. And a new generation of leaders ready to take on the hardest issues facing our country.”
The Associated Press called the race for Wiener, an advocate for building more housing and gay rights, who led with 40% of the vote. In second place with 30.4% was San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, whom Pelosi endorsed several weeks ago, giving her candidacy a huge boost. In third place and in danger of being locked out was Saikat Chakrabarti, a former engineer at tech firm Stripe who later worked as chief of staff for progressive Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and who has repeatedly criticized Pelosi. The top two finishers will move on to the general election.
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9:20 pm: Villaraigosa concedes governor’s race
California gubernatorial candidate Antonio Villaraigosa speaks at the 2026 California Democratic Party State Convention in San Francisco, Feb. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa, who served as speaker of the California State Assembly from 1998 to 2000, and mayor of Los Angeles from 2005 to 2013, conceded Tuesday night in his race for governor. Villaraigosa was in 7th place with 1.4%, as ballots continued to be tabulated, according to the Secretary of State’s office.
“I’m not stepping aside from the cause, only from the race,” said Villaraigosa, 73, who also ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2018. “To everyone who gave this campaign a piece of their hope: hold on to it. California is worth fighting for — and I’m not done fighting.”
Villaraigosa was hoping to become the first Latino governor of California in 150 years. He sparred with the other leading Latino candidate in the race, longtime rival Xavier Becerra. At 9:20 pm, Becerra was neck-and-neck with Republican Steve Hilton for the top spot, with both candidates hovering around 26%. The top two finishers will advance to the November general election.
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9:00 pm: Reality TV star Spencer Pratt surging in LA mayor’s race
In this screenshot from a “Star Wars”-inspired video created by filmmaker Charles Curran, an AI-generated Spencer Pratt is depicted as Luke Skywalker confronting Karen Bass portrayed as Darth Vader. (Courtesy of Charles Curran/Menace Studio)
Spencer Pratt, a former reality TV star with no political experience who pummeled incumbent Mayor Karen Bass with a series of AI-driven ads depicting Los Angeles as a burning hellscape littered with homeless encampments, was off to a surprisingly strong showing Tuesday night.
Pratt, who starred in the show “The Hills,” and who was endorsed by Donald Trump, was in second place, with 30.1% of the vote, behind Bass, who had 36.5%. Trailing in third place was progressive Nithya Raman, a member of the city council. Pratt’s house burned in the January 2025 fires that devastated the Palisades neighborhood. The top two finishers will face each other in the November general election.
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8:35 pm: San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan concedes governor’s race
After delivering a concession speech in the governor’s race, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan walks off the stage to join his wife, Silvia Scandar Mahan, right, with their children Luke, 6, and Nina, 8, during his election night party Tuesday, June 2, 2026, in San Jose, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
San Jose Mayor and California gubernatorial candidate Matt Mahan speaks during his election night party Tuesday, June 2, 2026, in San Jose, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
After delivering a concession speech, San Jose Mayor and California gubernatorial candidate Matt Mahan hugs his daughter Nina, 8, during his election night party Tuesday, June 2, 2026, in San Jose, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
San Jose Mayor and California gubernatorial candidate Matt Mahan speaks to the media during his election night party Tuesday, June 2, 2026, in San Jose, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
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After delivering a concession speech in the governor’s race, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan walks off the stage to join his wife, Silvia Scandar Mahan, right, with their children Luke, 6, and Nina, 8, during his election night party Tuesday, June 2, 2026, in San Jose, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
Democrat Matt Mahan, the mayor of San Jose, conceded Tuesday night in his race for governor as results trickled in.
“I want to congratulate my fellow candidates on a hard-fought campaign,” Mahan said at an election night party at San Pedro Square Market in San Jose. “And I want to thank our incredible team and all of you who are not just supporters, but champions for building a better California. While this campaign for governor ends tonight … our mission has only just begun. To have a government in Sacramento that makes life better for Californians, we have to pay attention and make our voices heard all the time, not just on election day.”
“I’m proud of what we have accomplished together in just four months, for many reasons,” Mahan added. “We set the conversation and the tone of this race. California moved closer to the right ideas because we brought them to the forefront.”
Mahan, who was first elected mayor in 2022, was a late entrant into the governor’s race, jumping in at the end of January. Although he raised more money than any candidate except billionaire Tom Steyer, most of it from tech industry leaders, he struggled with a lack of name recognition in Southern California, and a campaign message built on reforming the Democratic Party as well as the Republican Party — an uphill challenge in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-1 in voter registration and polls show President Donald Trump wildly unpopular with Democrats and independent voters.
Mahan said it was time to get back to work tomorrow but left the door open for a future run, telling the crowd, “Please don’t think tonight is the last time I’m going to ask you to come together to fight for a better California.”
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8:15 p.m.: Hilton, Becerra take early lead in governor’s race
Xavier Becerra and Steve Hilton are candidates for the California gubernatorial race in 2026. (Photo of Becerra is SCNG file photo; photo of Hilton from Associated Press)
Republican Steve Hilton took the early lead Tuesday night in the California governor’s race as counties began to post the first results shortly after polls closed at 8 p.m. statewide. Hilton, a former Fox News commentator, had 30.2% in the initial returns. Democrat Xavier Becerra, California’s former attorney general and secretary for Health and Human Services in the Biden administration, had 22.1%. Republican Chad Bianco, the sheriff of Riverside County, was third with 18.8%. And billionaire former hedge fund manager Tom Steyer, a Democrat, was fourth with 15.6%. Democrats— including former Congresswoman Katie Porter, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond — trailed far behind in single digits below 4%.
Political experts who had been tracking mail-in ballot totals said more Republicans than Democrats were voting early, with many Democrats holding their ballots to the last minute to see the final interviews, polls and ads from the crowded field.
Full early returns are here.
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Election Night: Five things to watch for in California’s primary
There’s no Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger or Jerry Brown. California’s marquee contest in the 2026 primary doesn’t have the star power of many previous governor’s races in America’s most populous state.
There was that possibility for a while. But 10 months ago, former Vice President Kamala Harris, an Oakland native, decided not to run, leaving a wide-open and unsettled field to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom, who leaves office in January due to term limits.
In bright blue California, registered Democratic voters outnumber Republicans 2-to-1. No Republican has won statewide office since 2006, when Schwarzenegger and former Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, were re-elected. Nevertheless, there’s still some drama afoot. Here are five things to watch for as the results begin rolling in tonight:
1) Beware the “Red Mirage.”
Elections seasonal clerk Sylvia Santiago-Mejia removes mail-in ballots from a machine after they were counted in the tabulation room at the Contra Costa County Registrar of Voters in Martinez, Calif., Friday, May 29, 2026. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Don’t be fooled by early returns. There’s a fairly good chance that we won’t know who the top two finishers in the governor’s race are tonight, experts say, which could generate a lot of incorrect punditry, partisan anger and ungrounded conspiracy theories in the days ahead.
The reasons are simple: Even though the polls close at 8 p.m., under California law all 23.1 million registered voters in the state received a mail-in ballot. State law also requires that ballots must be counted as long as they are postmarked by Election Day and arrive at county elections offices within seven days after that. In other words, thousands of valid ballots won’t even have reached election offices tonight.
Political consultants who have been tracking the return rate so far have noted that many of the earliest voters were registered Republicans. President Trump endorsed fellow Republican and former Fox News personality Steve Hilton two months ago. But many Democratic voters have waited until the last minute to vote. That’s due to the fact that there are six major Democratic candidates, and many people wanted to learn more about each one’s positions and polling numbers. It’s also part of an informal trend of strategic voting where some Democratic voters decided to vote for whichever Democrat was leading in the final polls to help consolidate Democratic votes and reduce the risk that both of the top finishers moving to the November general election would be Republicans.
Those early Republican votes will be counted first. Republican candidates Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco are likely to be faring well in the first wave of announced results after 8 pm. But as the later, more Democratic-trending ballots are counted and continue to arrive after Election Day, there could well be a “blue shift,” as Democratic candidates surge past them.
Based on the most recent polling, some political pros expect a scenario like this: Hilton and former Democratic state Attorney General Xavier Becerra could be leading Tuesday night, and then Wednesday and in the following few days, billionaire hedge fund manager Tom Steyer, a Democrat, slowly gains and perhaps even passes the second-place candidate. That could potentially oust Becerra or even set up an all-Democrat Becerra vs Steyer general election contest. Ballots that come in by mail on Election Day and the week after must be opened, their signatures and postmarks verified, and counted. Bottom line: It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
2) Can a billionaire win in California?
Gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer takes part in a rally with members of the California Nurses Association on Tuesday, May 5, 2026, in Oakland, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group) Aric Crabb — Bay Area News Group
Tom Steyer has a net worth of $2.4 billion. He accumulated that wealth as the founder of Farallon Capital Management, a San Francisco hedge fund. He has never held public office. Following up an unsuccessful run for president in the Democratic primary in 2020, he’s tried again now in the California governor’s race.
Steyer has put his money where his ambitions are, spending a record $213 million to blanket the state with advertising over the past month. It has helped boost his name recognition and polling numbers. He has won support from many progressive voters who are attracted to his liberal positions, such as embracing a statewide single-payer health care system and supporting higher taxes on billionaires like himself.
But California voters have not been kind to very wealthy candidates in the past. There is a long list of business titans, heirs and other uber-rich hopefuls who were accused of trying to buy elected office and who saw their dreams end in disappointment. Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman spent $144 million of her own money in a run for governor in 2010, only to be trounced by 13 points by Jerry Brown.
Longtime residents remember Al Checchi, the former co-chairman of Northwest Airlines, who dumped $40 million of his own money — then an all-time record — into a campaign for California governor in 1998. But “Al Checkbook,” as he became known, won only 12%, losing badly to Gray Davis in the Democratic primary, despite outspending him by more than 5-to-1.
Similar fates befell Michael Huffington, a businessman from a wealthy Texas family who spent $28 million of his own money to get beat by Dianne Feinstein in the 1994 Senate race; billionaire Rick Caruso, who spent $100 million in the 2022 Los Angeles mayor’s race, only to lose to Democratic congresswoman Karen Bass; and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, who spent $1 billion of his own fortune on a presidential campaign in 2020, only to finish fourth in the California primary behind Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren, dropping out soon after.
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan already has shown the trend this year. He raised more than any candidate in the governor’s race except Steyer, with big backing from tech leaders. But he has remained mired in single digits in the polls.
3) Have Bay Area residents hit their tax limit?
Parents and children gather for a press conference outside of Canoas Elementary School in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, March 25, 2026. A coalition of San Jose Unified School District families filed a legal complaint against SJUSD over the district’s proposed closure of 5 elementary schools. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
Voters in the heavily Democratic nine-county Bay Area and many other parts of California have a long history of voting to approve taxes and bonds for schools, colleges, roads, transit systems, libraries, water projects and parks.
But they are feeling financial pain this year. In a poll last month by the non-partisan Public Policy Institute of California, 44% of state residents said the cost of living was the most important issue facing the state, and another 14% said housing costs were the top issue — far outpacing concerns about homelessness, immigration, education and crime.
Nationally, with Trump’s tariffs and the war in Iran sending prices higher at the store and the gas pump, 80% of Californians said the nation is headed in the wrong direction, despite solid gains in the stock market.
“It’s remarkable that even with a relatively healthy economy, Californians have been feeling gloomier and gloomier about the U.S. for a few years now,” said Mark Baldassare, PPIC’s Statewide Survey director.
School districts across the Bay Area are asking voters to approve more than $688 million in 19 school bonds and parcel tax measures this election. The Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority is seeking to raise $17 million a year in Measure D, a parcel tax to buy land, reduce fire risk and hire more rangers.
San Jose’s Measure A is an increase in the hotel tax from 10% to 12% to generate $10 million a year for police, fire and other city services. San Francisco voters will decide Proposition A, a $535 million bond for earthquake retrofitting. Oakland voters will consider Measure E, a $192 annual parcel tax pushed by Mayor Barbara Lee to help fund police, fire and other services. Contra Costa County ballots will include Measure B — a temporary countywide 0.625% general sales tax for five years to offset health care and hospital cuts by Republicans in Congress. And in the North Bay, Measure B would extend a quarter-cent sales tax for another 30 years to fund the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit District, or SMART train system.
In 1992, James Carville, campaign manager for Bill Clinton, famously told his staff, “It’s the economy, stupid.” Tonight, we’ll see how much that resonates in the Golden State during a time of economic anxiety.
4) Who will succeed Nancy Pelosi?
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, surrounded by her grandchildren and other children, pounds the gavel at the Capitol in Washington DC, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2019. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Love her or hate her, Nancy Pelosi is a political titan and trailblazer in the Bay Area. The San Francisco Democrat has served in Congress for nearly 40 years, first winning election in 1986. She has been one of the Democratic Party’s leading fundraisers for decades. She is the only woman in American history to serve as Speaker of the House, holding the gavel from 2007 to 2011 and from 2019 to 2023, passing the Affordable Care Act and other landmark laws.
Now Pelosi, who is 86, is finally retiring. Three leading Democratic candidates are running to succeed her in California’s 11th District, one of the most Democratic districts in the state. They are Scott Wiener, a state senator who has successfully passed laws in Sacramento making it easier to build housing, sometimes over neighbors’ concerns, and who has championed gay rights; Saikat Chakrabarti, a former founding engineer at the tech company Stripe who became chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and who has criticized Pelosi; and Connie Chan, a progressive San Francisco supervisor who represents the Richmond District, Sea Cliff, Presidio Terrace and other neighborhoods.
Last month, Pelosi endorsed Chan, giving her campaign a key boost.
“We have to have women at the table,” she said in an interview with NBC News, citing the recent retirements of other Bay Area congresswomen like Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, and Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, who were succeeded by men.
A San Francisco Chronicle poll last month just before Pelosi’s endorsement found that 40% of likely primary voters said they planned to vote for Wiener, while Chakrabarti pulled 18% and Chan 17%. In this race, all eyes are on who will win second place, and survive to the November general election. Does Pelosi still have the gravitas to win a race where she isn’t on the ballot? Or is the party passing her by?
5) A wild reality show for Los Angeles mayor
L to R; Spencer Pratt, Mayor Karen Bass, and Nithya Raman in a mayoral debate at the Skirball Cultural Center on Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (Screenshot from NBC) (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Karen Bass won election to Congress six times to represent Los Angeles. She had a cushy seat. Then she chose to run for mayor of L.A., the state’s largest and one of its most difficult-to-govern cities. Her life has been tumultuous since then.
After fending off billionaire developer Rick Caruso in the 2022 mayoral election, Bass took a massive political hit when devastating wildfires burned the Palisades and Altadena areas of the city in January 2025, killing 31 people and destroying 18,000 homes and other structures, while she was away on a trip to Africa. Lack of water in the city’s fire hydrants and the refusal of her administration to release records related to the fire department’s response sent her popularity plummeting.
With the Olympics coming to L.A. in two years, Bass is seeking re-election. She faces Spencer Pratt, a reality TV star who has never held public office, and progressive city councilmember Nithya Raman. Bass likes to note that she has never lost an election.
This one is close.
The latest UC Berkeley-Los Angeles Times poll last week showed Bass at 26%, Raman at 25% and Pratt at 22% among likely voters.
Pratt, whose house burned down in the fire, has gained attention for his AI-generated ads showing the city as a burning hellscape plagued by homeless encampments, with Bass as a Joker-like figure, and he as a Batman-style hero. He has been endorsed by Donald Trump. That is getting some pushback in the heavily Democratic city.
“Mayor should not be your first job,” late-night host Jimmy Kimmel said last week. “Are we really going to risk repeating that mistake we made with Trump in L.A., of all places?”
But Pratt has the buzz. Can he pull an upset? This reality show is for real. The top two finishers go through to the November general election.