{"id":346766,"date":"2026-06-04T17:41:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T17:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/346766\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T17:41:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T17:41:20","slug":"long-beach-voting-results-mayor-richardson-claims-large-lead-in-reelection-bid-may-avoid-runoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/346766\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach voting results: Mayor Richardson claims large lead in reelection bid, may avoid runoff"},"content":{"rendered":"

Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson stormed ahead in early returns Tuesday night, overshadowing six little-known rivals and potentially securing him four more years in office in a race that strengthens his standing for a potential run for higher office.<\/p>\n

\"table<\/p>\n

With over 56,000 ballots counted and more still being tallied, Richardson was holding just over 56% of the vote.<\/p>\n

Joshua Rodriguez, a former law enforcement officer, was in second with 20.4%, followed by local business owner Chris Sweeney at 10.2%.<\/p>\n

Follow the vote after polls close<\/p>\n

Our limited-run newsletter Make It Make Sense unpacks the ballot count and results, then checks in regularly on officials voted into office and the measures voters pass.<\/p>\n

Standing beside family and several City Council members at a rooftop election night party, Richardson thanked his supporters, saying the results reflect a voter base that supports his vision for the city and the direction it is headed.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, this means we\u2019re going to continue building jobs, jobs that are accessible, good high-paying union jobs in our city,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to continue to attract companies as the fastest growing aerospace cluster in America in Space Beach. We\u2019re going to continue building housing in every part of our city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richardson used his speech to reiterate his plan to remake Long Beach as an entertainment and sports destination.<\/p>\n

He gestured for the crowd to look right, toward the newly built coastal amphitheater that debuts Saturday. \u201cThe industries of the past will not serve us well in the future,\u201d Richardson said.<\/p>\n

Richardson first won his seat in a 2022 general election with 56.6% of the vote, or 63,184 ballots, over then-Councilmember Suzie Price.<\/p>\n

None of his challengers this year had as much political experience as Price, and Richardson substantially outraised them all.<\/p>\n

Richardson spent more than $358,000, pulling from the $472,000 raised through donations from powerful unions, established Democratic colleagues and many of the defense companies he has helped bring to the city. By comparison, nonprofit executive Terri Rivers spent $17,000, and Sweeney spent nearly $10,000.<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s race in Long Beach is a tough one for political newcomers. The city has not elected a mayor who hasn\u2019t first sat on the City Council since Beverly O\u2019Neill\u2019s inaugural win in 1994.<\/p>\n

Early results in other races also favor incumbents<\/p>\n

Results are as of 2:08 a.m. Wednesday. See the latest numbers at\u00a0results.lavote.gov<\/a><\/p>\n

Five City Council offices and the city auditor\u2019s seat were also at stake in Tuesday\u2019s primary, with incumbents across the city \u2014 except in the 7th District, where longtime Councilmember Roberto Uranga was termed out \u2014 holding early leads over their challengers.<\/p>\n

City Auditor<\/p>\n

Incumbent Laura Doud was leading Ginny Gonzalez with 71.1% of the vote compared to 28.9%. They are the only two candidates in the race.<\/p>\n

1st District\u00a0<\/p>\n

Incumbent Mary Zendejas was leading with 50.9% of the vote. Deb Kahookele was in second place with 14.6% of the vote. There are six candidates in the race.<\/p>\n

3rd District<\/p>\n

Incumbent Kristina Duggan was ahead with 66.5% of the vote. Rebecca Hinderer was in second place with 25.9% of the vote among four candidates.<\/p>\n

5th District\u00a0<\/p>\n

Incumbent Megan Kerr had 51.2% of the vote versus 48.8% for her challenger Tara Riggi. They are the only two candidates in the race.<\/p>\n

Kerr said she was \u201ccautiously optimistic\u201d her lead would hold after a bruising race. \u201cThis was not an easy ride this time around,\u201d she told her supporters.<\/p>\n

\"District<\/p>\n

Megan Kerr, District 5 Councilmember, attends an election night party in Long Beach on Tuesday, June 3, 2026.<\/p>\n

(<\/p>\n

Thomas R. Cordova<\/p>\n

\/<\/p>\n

Long Beach Post<\/p>\n

)<\/p>\n

Richardson, who endorsed her, said he expected her to cruise to victory at this point.<\/p>\n

\u201cCouncilwoman Megan Kerr stood up for affordable housing, and they tried to punish her for it, because she believes in a Long Beach that looks like this, where everybody has a seat at the table and a place to call home,\u201d Richardson said in his election night speech. \u201cAnd I\u2019m so proud that the Fifth District voters agree.\u201d<\/p>\n

7th District\u00a0<\/p>\n

LBCC Trustee Vivian Malauulu had 75.1% of the vote. Dameon Gordon was in second place with 17.5%. Jamies Shuford had 7.4% of the vote.<\/p>\n

9th District<\/p>\n

Incumbent Joni Ricks-Oddie led with 66.6% of the vote. Sequoia Neff is her only challenger and had 33.4% of the vote.<\/p>\n

Will there be runoffs?<\/p>\n

Any candidate who earns more than 50% of the vote in the June 2 primary wins outright. If no candidate reaches that mark, the top two vote-getters will advance to a Nov. 3 runoff. In tight races, final results may not be clear for weeks.<\/p>\n

Voter turnout appeared strong Tuesday, with Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder\/County Clerk Dean Logan reporting<\/a> earlier in the day that at around 2 p.m., more than 100,000 voters had cast a ballot in person and nearly 1 million mail-in ballots had been received \u2014 about three percentage points higher than the June 2022 gubernatorial primary election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson stormed ahead in early returns Tuesday night, overshadowing six little-known rivals and potentially…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[98979,204,142196,131,133,142197,132,73547,15766],"class_list":["post-346766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-city-of-long-beach","tag-election","tag-lb-mayor","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-mayors-race","tag-long-beach-news","tag-primary","tag-rex-richardson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}