Matsui had earned a spot on the November ballot<\/a> after the latest results were posted.<\/p>\nSacramento City Council member and fellow Democrat Mai Vang returned to second place with 28.5%, after being briefly and narrowly bumped to third by Republican challenger Zachariah Wooden. He is now at 22.6%. <\/p>\n
About 65% of votes were counted as of 4 p.m. Friday<\/p>\n
An incumbent with 10 terms under her belt, Matsui took the early lead when polls closed on Tuesday\u2019s primary election in California\u2019s 7th Congressional District.<\/p>\n
The top two winners from June will advance to November\u2019s election ballot.<\/p>\n
Proposition 50, a measure aimed at giving California Democrats a leg up in statewide congressional races, redrew the boundaries of District 7 and made it a shade more purple.<\/p>\n
Candidates are currently vying for a seat that includes Sacramento\u2019s central city, South Sacramento, Elk Grove, El Dorado Hills, Placerville and Galt.<\/p>\n
![\"Doris](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/DSC02857-1024x575.jpg.webp\")
Doris Matsui speaks with supporters at a campaign party at Sellands Cafe & Bar in Sacramento on June 2, 2026. (Tyler Bastine)<\/p>\n
Matsui stays ahead, Vang hangs on<\/p>\n
Matsui had about a 6-point edge over Vang after Election Night. Across Sacramento, El Dorado and San Joaquin counties, almost half of all votes were counted by the close of Election Day.<\/p>\n
Updated counts released Thursday kept Matsui ahead, with 30.2% of the vote.<\/p>\n
But a spike from El Dorado County helped move Wooden, a student who just finished his third year at Sacramento State, less than a quarter of a percentage point above Vang.<\/p>\n
The Friday results included a fresh batch of numbers from Sacramento County, which accounts for the largest portion of District 7 and is where the Democratic candidates have the advantage.<\/p>\n
Vang jumped back over Wooden by six points.<\/p>\n
Age and immigration<\/p>\n
For many voters, the race to represent California\u2019s capital hinged on questions of age versus experience.<\/p>\n
Matsui, 81, urged voters to get behind her decades of experience. Vang, 41, argued the region is ready for a new generation at the helm. Wooden, 24, contended that his youth offers him better understanding of young Californians\u2019 concerns.<\/p>\n
The two Democrats in the race have duked it out over federal immigration policy.<\/p>\n
Coming from a family of Hmong refugees from Laos, Vang took issue with the incumbent\u2019s efforts so far to combat immigration policies and actions from the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I don\u2019t have the luxury of waiting on the sidelines while our democracy is under attack,\u201d Vang said at an April campaign event.<\/p>\n
Matsui, born in a 1944 internment camp, has held at least four news conferences outside the John Moss Federal Building in Sacramento, where immigrants were being detained.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t have to tell me about injustice,\u201d Matsui told a group of voters in May.<\/p>\n
Felicia Alvarez contributed to this reporting.<\/p>\n
Savannah Kuchar\u00a0is a reporter covering education. She came to Sacramento to be a part of the Abridged team and contribute to a crucial local news source.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Abridged version: U.S. Rep. Doris Matsui continues to lead the race to represent Sacramento in Congress. As…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-349025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349025","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=349025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}