November 3rd California State Election Results

The national blue wave that swept Democrats into control of the U.S. House and Senate extended to California in the Tuesday, November 3 election, strengthening the party’s dominance in Sacramento. Republicans lost four Assembly seats and two state Senate seats, expanding the Democratic supermajorities in both legislative chambers. The Democrats also swept the statewide constitutional offices. Several legislative races remain too close to call, with the final partisan balance awaiting additional vote counts in the coming days. The California Secretary of State, Shirley Weber, must certify the statewide results by December 11, 2026.  

Democrats retained control of every Constitutional Office in a statewide sweep.

Governor: Xavier Becerra (D) vs. Steve Hilton (R)

Former Congressman, California Attorney General, & Federal HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra easily defeated Republican Steve Hilton 63.9% to 36.1%. Hilton was a Fox News contributor and senior advisor to former U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron. 

Lieutenant Governor: Fiona Ma (D) vs. Gloria Romero (R)

California’s State Treasurer and now second female Lieutenant Governor elect coasted to election 63.8% to 36.2%. Romero is the former Senate Democratic Majority Leader in the Senate but changed party affiliation several years ago.

Controller: Incumbent Malia Cohen (D) vs. Herb Morgan (R)

Malia Cohen sailed to re-election easily and defeated a life-long Californian and finance professional Herb Morgan 63.8% to 36.2%.

Secretary of State: Incumbent Shirley Weber (D) vs. Donald Wagner (R)

Incumbent Shirley Weber was appointed to the Secretary of State (SOS) office by Governor Newsom after former SOS Alex Padilla was appointed by Newsom to be United States Senator. Padilla replaced Vice President Kamala Harris when she was sworn into office in January 2021. Weber easily won her elected office in 2022 and coasted to victory against Orange County Supervisor and former Orange County Assemblyman Donald Wagner 64.7% - 35.3%.

Treasurer: Eleni Kounalakis (D) vs. Jennifer Hawks (R)

California Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis easily defeated businesswoman Jenny Hawks       64% - 36% in the race for State Treasurer.

Attorney General: Incumbent Rob Bonta (D) vs. Michael Gates (R)

Incumbent AG Rob Bonta cruised to win reelection this year beating Republican Michael Gates 63.8 % - 36.2%. Bonta was first appointed to the top state law enforcement job by Governor Newsom. Newsom made this appointment when President Biden tapped former AG Xavier Becerra to be his Secretary of the federal Department of Health and Human Services. Gates had experience as a private attorney and lawyer with the U.S. Department of Justice.

Insurance Commissioner: Ben Allen (D) and Jane Kim (D).

Former San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim beat out State Senator, Ben Allen, for Insurance Commissioner 52% - 48%. Kim was a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in California, representing District 6. She left office in 2019. Allen won endorsements from the California Democratic Party and U.S. Senators Padilla and Adam Schiff. Allen had served 12 years in the State Senate where he was known primarily for environmental causes including plastic recycling.

Superintendent of Public Instruction: Richard Barrera (NP) and Sonja Shaw (NP)

In this non-partisan race, the San Diego Unified School Board President, Richard Barrera, defeated Sonja Shaw 57.1 % - 42.9 %. Sonja Shaw is the president of the Chino Valley Unified School District Board of Education.

Board of Equalization: All four seats were up for election in 2026. The fifth member of the BOE is the State Controller – Malia Cohen who easily won reelection.

District 1: Nelson Esparza (D) defeated Shannon Grove (R) 53.8% to 46.2%.

District 2: Incumbent Sally Lieber (D) defeated John Pimentel (D) 59.7% to 40.3%.

District 3: Mike Gipson (D) defeated Samuel Sukaton (D) 59.5% to 40.5%.

District 4: Tom Umberg (D) defeated Denis Bilodeau (R) 56.4% to 43.6%.

The new partisan make-up of the BOE is four Democrats and no Republicans. Sally Lieber, Tom Umberg, Mike Gipson, are all current or former state legislators.
 

Legislature

At the time of writing this update, several California State Assembly and Senate races are not yet sufficiently counted to declare a winner. Most races will be updated by the end of this week, and winners and losers will be more easily identified. Despite that, we know that the California Democrats have held onto their supermajority in the Senate and the Assembly and increased their margins significantly. The practical effect of this supermajority is to make it harder to stop majority vote bills as well as stopping tax and fee bills that have a two-thirds vote requirement. It also means the majority party in the Legislature can override a gubernatorial veto at will (almost never happens).

State Senate

Going into election night for the 40-Member State Senate, Democrats currently held a 29-10 supermajority with one District vacant. Senate District 10 became vacant when Aisha Wahab won a special election for California’s 14th Congressional District and resigned after being sworn in. All even-numbered Senate Districts were up for election in November, while the odd-numbered Senate Districts are not on the ballot until 2028.

The Democrats appear to have picked up two seats. In Senate District 36, Orange County Democrat Chris Duncan is ahead of Tony Strickland 50.2% to 49.8% with ballots still being counted. In Senate District 40 San Diego Democrat Mara Elliott flipped Senator Brian Jones Senate seat 52.5% to 47.5%.

State Assembly

Going into the November election, the 80-member Assembly had 60 Democrats, 19 Republicans, and one vacancy. AD 3 was vacant after James Gallagher won a special election for California’s 1st Congressional District and resigned to be sworn in.

Democrats had a good evening by flipping four Republican held seats: AD 7 (Hoover), AD 36 (Gonzalez), AD 47 (Wallis), AD 58 (Castillo).

There are three more that are too close to call AD 70 (Ta), AD 74 (Davies), and AD 72 (Dixon). Democrats have increased their supermajority to 64-16 pending the outcome of the three too close to call. The outcome in these races will be clearer next week as outstanding ballots are processed.

Statewide Ballot Initiatives and Referenda

The fourteen propositions on the California ballot included proposed constitutional amendments, initiative statutes, and bond issues. Record amounts of funds were spent by various special interests trying to convince voters to raise taxes, support new housing initiatives, and protect taxpayers, among others. This trend of fourteen or more ballot initiatives on the November ballot is likely to continue as special interests face a more difficult legislative environment. They may look to the initiative process to get relief in policy changes they cannot get in Sacramento.

LRCA: Legislatively referred constitutional amendment

LRSS: Legislatively referred state statute

BI: Bond issue

CISS: Citizen initiated state statute

CICA: Citizen initiated constitutional amendment

CICA/SS: Combined initiated constitutional amendment and state statute

Type	Title	Subject	Description	Status
BI	Proposition 1	Multi-family Housing; Bonds	Issue $11.25 billion in bonds to fund Multifamily Housing Program, CalVet Home Loan Program, and youth housing	Yes 59.4% to 40.6%
LRCA	Proposition 2	Budget stabilization	Increase the Budget Stabilization Account (BSA) cap from 10% of general fund revenue to 20% and excluding deposits into the BSA from the Gann Limit	Yes 59.6% to 40.4%
CICA	Proposition 3	Higher education funding; Public education funding; Income taxes	Renew the additional income taxes enacted with the approval of Proposition 30 in 2012 that fund education and early childhood programs.	Yes 58.7% to 41.3%
LRSS	Proposition 4	Election administration; Campaign finance	Allow the state and local governments to create programs that provide candidates with public funds under spending limits and eligibility rules	No 52% to 48%
LRCA	Proposition 5	State executive structure; Recall	Eliminate the successor election when a state officer is recalled, thereby leaving the office vacant until it is filled according to state law	Yes 50.3% to 49.7%
CISS	Proposition 37	Loan Program For Middle-Income Buyers	Creates Loan Program For Middle-Income Buyers Of Qualified New Homes. Initiative Statute.	Yes 61% to 39%
CISS	Proposition 38	Healthcare facility; Healthcare governance; Bonds; Vaccinations and disease	Issue $8.4 billion in general obligation bonds to fund immunology and immunotherapy research	Yes 55.7% 44.3%
CICA	Proposition 39	Election administration; Voter ID	Require voters to present government-issued identification when casting ballots and require election officials to use government data to confirm voter citizenship and report verification rates	No 58.6% to 41.4%
CICA/SS	Proposition 40	Income taxes; Public health insurance “Billionaire Tax”	Levy a one-time 5% tax on the accumulated wealth of taxpayers and trusts with covered assets valued over $1 billion to fund state health care programs, food assistance programs, and public education	No 55.6% to 44.4%
CICA	Proposition 41	Tax administration; Revenue and spending limits	Require state laws or ballot initiatives levying a new special tax enacted after January 1, 2026, to require the government entities or departments receiving revenue from the new tax to eliminate their lowest-performing programs and reinvest those savings in higher-performing programs	No 52.4% to 47.6%
CICA	Proposition 42	Income taxes	Prohibit the enactment of new taxes after January 1, 2026, on ownership or accumulation of retirement holdings, individually owned assets, and other forms of personal savings	Yes 54.3% to 45.7%
LRCA	Proposition 43	Supermajority; Local government	Require two-thirds vote by electorate to enact, extend, or increase local special tax initiatives and prohibit local governments and ballot initiatives from enacting ad valorem property taxes except those authorized elsewhere in the state constitution	No 54.9% to 45.1%
CISS	Proposition 44	Business; Healthcare governance	Prohibit healthcare clinics, specifically federally qualified health centers, and related organizations, from spending less than 90% of their annual revenue on mission-related purposes	No 81.8% to 18.2%
CISS	Proposition 45	Administrative powers; Land use	Establish timelines for local and state agencies to review plans and solicit public comments for essential projects, such as housing, improvements to water supply, transportation, energy, and facilities for health and public safety	No 54.1% to 45.9%

Congressional Races

U.S. Senate: As of the election, there were 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats and two independents (who caucus with Democrats) with Vice President Vance giving the majority Republicans and extra tie breaking vote. As of the writing of this report, the partisan split of the United States Senate has shifted significantly giving Democrats a 54 to 44 majority with two more races too close to call. This is a net pick up of 7 seats including ones in red states such as Texas, Iowa, Ohio, and Kansas. There remain two races too close to call (Mississippi and Alaska).

Neither US Senators Alex Padilla nor Adam Schiff were on the ballot for reelection in 2026.

U.S. House of Representatives: All 435 U.S. House of Representatives seats were up for election. Going into the election night, Republicans held a majority with 218 seats, compared to 214. As of the writing of this report, the partisan split of the United States House of Representatives has shifted significantly giving Democrats a 244 to 151 majority with 40 more races too close to call. At this point, that is a net gain of 38 seats for the Democrats and this number is likely to increase as more votes are tallied in the coming days.

Democrats flipped five Republican-held seats in California to new Democratic seats: CD 1, CD 3, CD 22, CD 41, and CD 48.

Of special note, Former Assemblymember and independent Congressman, Kevin Kiley, lost his reelection bid in CD 6 to former Democratic state senator Richard Pan 57.5% to 42.5%. And former Assemblymember and Republican Congressman James Gallagher lost his reelection bid in CD 1 to State Senator Mike McGuire 57% to 43%.