By admin 
As of 8:46 p.m., Republican former Fox News host Steve Hilton won 26.2% of the vote, compared to 26.1% for Democrats Xavier Becerra and 19.5% for Tom Steyer, according to initial reports from the Secretary of State’s office.
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The outcome will also likely not be officially certified for weeks, due to the state’s notoriously slow vote count. The Secretary of State’s office did not affirm the results of the 2024 presidential race until that December.
Becerra supporters set up shop at LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes in downtown Los Angeles in an open-air venue featuring two open bars and three food trucks. High-profile proponents like Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas arrived early for a VIP party. The campaign also welcomed influencers, a nod to the role online personalities played in boosting their preferred candidates in the race.
Steyer’s festivities in San Francisco took place at the Regency Ballroom near the Tenderloin neighborhood. Union supporters from SEIU Local 2015 decked themselves out in “class traitor” baseball caps, a nod to Steyer’s populist platform promising to heavily tax the tech class.
The current race to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is term-limited and repeatedly declined to endorse a successor, has been historically expensive and unusually unpredictable.
Election results change throughout election night and in the days that follow as counties continue counting ballots. The Sacramento Bee regularly updates its coverage with the latest vote percentages as results are reported by the various jurisdictions. We use percentages in our stories instead of raw numbers, which can quickly become outdated.
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With more than $315 million in ad spending and reservations, the race is already the most expensive governor’s race on record in any state, according to an analysis conducted by the media tracking firm AdImpact. Nearly two-thirds of that spending came from Steyer, a former hedge fund manager turned progressive activist who has poured more than $200 million into his campaign.
A slew of the most established California Democrats decided to sit the race out, from former Vice President Kamala Harris to U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla. That left a swarm of lesser-known contenders jockeying to break out of the low double-digits heading into spring.
State party leaders pleaded with lower-polling candidates to drop out amid fears that two Republicans could advance out of Tuesday’s jungle primary, where the two highest vote getters will move on to the November general election. Those fears ebbed away in the last few weeks after one major campaign implosion and a flood of money surged into the race to sway voters via both traditional ads and new media platforms.
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Former Rep. Eric Swalwell seemed to be gathering momentum before multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct in early April. Swalwell denied the accusations but suspended his campaign and resigned from Congress.
His exit created an opening for Becerra, a former state attorney general who shot up in polls from the single-digits to frontrunner. Members of Newsom’s political team threw their weight behind Becerra and began fundraising on his behalf.
In the final weeks and closing debates, the race took a negative turn.
Becerra’s rivals played up his connection to a corruption case involving a former aide and advisor, though the former attorney general has not been accused of wrongdoing. And they drilled him for his tenure serving as U.S. secretary of health and human services under former President Joe Biden, when critics accused him of mismanaging a surge in migrants, some of whom were trafficked into child labor.
The candidates also piled on Steyer for his past investments in fossil fuels and private prisons, and for his current holdings in offshore private equity funds, accusing him of trying to buy his way into office.
By mid-May, several polls showed Becerra at the top of the pack for Democrats and Steyer in second place, with a series of other Democrats — former Rep. Katie Porter, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond — struggling to emerge from the single digits.
Hilton’s path to the top tier was simpler: In April, the Brit won an endorsement from President Donald Trump, helping him to consolidate GOP support against another Republican, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.
That endorsement could be an albatross if Hilton advances to the general election given Trump’s unpopularity in California; a Public Policy Institute of California poll released last week found just 25% of California adults approve of Trump’s performance as president.
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This story was originally published June 2, 2026 at 8:44 PM.