Where key races stand for the 2024 general election in California: President, Congress, more

Get ready for eight months of candidates trading accusations, wooing big money and making fantastic promises. The general election season has begun.

Tuesday’s big winners included President Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Steve Garvey, Adam Schiff and others. Now the marathon campaigns for president, U.S. Senate, House and lots of local and offices are underway, all aimed at the Nov. 5 general election.

California will decide whether Biden or Trump gets its 54 electoral votes for president, an important haul as 270 are needed to elect. It’ll elect a new U.S. senator, either Schiff or Garvey. The fate of some vulnerable U.S. House members could determine who controls that chamber next year. And Sacramento will pick its first new mayor in eight years.

Many uncertainties loom.

Can Republicans finally break the Democrats’ decades-long streak of winning every statewide office? Who will win the toss-up battle for a congressional seat in the Central Valley? Will frustrated voters stay home in big numbers?

Tuesday’s primary results — some of which are not final — offer important clues. The top two finishers in each race move on to the Nov. 5 election.

Here’s a rundown of what happens next:

President

Both former President Trump and Biden need to be formally nominated by their parties at conventions this summer.

Both took big, probably decisive steps toward that goal Tuesday. Both easily won their California primaries.

Trump had 79% in the GOP primary, with about half the votes counted. He should easily get the state’s 169 convention delegates. A candidate needs 1,125 to be nominated. Biden was winning 89% of the votes in the Democratic primary.

He starts the general election race as a strong favorite to win California’s electoral votes.

Biden got 63.5% of the California vote against Trump in 2020, and no Republican presidential candidate has won the state since George H.W. Bush in 1988.

U.S. Senate

Garvey, the former all-star Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres first baseman, has never held public office and barely campaigned in the weeks before the primary.

But he’ll face Schiff, the veteran Democratic congressman from the Los Angeles area. Schiff will start as the favorite, as California last elected a Republican senator in 1988, and no GOP candidate for any statewide office has won since 2006.

Voters were choosing Senate nominees for two different terms. For the full six-year term that begins in January, Garvey and Schiff each had about one-third of the vote with about half counted.

in a separate vote to fill the remaining months of incumbent Democratic Sen. Laphonza Butler’s term, Garvey had a slight lead. The November winner will fill that seat until January.

One bright side for Garvey: Exit polls showed him winning 41% of the state’s independent voters to Schiff’s 22%.

U.S. House

Democrats need a net gain of four seats to win control of the House next, and analysts see six California seats in play, five now held by Republicans and the one that Rep. Katie Porter, D-Irvine, left to run for the Senate.

Inside Elections, a nonpartisan political analysis firm, sees two as tossups, the seats now held by Rep. John Duarte, R-Modesto, and Mike Garcia, R-Santa Clarita.

Duarte is slated for a rematch of the 2022 race with former Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced. Duarte won that race by fewer than 600 votes.

Republicans may have gotten a break in one of the races. Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford, could have been left out of the top two in a race featuring two prominent Democrats. But former Assemblyman Rudy Salas, D-Bakersfield, and Valadao made the top two and will engage in a 2022 rematch this fall.

Valadao won a close race, but this is a district Biden won by 13 percentage points in 2020.

Proposition 1

The statewide ballot measure pushed hard by Gov. Gavin Newsom was winning, but barely.

With about half the votes counted, the plan to provide billions of dollars to help the state’s homeless population had a little more than 50% of voters in favor and about 49.8% of voters in disapproval.

Voters were asked to approve a $6.38 billion bond that would help build more facilities for housing for homeless people or those with mental health or substance abuse issues.

About two-thirds would go to build new facilities to help people with mental health and substance abuse treatment, while the remainder would help housing.

It’s too close to call.

Sacramento Mayor

As of Wednesday morning, unofficial results reported close to midnight on Tuesday show three leading candidates for Sacramento Mayor.

While Richard Pan leads the race with about 23.67% of Sacramento County voter approval, candidate Steve Hansen follows closely with 23.66% of votes.

Kevin McCarty is third in the lead with 23.18% of voter approval. Flo Cofer had just over 21% of the vote.

Assembly and State Senate

Assembly

California interests group spent nearly $1 million in favor of Sacramento Assembly candidate Maggy Krell, a Democratic deputy attorney general.

Early results from the primary elections indicate that Krell leads in the 6th District race to replace Assemblyman Kevin McCarty. In the Sacramento Assembly race, Nikki Ellis and Preston Romero — both republicans — were vying for second place.

State Senate

A low-turnout primary election with mostly older, conservative individuals could open the possibility for a Republican candidate to advance to the November election and compete with a Democrat for State Senate.

In the Stockton Senate race, Republican James Shoemaker led the race, and Republican Jerry McNerney followed in second.

In the Napa Senate race, former West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon led the race.

The Bee’s Lindsey Holden contributed to this story.

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