Races are close in California with many votes still to count

Supporters gather during a watch party for Xavier Becerra for Governor at LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes in downtown Los Angeles, June 2, 2026. (Mark Abramson/The New York Times)

By JILL COWAN and TIM BALK

Vote counting across California yielded little change Wednesday in the races for governor and mayor of Los Angeles, with a significant portion of the state’s mail-in ballots and election day vote still to be counted over the coming days, if not weeks.

In the marquee races, only Mayor Karen Bass had secured a spot in a November runoff election. Republican reality TV star Spencer Pratt saw his hold on second place ahead of Nithya Raman, a progressive City Council member, narrow slightly.

In the governor’s race, where two will also advance to November, former Fox News host Steve Hilton, a Republican, held a slim lead over Xavier Becerra, a former Biden administration official, with Tom Steyer, a progressive billionaire, who is running third. The race is already the most expensive contest for governor in U.S. history.

Millions of ballots had yet to be counted, with experts predicting that the outstanding vote would lean Democratic because many of the party’s voters remained undecided until election day. Nevertheless, President Donald Trump congratulated Hilton, his pick for the job, declaring him the “WINNER” in a social media post.

Here’s what else we’re covering:

— Montana: Sam Forstag, a union leader and former smokejumper, won the Democratic primary for a House seat. He will face Aaron Flint, a local radio host backed by Trump, in November.

— South Dakota: Gov. Larry Rhoden — who ascended to the office last year when Kristi Noem resigned to join Trump’s Cabinet — advanced to a July runoff for the Republican nomination for governor against Toby Doeden, a businessman.

— Pelosi’s seat: Scott Wiener, a state senator, and Connie Chan, a San Francisco supervisor, were the top two finishers in the open primary to represent San Francisco in Congress after former Speaker Nancy Pelosi retires.

— Data center ban: Voters in a suburb in the Los Angeles area appear to have approved a ban on data centers. Monterey Park is believed to be the first city to do so.