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Padilla: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% >90% Meuser: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% | ||||||||||||||||
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Elections in California |
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Two 2022 United States Senate elections in California were held concurrently on November 8, 2022, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of California. There were two ballot items for the same Class 3 seat: a special election to fill the seat for the final weeks of the 117th United States Congress (ending on January 3, 2023), and a general election for a full term (beginning on the same day), starting in the 118th United States Congress.
Incumbent Democratic Senator Alex Padilla was appointed in 2021 by Governor Gavin Newsom to fill the vacancy created by Kamala Harris's election to the vice presidency in 2020, and he sought a full term. [1] [2] A jungle primary for each of the terms took place on June 7. [3] The top two candidates in each primary, regardless of party, advanced to the special and regular general elections in November. With his advancement out of the primary, Mark P. Meuser ( /ˈmɔɪʒər/ MOY-zhər) became the first Republican since 2012 to advance to the general election, as both the 2016 and 2018 Senate elections solely featured Democrats as the top two candidates. This race was a rematch between the two, as both had previously run for the secretary of state in 2018. Padilla won both elections with more than 60% of the vote. [4] He became the first Latino elected to the U.S. Senate from California, and the first male elected to the Senate from California since Pete Wilson was re-elected in 1988 and the first male elected to the Class 3 Senate seat from California since Alan Cranston was re-elected in 1986. [5] This was the first time since 1988 where both major party nominees for a Senate seat in California were men and was also the first time where both major party nominees for the Class 3 Senate seat in California were men since 1986.
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Incumbent senator Alex Padilla was appointed to the job in January 2021 following Kamala Harris's election to the office of Vice President of the United States. [43] Following his appointment, Padilla quickly began to focus on his 2022 election campaign, as the fact that he has not been elected to the position means that he has a relatively low profile. [9] Padilla's election strategy focused on advocating for progressive policies and building ties with left-wing organizations that had a poor relationship with California's other Senator, Dianne Feinstein. [9] [44] The potential Democratic opponent to Padilla considered most likely to join the race was U.S. Representative Ro Khanna, a staunchly left-wing Democrat who rose to prominence as the co-chair of the Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign, and who had a loyal base of support from California's Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities. [9] [10] On August 9, 2021, Khanna announced that he would be endorsing Padilla for election, which was viewed as likely ending any possibility that Padilla would face a serious Democratic opponent. [45] It was noted by the San Francisco Chronicle that it was considered unlikely that Padilla would face any serious Republican opponent, as California's heavily Democratic lean caused potentially strong candidates, such as U.S. Representatives Mike Garcia and Young Kim, to prefer to remain in their positions rather than launch a long-shot Senate run. [46]
In April 2022, billionaire businessman Dan O'Dowd entered the race, launching a $650,000 ad campaign. [8] O'Dowd's goal with this ad buy, and with entering the race in the first place, was to "make computers safe for humanity" [47] [48] and draw the attention of the public and politicians to the dangers of Tesla's unfinished Full Self-Driving software being rolled out to 100,000 cars on public roads. [49]
Poll source | Date(s) administered | Sample size [b] | Margin of error | Daphne Bradford (NPP) | James Bradley (R) | Jon Elist (R) | Myron Hall (R) | Mark Meuser (R) | Dan O'Dowd (D) | Alex Padilla (D) | Timothy Ursich Jr. (D) | Undecided |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Berkeley IGS [50] | May 24–31, 2022 | 3,438 (LV) | ± 2.2% | 1% | 7% | 5% | 2% | 14% | 3% | 44% | 2% | 21% |
SurveyUSA [51] | May 13–15, 2022 | 709 (LV) | ± 4.5% | 1% | 8% | 7% | 3% | 11% | 6% | 40% | 2% | 22% |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Alex Padilla (incumbent) | 3,740,582 | 55.0 | |
Republican | Mark P. Meuser | 1,503,480 | 22.1 | |
Republican | James P. Bradley | 472,052 | 6.9 | |
Republican | Jon Elist | 403,722 | 5.9 | |
Democratic | Timothy J. Ursich | 226,447 | 3.3 | |
Democratic | Dan O'Dowd | 191,531 | 2.8 | |
Republican | Myron L. Hall | 143,038 | 2.1 | |
No party preference | Daphne Bradford | 112,191 | 1.6 | |
Peace and Freedom | John Parker (write-in) | 9,951 | 0.1 | |
No party preference | Irene Ratliff (write-in) | 12 | 0.0 | |
Total votes | 6,803,006 | 100.0 |
Poll source | Date(s) administered | Sample size [b] | Margin of error | (D) Akinyemi Agbede | (I) Daphne Bradford | (R) James Bradley | (G) James Conn | (R) Jon Elist | (G) Pamela Elizondo | (I) Eleanor Garcia | (I) Don Grundmann | (R) Myron Hall | (I) Deon Jenkins | (R) Sarah Sun Liew | (R) Robert Lucero Jr. | (R) Mark Meuser | (D) Dan O'Dowd | (D) Alex Padilla | (PF) John Parker | (R) Enrique Petris | (D) Douglas Pierce | (D) Obaidul Huq Pirjada | (R) Chuck Smith | (R) Carlos Tapia | (D) Timothy Ursich Jr. | (R) Cordie Williams | Undecided |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Berkeley IGS [50] | May 24–31, 2022 | 3,438 (LV) | ± 2.2% | 1% | 0% | 3% | 0% | 2% | 1% | 0% | 0% | 1% | 0% | 1% | 0% | 11% | 1% | 42% | 1% | 0% | 1% | 1% | 6% | 1% | 1% | 2% | 22% |
SurveyUSA [51] | May 13–15, 2022 | 709 (LV) | ± 4.5% | 2% | 0% | 9% | 1% | 4% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 3% | 0% | 3% | 2% | 4% | 1% | 36% | 0% | 1% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 24% |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Alex Padilla (incumbent) | 3,725,544 | 54.1 | |
Republican | Mark P. Meuser | 1,028,374 | 14.9 | |
Republican | Cordie Williams | 474,321 | 6.9 | |
Republican | Jon Elist | 289,716 | 4.2 | |
Republican | Chuck Smith | 266,766 | 3.9 | |
Republican | James P. Bradley | 235,788 | 3.4 | |
Democratic | Douglas Howard Pierce | 116,771 | 1.7 | |
Peace and Freedom | John Parker | 105,477 | 1.5 | |
Republican | Sarah Sun Liew | 76,994 | 1.1 | |
Democratic | Dan O'Dowd | 74,916 | 1.1 | |
Democratic | Akinyemi Agbede | 70,971 | 1.0 | |
Republican | Myron L. Hall | 66,161 | 1.0 | |
Democratic | Timothy J. Ursich | 58,348 | 0.8 | |
Republican | Robert George Lucero Jr. | 53,398 | 0.8 | |
Green | James "Henk" Conn | 35,983 | 0.5 | |
No party preference | Eleanor Garcia [c] | 34,625 | 0.5 | |
Republican | Carlos Guillermo Tapia | 33,870 | 0.5 | |
Green | Pamela Elizondo | 31,981 | 0.5 | |
Republican | Enrique Petris | 31,883 | 0.5 | |
Democratic | Obaidul Huq Pirjada | 27,889 | 0.4 | |
No party preference | Daphne Bradford | 26,900 | 0.4 | |
No party preference | Don J. Grundmann [d] | 10,181 | 0.1 | |
No party preference | Deon D. Jenkins | 6,936 | 0.1 | |
No party preference | Mark A. Ruzon (write-in) | 206 | 0.0 | |
Republican | Lijun Zhou (write-in) | 58 | 0.0 | |
No party preference | Irene Ratliff (write-in) | 7 | 0.0 | |
No party preference | Marc Alexander Roth (write-in) | 1 | 0.0 | |
Total votes | 6,884,065 | 100.0 |
Source | Ranking | As of |
---|---|---|
The Cook Political Report [55] | Solid D | March 4, 2022 |
Inside Elections [56] | Solid D | April 1, 2022 |
Sabato's Crystal Ball [57] | Safe D | March 1, 2022 |
Politico [58] | Solid D | April 1, 2022 |
RCP [59] | Safe D | February 24, 2022 |
Fox News [60] | Solid D | May 12, 2022 |
DDHQ [61] | Solid D | July 20, 2022 |
538 [62] | Solid D | June 30, 2022 |
The Economist [63] | Safe D | September 7, 2022 |
Special election
Poll source | Date(s) administered | Sample size [b] | Margin of error | Alex Padilla (D) | Mark Meuser (R) | Undecided |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Research Co. [64] | November 4–6, 2022 | 450 (LV) | ± 4.6% | 59% | 35% | 6% |
SurveyUSA [65] | October 7–10, 2022 | 1,013 (LV) | ± 4.4% | 56% | 34% | 10% |
Regular election
Poll source | Date(s) administered | Sample size [b] | Margin of error | Alex Padilla (D) | Mark Meuser (R) | Undecided |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Research Co. [64] | November 4–6, 2022 | 450 (LV) | ± 4.6% | 60% | 35% | 5% |
USC [66] | October 30 – November 2, 2022 | 802 (RV) | ± 3.5% | 63% | 37% | – |
ActiVote [67] | July 22 – October 20, 2022 | 208 (LV) | ± 7.0% | 65% | 35% | – |
SurveyUSA [65] | October 7–10, 2022 | 1,013 (LV) | ± 4.4% | 56% | 34% | 11% |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Alex Padilla (incumbent) | 6,559,303 | 60.89% | N/A | |
Republican | Mark Meuser | 4,212,446 | 39.11% | N/A | |
Total votes | 10,771,749 | 100.00% | N/A | ||
Democratic hold |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Alex Padilla (incumbent) | 6,621,616 | 61.06% | N/A | |
Republican | Mark Meuser | 4,222,025 | 38.94% | N/A | |
Total votes | 10,843,641 | 100.00% | N/A | ||
Democratic hold |
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Padilla won 42 of 52 congressional districts in the regular election, including two that elected Republicans. [69]
Alejandro "Alex" Padilla is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from California, a seat he has held since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, Padilla served as the 30th secretary of state of California from 2015 to 2021 and was a member of the California State Senate and the Los Angeles City Council.
Elections in California are held to fill various local, state and federal seats. In California, regular elections are held every even year ; however, some seats have terms of office that are longer than two years, so not every seat is on the ballot in every election. Special elections may be held to fill vacancies at other points in time. Recall elections can also be held. Additionally, statewide initiatives, legislative referrals and referendums may be on the ballot.
The 2016 United States Senate election in California was held on November 8, 2016, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of California, concurrently with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
The 2018 California gubernatorial election was held on November 6, 2018, to elect the governor of California, concurrently with elections for the rest of California's executive branch, as well as elections to the United States Senate and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. Incumbent Democratic governor Jerry Brown was ineligible to run for re-election for a third consecutive term due to term limits from the Constitution of California. The race was between the incumbent Democratic lieutenant governor Gavin Newsom and businessman John H. Cox, a Republican, who qualified for the general election after placing first and second in the June 5, 2018, primary election.
The 2018 United States Senate election in California took place on November 6, 2018, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent California, concurrently with other elections to the United States Senate, elections to the United States House of Representatives, and various state and local elections.
The 2022 United States Senate elections were held on November 8, 2022, concurrently with other midterm elections at the federal, state, and local levels. Regularly scheduled elections were held for 34 of the 100 seats in the U.S. Senate, the winners of which will serve 6-year terms beginning with the 118th United States Congress. 2 special elections were held to complete unexpired terms. While pundits considered the Republican Party a slight favorite to gain control of the Senate, the Democrats outperformed expectations and expanded the majority they had held since 2021, gaining a seat for a functioning 51–49 majority.
The 2018 California Superintendent of Public Instruction primary election was held on June 5, 2018, to elect the Superintendent of Public Instruction of California. Unlike most other elections in California, the superintendent is not elected under the state's "top-two primary". Instead, the officially nonpartisan position is elected via a general election, with a runoff held on November 6, 2018, because no candidate received a majority of the vote.
The 2018 California Secretary of State election was held on November 6, 2018, to elect the California Secretary of State. Incumbent Democratic Secretary Alex Padilla won re-election to a second term.
The 2024 United States Senate elections in California were held on November 5, 2024, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the state of California. There were two ballot items for the same Class 1 seat: a special election to fill the seat for the final two months of the 118th United States Congress, and a regular general election for a full term that starts on January 3, 2025, starting in the 119th United States Congress. This was the second time in a row for this to happen.
The 2020 United States House of Representatives elections in California were held on November 3, 2020, to elect the 53 U.S. representatives from the state of California, one from each of the state's 53 congressional districts. The elections coincided with the 2020 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the United States House of Representatives, elections to the United States Senate, and various state and local elections.
The 2022 California gubernatorial election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the governor of California, with the statewide top-two primary election taking place on June 7, 2022. Incumbent Democratic Party Governor Gavin Newsom was re-elected to a second term after surviving a recall election in 2021, during his first term.
The 2022 United States House of Representatives elections in California were held on November 8, 2022, to elect representatives for the 52 seats in California. This marked the first time in the state's history where it lost a seat.
The 2021 California gubernatorial recall election was a special recall election that began in August 2021 and concluded on September 14, 2021, when California voters chose not to recall incumbent Democratic governor Gavin Newsom, elected for the term January 2019 to January 2023.
The 2022 California State Senate election was held on Tuesday, November 8, with the primary election having been held on Thursday, June 7. Voters in the 20 even-numbered districts of the California State Senate elected their representatives. The elections coincided with elections for other offices, including the state assembly.
The 2022 California elections took place on November 8, 2022. The statewide direct primary election was held on June 7, 2022.
The 2022 California Attorney General election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the Attorney General of California. Incumbent Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta was appointed to the office on April 23, 2021, following the resignation of Xavier Becerra to become the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. Bonta won a full term.
The 2022 California Insurance Commissioner election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the Insurance Commissioner of California. Under California's nonpartisan blanket primary law, all candidates appeared on the same ballot, regardless of party. In the primary, voters may vote for any candidate, regardless of their party affiliation. The top two finishers — regardless of party — advanced to the general election in November, even if a candidate managed to receive a majority of the votes cast in the primary election. Incumbent Democratic Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara won re-election to a second term.
The 2022 California Secretary of State election took place on November 8, 2022, to elect the Secretary of State of California. The primary election was held on June 7, 2022.
The 2024 California State Senate election took place on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, with the primary election being held on March 5, 2024. Voters in the 20 odd-numbered districts of the California State Senate will elect their representatives. The elections coincided with the elections for other offices, including the state Assembly.
The 2024 United States House of Representatives elections in California were held on November 5, 2024, to elect the 52 U.S. representatives from the State of California, one from all 52 of the state's congressional districts. The elections coincided with the 2024 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the House of Representatives, elections to the United States Senate, and various state and local elections.
Official campaign websites