Democrat Xavier Becerra and Trump-backed Republican Steve Hilton have secured the top two spots in California’s highly anticipated gubernatorial primary and will advance to the November general election, The Associated Press has called.
The California primary took place on June 2, but the state is notorious for its slow vote counting process and it took days before the AP determined, on June 5, that Becerra had earned enough votes to advance to the general election. The AP only determined that Hilton had secured enough votes on Tuesday, a week after voters went to the polls.
Billionaire philanthropist Tom Steyer, another Democratic candidate who also polled among the leading contenders in the lead-up to the primary, was on track to garner the third highest support from voters. The AP determined on Tuesday that there weren’t enough votes that had yet to be counted for Steyer to be able to catch up with Hilton.
Voters will be asked in November to pick between Becerra and Hilton to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom, who was barred from running for the office again because of term limits.
In California’s top-two primary system, the two candidates who receive the most votes advance to the November election—regardless of their political party.
Read More: How Does California’s ‘Jungle Primary’ Work?
Becerra advancing put to rest concerns that dogged Democrats for months that the party’s more numerous candidates might split the vote and allow Hilton and fellow Republican Chad Bianco to claim the two spots on the November ballot, resulting in the Democrats being locked out of the general election.
The results of the primary marked the culmination of a tumultuous race for those coveted top two spots. Earlier this year, then-Rep. Eric Swalwell appeared to be the Democratic frontrunner in the crowded race, but with less than two months until the primary, he suspended his campaign amid several reported allegations of sexual misconduct, which he denied. Swalwell’s exit sowed uncertainty about which candidate would ultimately pull ahead of the packed field of Democratic contenders—or whether they might all be bested by the two Republicans in the contest. Initially, experts speculated that Steyer, who unsuccessfully ran for President in the 2020 election, and Katie Porter, a former California Congresswoman, could take the lead among the Democrats.
But in the weeks leading up to the primary, Becerra, the Biden-era Health and Human Services Secretary, surged in the polls. Recent polling showed that Becerra, Steyer, and Hilton were ahead of the other candidates in the race, but it remained unclear as voters headed to the polls on June 2 who would come out on top.
While Hilton, who previously worked as a political strategist for former British Prime Minister David Cameron and who secured President Donald Trump’s endorsement in April, earned enough of the vote in the primary to advance, his chances of emerging victorious in November are slim: California is a blue stronghold, and has had a Democratic governor since 2011. The Cook Political Report rates the state’s governorship as “solid Democrat,” among the seats deemed least likely to flip this year.
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