This report has been updated to include the latest results of the ballot counting across California, as reported to the Secretary of State as of 6:47pm, June 11.
As the counting of ballots in the contentious primary battle for California governor moved this week towards a likely close, the outcome became more clear: Democrat Xavier Becerra emerged as the solid winner, Republican Steve Hilton held a second-place position and Democrat Tom Steyer’s post-election rally fell short of a runoff position.
Becerra and Hilton would face each other, Democrat versus Republican, on Nov. 3.
As the pace of Steyer's gains slowed into the home stretch, Hilton's vote total, while slipping farther from Becerra, proved to be too insurmountable for the billionaire Democrat.
Today's count showed the former Fox News host and British immigrant still leading by nearly 200,000 votes, with fewer than 300,000 remaining to be counted on Friday.
The Associated Press on Tuesday night determined that Hilton had a big enough lead over Steyer at that point to move on, predicting that Hilton would join Becerra on the General Election ballot.
That same night, Steyer did the math – and wrote a concession letter to his supporters, which he posted on X, saying it was clear he lacked the votes needed to make the runoff.
"It’s now clear that we do not have the votes necessary to advance to the general election in November," Steyer wrote on X.
Steyer, who spent more than $213 million of his own fortune on his gubernatorial campaign, previously lost a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020.
In his post, Steyer said a PAC funded by major energy companies to oppose his candidacy played a major role in the failure of his candidacy.
"By spending $55 million – the most ever against a single candidate in a California primary – they showed the lengths they would go to in order to protect a status quo that only serves them and their profits," he wrote, referring to opposition spending by corporations including Chevron, PG&E and Meta.
"This campaign proved that business-as-usual depends on politics-as-usual, and there is no going back," Steyer wrote. "We must continue to fight for a system where democracy serves Californians, not corporations – and where you do not have to be a billionaire to run on single-payer, or on breaking up monopolies, or on calling out a corrupt system when you see it."
Three days after the Primary Election, the AP had already declared that Becerra had enough votes to move forward.
The California Secretary of State’s Elections Division today estimated that 94% of all ballots had been processed by the end of today’s count.
Steyer on June 7 had told his supporters: “We’re going to wait until every ballot is counted. We’re going to give democracy time to work. And we know we finished really strong.”
A similar 100,000-vote swing at the top of the ballot on June 5, the fourth day of vote counting, had bounced Becerra back into a slim 39,426-vote lead over Hilton, which then grew steadily as more mail ballots were processed.
Tonight’s report showed that Becerra – who had trailed Hilton by more than 120,000 votes the day after the June 2 Primary Election – had amassed 2,504,645 votes (28.0%), compared to Hilton’s 2,225,051 votes (24.9%).
At the current pace, the final unofficial count could mostly wrap up Friday, June 12.
Here are the results of the leaders reported at 6:47pm, June 11:
- Xavier Becerra 2,504,645 28.0% (+279,594)
- Steve Hilton 2,225,051 24.9% (+199,401)
- Tom Steyer 2,025,650 22.6%
- Chad Bianco 905,734 10.2%
- Katie Porter 388,829 4.3%
- Matt Mahan 318,130 3.6%
Election officials reported that approximately 9.15 million votes had been processed through June 11, and estimated another 291,000 remained to be processed.
The estimated 40% turnout is higher than most non-presidential year primary statewide elections, which have been around 35%.
On Sunday, June 7, President Trump called the California primary “a rigged election.”
In a Meet the Press interview on NBC, Trump told Kristen Welker, “They’re cheating on the election,” then refused to offer any evidence.
After the reporter repeated a request for evidence, Trump then told Welker: “Your elections are crooked, and you’re crooked, Meet the Press is crooked, and so is ABC and CBS and CNN – you’re one-sided, crooked networks.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom's response to Trump’s unfounded claim? "There isn't a bigger sore loser in the country," the governor wrote on social media.
California state law requires county elections officials to report final official results to the Secretary of State by July 3. The Secretary of State has until July 10 to certify the results of the election.
