California voting wraps up, uncertain and mixed results for Democrats

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While Republicans celebrated a red wave nationally, California voters affirmed the state’s solid blue politics by easily electing a Democrat to the U.S. Senate and maintaining a Democratic supermajority in the state Legislature.

But voters have been less enthusiastic about progressive ballot initiatives, and it is not yet clear whether California’s contested congressional seats will help keep the U.S. House under Democratic control.

Like one Donald Trump’s second presidency towering over California, the state chose a new US Senator in Adam Schiff. Schiff, a Democrat from Burbank, made a national name for himself in the U.S. House of Representatives by leading the prosecution of Trump’s first impeachment and playing a key role in the investigation into the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol.

But the outcome of the six most contentious congressional races in California was undecided Wednesday morning, with some races seeing changes in the leading candidate as returns came in. The races in California were closely watched as control of the U.S. House was still undetermined, but full results could take days or more.

California voters have also been hesitant to fully embrace a progressive agenda on ballot measures. They convincingly passed one initiative to increase penaltiesa measure that Governor Gavin Newsom and the progressive wing of the Legislature had opposed. They again rejected a ballot initiative that would have allowed for a vote expanding rent control.

And they ousted a progressive prosecutor in Los Angeles County, the state’s largest.

“It’s just one of those things where allegiance to Democratic candidates and supporting Democratic candidates doesn’t always mean allegiance to every progressive cause,” said Paul Mitchell, an election analyst.

News outlets named Democrat Kamala Harris the winner of the state’s electoral votes as polls closed at 8 p.m., and also quickly called the race to claim the U.S. Senate seat that Democrat Dianne Feinstein long held until her death last year had. Schiff cruised to victory against Steve Garvey, a former LA Dodgers star seeking to become the first statewide Republican in 18 years. Schiff won a six-year term to replace Sen. Laphonza Butler, who decided not to run for re-election after being appointed by Newsom to replace Feinstein, who died last year.

On ballot measures, voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition 36, which progressives opposed, which increases penalties for certain crimes, and partial vote totals show they reject the progressive-sponsored Proposition 6, which would increase forced labor in prisons would prohibit. Prop. 33, which would expand rent control, failed.

Prop. 32, which would happen increase the minimum wagewas too close to call, as were several others proposals for the entire country.

Meanwhile, Democrats maintained their supermajority in the state legislature, allowing them to raise taxes or advance initiatives without a single Republican vote.

However, Mike Gatto, a former Democratic state lawmaker from Los Angeles, warned members of his party not to view the supermajority as a mandate to embrace far-left policies in response to Trump’s return to office. Gatto noted that California voters appear to have signaled support for a more moderate platform through the state’s ballot initiatives. Given the national election results, Gatto said California’s elected Democrats should be careful not to appear too liberal.

“I think it would be wise for California Democrats to try to moderate the agenda a little bit,” Gatto said.

In Los Angeles County, voters chose Nathan Hochman — a former federal prosecutor who ran for state attorney general in 2022 as a Republican — to replace incumbent District Attorney George Gascón, a progressive.

Some experts say the votes show California has more nuanced political views than its national reputation as a liberal bastion suggests.

Christian Grose, a political science professor at the University of Southern California, saw the mixed bag as fairly typical of California.

“It seems like the state is still Democratic overall and could flip the U.S. House of Representatives to the Democrats,” he said, “while also sometimes supporting policies that are a little bit more conservative and a little bit more liberal.”

One caveat about California’s election results: For some of the closest races, it could be weeks before we know the final outcome. Although this has fueled distrust among voters, the reasons are not nefarious.

Since 2020, California has mailed a ballot to every registered voter — a convenience that requires additional verification by local election officials when it is returned, including authenticating the signature and checking that the voter has not already voted in another jurisdiction. Counting mail-in ballots requires significantly more manual labor than other votes because workers must open envelopes, remove ballots, align them for counting machines and duplicate damaged ballots that cannot be read.

California will accept ballots that arrive up to seven days late, provided they are postmarked by Election Day, and give voters a chance to correct missing or mismatched signatures. These delays are intentional to minimize the number of legitimate voters disqualified for procedural reasons and to ensure a safe and accurate count.

CalMatters Capitol reporter Alexei Koseff contributed to this story.