Wrapping up the California vote, 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 were less enthusiastic about progressive ballot initiatives, and it’s not yet clear whether California’s contested Congressional seats will help keep the U.S. House under Democratic control.

As a second Donald Trump presidency loomed large over California, the state elected a new U.S. senator in Adam Schiff. A Burbank Democrat, Schiff made a national name for himself in the U.S. House by leading the prosecution of Trump’s first impeachment and for his key role investigating the Jan. 6th storming of the Capitol.

But the outcome of the six most contested Congressional races in California was undecided Wednesday morning with some races seeing changes in the leading candidate as returns came in. California’s races were being watched closely since control of the US House was still undetermined, but full results could take days or longer to complete.

California’s voters were also hesitant to fully embrace a progressive agenda on ballot measures. They resoundingly passed an initiative to raise criminal sentences, a measure Gov. Gavin Newsom and the progressive wing of the Legislature had opposed. They once again rejected a ballot initiative that would have permitted an expansion of rent control.

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

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

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

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

Prop. 32, which would raise the minimum wage, was too close to call, as were several other statewide propositions.

Meanwhile, Democrats kept their supermajority in the state Legislature, allowing them to raise taxes or put initiatives on the ballot without a single Republican vote. 

Mike Gatto, a former Democratic state lawmaker from Los Angeles, cautioned members of his party, however, not to consider the supermajority as a mandate to embrace far-left policies in response to Trump’s return to office.

Gatto noted that California’s voters appear to have signaled through the state’s ballot initiatives support for a more moderate platform. Taken with the national election results, Gatto said California’s elected Democrats should be mindful of appearing 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 as a Republican in 2022 — 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, professor of political science at University of Southern California, saw the mixed bag as fairly typical for California. 

“The state in general seems like it’s still going Democratic, and might swing the U.S. House to the Democrats,” he said, “while also supporting policies sometimes that are a little bit more conservative and a little bit more liberal.”

One note of caution about overnight California election results: For some of the closest races, it may be weeks before we know the final outcome. Though this has stoked mistrust 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 elections officials when it’s returned, including authenticating the signature and checking that the voter has not already cast a ballot in another jurisdiction. The counting of mail-in ballots takes significantly more manual labor than other votes, as workers must open envelopes, extract ballots, align them for counting machines and duplicate any damaged ballots that cannot be read.

California accepts ballots that arrive up to seven days late as long as they are postmarked by Election Day, and gives voters an opportunity to fix missing or mismatched signatures. These delays are deliberate, to minimize the number of legitimate voters disqualified for procedural reasons and ensure a secure and accurate count.

CalMatters Capitol reporter Alexei Koseff contributed to this story.