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Early results show incumbent Alvarado-Gil sitting in third place for state senate District 4 race
McClintock, Gray in lead for respective congressional primary races
election day
Kathy Roudebush drops off her June Primary ballot at the Turlock Library on Tuesday. The library saw a steady stream of Election Day voters dropping off ballots or voting on site throughout the day on Tuesday (KRISTINA HACKER/The Journal).

Early election returns showed Democrat Jaron Brandon and Republican Alexandra Duarte leading the District 4 state senate race, leaving incumbent Marie Alvarado-Gil on the outside looking in.

The top two vote recipients in California’s primary advance to the Nov. 3 General Election.

With 89.9 percent of precincts partially reporting at press time, Brandon had received 55,581 votes (39.8 percent) with Duarte taking 44,628 votes (32.0), and Alvarado-Gil at 39,454 votes (28.2).

“It’s not just that we’re in first place, but it’s also the campaign that we’ve led,” said Brandon, 34, who holds the District 5 seat on the Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors. “This is very much a grass roots campaign – a personal campaign – with lots of local support. I’m not the incumbent and I don’t have a well-recognized last name. That we were outspent and still are on top, that gives us great hope for November. We’re extremely grateful.”

Isolating the electorate in Stanislaus County, which is Duarte’s home turf, Brandon also held a significant lead: 43.4 percent to Duarte’s 37.7 percent and Alvarado-Gil’s 18.9 percent.

Though Duarte is a political novice, she brought name recognition to the race: her husband is former District 13 Congressman John Duarte.

Alvarado-Gil, meanwhile, has been plagued by controversy after a public squabble with Stanislaus County Supervisor Channce Condit, a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by former chief-of-staff Chad Condit (Channce’s father), and a switch from the Democratic Party to the GOP in the middle of her term.

District 4 is the largest in the state, area-wise, hugging the Nevada border from north of Lake Tahoe (close to Reno) to south of Death Valley (not far from Las Vegas), then jutting out toward the Santa Clara County line (near Silicon Valley). It is bigger than 10 U.S. states, and includes all or pieces of 13 counties, eight different area codes, 16 tribal nations, and more than 1 million total constituents. But it only barely falls into the GOP column, with 39 percent of voters registered as Republicans and 34 percent as Democrats, according to CalMatters.

In other local races, Rep. Adam Gray (D-Merced), who defeated John Duarte for the District 13 Congressional seat in 2024, held a comfortable lead over two Republicans with 99.5 percent of precincts partially reporting. Gray had 18,341 votes in his column (42.4 percent), while former Republican mayor of Stockton Kevin Lincoln was in second with 12,175 votes (28.1). Republican businessman Vin Kruttiventi was third with 7,094 (16.4), and Democrat Daniel Garibay Rodriguez was fourth with 5,664 (13.1).

Those totals bode well for Gray, who won his seat by just 187 votes in 2024 after losing the seat to Duarte in 2022 by just 564 votes. If Gray could gobble up the majority of Rodriguez’s percentage, it would go a long way to securing his reelection come November.

Rep. Tom McClintock (R-El Dorado Hills), who, along with Gray, represents a portion of Turlock, was breezing in his race for a 10th term. With 82.7 percent of precincts partially reporting, McClintock had secured 62.4 percent of the vote, while former State Department employee Michael Masuda garnered 23.2 percent. Democrats Mike Barkley and Dan Stroud were third and fourth, with 9.3 and 5.1 percent, respectively.

Assemblymember Juan Alanis (R-Modesto) ran unopposed the District 22 primary, guaranteeing him a third term in Sacramento.

In the race for governor, Republican Steve Hilton, a conservative commentator and former British political adviser, led with 26.9 percent of the vote, followed by Democrat Xavier Becerra, a former state attorney general and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary, with 25.8 percent. Billionaire Democrat Tom Steyer (19.8) sits in third place.

Democrat Fiona Ma (20.3 percent) led the race for lieutenant governor, ahead of Republican Gloria Romera (19.5); Democrats Jane Kim (24.1) and Ben Allen (20.1) are running 1-2 in the race for insurance commissioner; Democrat Shirley Weber (55.5) and Republican Don Wagner (40.4) are the leading vote recipients in the race for Secretary of State; Democratic incumbent Rob Bonta (53.8) leads Republican Michael Gates (41.6) in the attorney general race; and current Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis (36.0) leads Republican Jennifer Hawks (26.5) in the race for state.