Newsom and Cox advance to general election for governor, Democrats race for Senate
Sen. Dianne Feinstein won the primary election for U.S. Senate, taking 44 percent of the vote. (Sharon Zhen/Daily Bruin senior staff)
By Megana Sekar
June 6, 2018 11:17 p.m.
This post was updated June 9 at 2:51 a.m.
Democratic Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and Republican John Cox won the California gubernatorial primary election Tuesday.
Newsom led with 33 percent of the vote; Cox won 26 percent. Former mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa came in third with 13 percent of the vote. Twenty-seven candidates appeared on the primary ballot, including John Chiang, a Democrat and California state treasurer.
Newsom has served as lieutenant governor since 2011, and was the mayor of San Francisco for seven years before that. Cox is a businessman from Chicago who specializes in real estate management. He has previously run for Congress and Senate in Illinois. Newsom and Cox will advance to the general election in November 2018.
California’s top-two primary system says that the two candidates with the most votes will advance regardless of party.
In the race for U.S. Senate, two Democrats will advance to the November general election. Incumbent Sen. Dianne Feinstein led with 44 percent of the vote, and state Sen. Kevin de León won 11 percent.
Representative Steve Knight, who represents part of Los Angeles in California’s 25th Congressional District, will advance to the general congressional race. His opponent has not been decided, as the race between Democrats Katie Hill and Bryan Caforio is too close to call.
Propositions 68, 69, 71 and 72 passed, while 70 failed overwhelmingly. Proposition 68, a $4 million parks and water bond, passed with 56 percent of the vote. Proposition 69, which will use revenues from a recent gas tax increase for transportation projects, won with 80 percent.
Proposition 71, which delays the implementation of election results until after all the votes are counted, won with 77 percent of the vote. Proposition 72, which won 83 percent of the vote and will begin in 2019, says that homeowners who add a rainwater capture system to their homes will not be taxed on the increased value of their property.
Proposition 70 failed to pass, with 64 percent voting against it. It would have required that funds from the sale of state greenhouse gas emission permits be collected beginning in 2024. In order to use these funds, a special one-time, two-thirds majority vote must have been passed in the state Legislature.