While election officials still have around 750,000 ballots left to count, it looks like California will pick up one additional Republican member of the State Assembly, but loose several State Senators. Since Republicans are much friendlier to people of faith regarding religious liberty, protecting life, and advocating for traditional family values, this isn’t the news California Christians were hoping for.
Starting with the positive news in the Assembly, the new Republican member elected is a pro-life candidate Suzette Martinez Valladares. She overwhelmingly won her Assembly race against another pro-life Republican Lucie Lapointe Volotzky. This seat is currently held by a pro-choice Democrat named Christy Smith who abandoned her seat to run for Congress. This brings the makeup of the Assembly to 19 Republicans, 60 Democrats, and one member with no party preference.
In the State Senate, the news is not so positive. Two incumbent Orange County Republican senators, John Moorlach and Ling Ling Chang, have already conceded their races, while two other close Senate races have Republicans in the lead. Democrat challenger Dave Min (SD-37 from Anaheim Hills-Irvine-OC beach cities) is defeating pro-life Republican incumbent Senator John Moorlach by 2.2 percent. Democrat challenger Josh Newman (SD-29 from Diamond Bar-Fullerton) is ahead of moderate Republican incumbent Senator Ling-Ling Chang by 2.6 percent.
The Republican senators currently winning their races include moderate incumbent Scott Wilk (SD-21 from Santa Clarita-Antelope Valley) who is barely hanging on to a 1.6 percent lead, and conservative Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh (SD-23 from Rancho Cucamonga-Redlands-Hemet) with a solid 5 percent lead over her Democrat opponent, but with tens of thousands of ballots left to count.
If the vote counting ended today, Republicans would be down to 9 seats in the state Senate, leaving 31 seats for the Democrats.
You can keep up to date on the election vote counting here: https://electionresults.sos.ca.gov/
