Democrat Abigail Medina maintained a razor-thin lead over Republican Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh early Wednesday, Nov. 4, for the open state Senate seat representing parts of Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
With 100% of precincts partially reporting as of 5 a.m. Wednesday, according to the Secretary of State, Medina was holding a mere 141-vote lead out of more than 225,000 votes counted. Election officials in the district, which straddles San Bernardino and Riverside counties, had yet to finish tallying the race, however.
In Riverside County, election officials said about 400,000 mail ballots and 25,000 provisional ballots remained to be counted early Wednesday. San Bernardino County, meanwhile, had 346,000 mail ballots, 15,300 provisional ballots and 2,700 damaged ballots or those requiring review that needed to be tallied.
The 23rd Senate District race pitted Bogh, a Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified School District board member, against Medina, who sits on the San Bernardino City Unified School District board, in a district that includes the Pass, Hemet, Menifee, San Jacinto, Redlands, Rancho Cucamonga and Loma Linda.
Reached via email, Medina wrote: “I am feeling very optimistic! There are many ballots that have yet to be counted. We saw amazing turnout at the polls during the last four days of the election.”
Craig Murphy, a Bogh campaign spokesman, said his campaign was still confident.
“We really like the trends as they went and as they’ve been going in the late going,” he said. “We feel like we have a good situation.”
The GOP, which went into Election Day controlling just 11 of 40 state Senate districts, was desperate to hang onto the seat being vacated by term-limited Republican Mike Morrell of Rancho Cucamonga.
In the 31st Senate District, Democratic incumbent Richard Roth, a retired Air Force general first elected in 2012, held a comfortable lead early Wednesday with almost 28,000 more votes than Republican Rod Taylor, a Norco beverage wholesaler who qualified as a write-in candidate in the March primary. The district includes Riverside, Corona, Norco, Jurupa Valley, Eastvale, Perris, and Moreno Valley.
In the 42nd Assembly District, incumbent Chad Mayes of Rancho Mirage was outperforming Republican Andrew Kotyuk, winning 19,068 more votes. Mayes, a former GOP Assembly leader, was running for re-election as an independent after leaving the Republican Party last winter.
The 42nd includes Hemet, San Jacinto, the Pass, Coachella Valley cities and communities in the San Bernardino County desert.
See the latest election results
Here are the results in other Inland Assembly districts as of Wednesday morning.
40th Assembly District — Democratic incumbent James Ramos of Highland led GOP challenger Jennifer Tullius of Rancho Cucamonga, 60.52% to 39.48%, in the race to represent a district that covers Highland, Loma Linda, Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands and San Bernardino.
41st Assembly District — Assemblyman Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, led with 67.5% of the vote over Republican Robin Hvidston of Upland in a district that includes Rancho Cucamonga, Upland, Claremont, La Verne and San Dimas.
47th Assembly District — Incumbent Democrat Eloise Reyes of Grand Terrace led Republican Matthew Gordon of Fontana. Reyes had almost 70% of the vote in a district representing all or parts of Fontana, Rialto, Colton, Grand Terrace and San Bernardino.
52nd Assembly District — Democratic incumbent Freddie Rodriguez of Chino led Chino Republican Toni Holle 69.7% to 30.3% in a district encompassing Pomona, Chino, Montclair and Ontario.
55th Assembly District — Assemblyman Phillip Chen, R-Brea, led Democrat Andrew Rodriguez of Walnut 54.6% to 45.4% in a district that includes Chino Hills and Diamond Bar.
60th Assembly District — Assemblywoman Sabrina Cervantes, D-Riverside, continued to lead Corona Republican Chris Raahauge. She had almost 57% of the votes counted to date in a district that encompasses Riverside as well as Corona, Eastvale, Jurupa Valley and Norco.
61st Assembly District — Receiving almost 66% of the votes counted so far, Democratic incumbent Jose Medina of Riverside maintained his lead over Republican Ali Mazarei in a re-match of their 2018 fight for a district that includes Riverside, Moreno Valley and Perris.
67th Assembly District — Republican Kelly Seyarto of Murrieta led Democrat Jerry Carlos by more than 16,000 votes in the race for an open seat. The 67th includes Lake Elsinore, Canyon Lake, Menifee, Murrieta, Wildomar and part of Hemet.
71st Assembly District — Assemblyman Randy Voepel, R-Santee, led Democrat Elizabeth “Liz” Lavertu 57.9% to 42.1% in a district covering Aguanga, Anza, Idllywild, Pine Cove, Mountain Center and northern San Diego County.
75th Assembly District — Assembly Republican Leader Marie Waldron of Valley Center led Democrat Kate Schwartz 52.6% to 47.4% in the district representing Temecula and part of San Diego County.
Staff writer Beau Yarbrough contributed to this report.
