California Midterms 2026: Live Results Guide to Key Southern California Races

Polls in California close at 8 p.m. Tuesday, and once they do, results begin arriving for a ballot that stretches from the governor's office down to individual Los Angeles neighborhoods. KABC's guide to the Southern California contests lays out what is at stake in each.

At the top is the race to succeed termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom. Democrat Xavier Becerra, a former U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services, congressman and state attorney general, faces Republican Steve Hilton, a former Fox News commentator. A UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times found 61% of likely voters backing Becerra and 34% backing Hilton. In a September poll from the same institute, Becerra's lead had been 25 percentage points. A Becerra win would make him California's second Latino elected governor. A Hilton win would make him the first Republican elected governor since Arnold Schwarzenegger won reelection in 2006.

In Los Angeles, the mayor's race is far tighter. Incumbent Karen Bass and challenger Nithya Raman each have 40% in a Berkeley IGS/L.A. Times poll released last week, with 19% of voters undecided. In September, Raman led by 11 points; the new poll shows Bass has erased that gap. The city attorney's race follows an unusual primary: in June, Hydee Feldstein Soto became the first incumbent to lose a primary in almost a century. Her replacement will be either Marissa Roy, a deputy attorney general with the California DOJ, or John McKinney, an L.A. County prosecutor. Both want to cut the millions of dollars the city pays out in liability settlements, and both have pledged to revive the neighborhood prosecutor program, which places a deputy city attorney in every neighborhood, and to go after landlords who exploit vulnerable tenants. Roy is a member of the L.A. chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, and McKinney has criticized her public safety platform as driven by political ideology.

Two City Council seats are open because of term limits. In District 3, where Bob Blumenfield is leaving, Barri Worth Girvan, who has worked for former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former state Sen. Bob Hertzberg and County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, faces Tim Gaspar, who ran a large West Valley insurance company until he sold it in 2021 and has worked with nonprofits and community groups. In District 9, which covers parts of downtown and much of South L.A., Curren Price is termed out. Two Latino immigrants are competing to replace him: Jose Ugarte, Price's former deputy chief of staff, and community organizer Estuardo Mazariegos. Whoever wins, the seat will for the first time in more than 60 years not be held by a Black councilmember.

Proposition 50's redistricting has reshaped the congressional map. Republicans Ken Calvert and Young Kim are now running against each other. Calvert, in Congress more than 33 years, was drawn out of his 41st District, but parts of the Inland Empire he previously represented now sit in the 40th, which Kim represents. In the redrawn 45th District, which now includes Fountain Valley, Norwalk, Garden Grove, Westminster, Buena Park and Cerritos, Democrat Derek Tran defends the seat he flipped in 2024 by beating Republican Michelle Steel. Tran is an Army veteran and the son of Vietnamese refugees, and has introduced legislation requiring facilities handling hazardous materials to be more transparent with nearby communities. His challenger, Chuong Vo, is a former Cerritos mayor and 28-year police officer who was born in Vietnam and whose family fled communist rule when he was 1. Vo lists public safety, secure borders, faster asylum decisions and lower living costs as priorities. Democrats make up nearly 39% of registered voters in the district and Republicans 30%.

The insurance commissioner's race pits two Democrats, state Sen. Ben Allen and former San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim, as wildfire risk grows, premiums climb and some insurers leave the state. Allen, whose district includes the fire-ravaged Pacific Palisades, said he would not be running without that experience, and that he saw the insurance system's dysfunction up close. Kim said the office sits at the intersection of wealth inequality, economic fairness and climate disaster.

Countywide, Sheriff Robert Luna seeks reelection against Alex Villanueva, the man he unseated in 2022. Voters also face 14 statewide propositions, including Prop. 40, the Billionaire Tax. Prop. 40 and the Calvert-Kim contest, both products of high-stakes policy and redistricting fights, are the ones to watch as results come in.