Tight California Primaries
California House Primaries: Incumbents Lead Many Races, Calvert and Kim Nearly Tied in CA-40
Across several California House primaries on June 2, early unofficial results showed incumbents including Maxine Waters (CA-43), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (CA-37), Ted Lieu (CA-36), and Lou Correa (CA-46) leading crowded fields, with the top two vote-getters in each race advancing to the November general election. In CA-43, Waters led with about 63% of the vote, followed by Republican Cristian Morales at roughly 20%, while Myla Rahman had near 13% and David Sedlik trailed at about 4%. Kamlager-Dove and Lieu also posted double-digit leads in their districts despite multi-candidate competition. Redistricting influenced multiple contests, including CA-41 and CA-42, while Proposition 50 redrew lines and helped make the CA-40 GOP fight between incumbents Ken Calvert and Young Kim unusually tight. In CA-40, Calvert led slightly with 26.8% to Kim’s 26.2%, with Esther Kim-Varet third, and the campaign featured pointed messaging about loyalty to former President Donald Trump.
Key Points
In California’s 43rd District, the registrar’s office update came with detailed district context: the district covers parts of South Los Angeles and the South Bay (including Inglewood, Hawthorne, Gardena, Watts, Compton and Torrance) and has a voter-registration split of 57.89% Democrats, 11.77% Republicans, and 22.81% no party preference.
The 37th District race featured an unusually large field: it had nine candidates—tied with Districts 26 and 32 for the most L.A. County House candidates in this primary cycle—while Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove led a Democratic vote-getting advantage in that crowded field.
In California’s 32nd District, early results put Rep. Brad Sherman and challenger Larry Thompson in the top two spots, but the race’s major storyline was a “generational leadership change” debate—candidates argued it’s time for Sherman, completing a 15th term, to step aside for “a new generation of Democrats.”
In California’s 49th District, early returns showed Republican Armen Kurdian ahead of conservative columnist Star Parker in the primary, and Parker’s profile included being selected by President Donald Trump to serve on a U.S. Civil Rights Commission Committee for California in 2020.
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