2022 United States Senate elections in California

Home Page | 2022 United States Senate elections in California

Two 2022 United States Senate elections in California were held concurrently on November 8, 2022, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of California. There were two ballot items for the same Class 3 seat: a special election to fill the seat for the final weeks of the 117th United States Congress (ending on January 3, 2023), and a general election for a full term (beginning on the same day), starting in the 118th United States Congress.

2022 United States Senate elections in California
← 2016
November 8, 2022
2028 →
 
Candidate Alex Padilla Mark Meuser
Party Democratic Republican
Regular election 6,621,616
61.06% 		4,222,025
38.94%
Special election 6,559,303
60.89% 		4,212,446
39.11%
Padilla:      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90%      >90%
Meuser:      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%
U.S. senator before election

Alex Padilla
Democratic

Elected U.S. senator

Alex Padilla
Democratic

Incumbent Democratic Senator Alex Padilla was appointed in 2021 by Governor Gavin Newsom to fill the vacancy created by Kamala Harris's election to the vice presidency in 2020, and he sought a full term. A jungle primary for each of the terms took place on June 7. The top two candidates in each primary, regardless of party, advanced to the special and regular general elections in November. With his advancement out of the primary, Mark P. Meuser (/ˈmɔɪʒər/ MOY-zhər) became the first Republican since 2012 to advance to the general election, as both the 2016 and 2018 Senate elections solely featured Democrats as the top two candidates. This race was a rematch between the two, as both had previously run for the secretary of state in 2018. Padilla won both elections with more than 60% of the vote.

He became the first Latino elected to the U.S. Senate from California, and the first male elected to the Senate from California since Pete Wilson was re-elected in 1988 and the first male elected to the Class 3 Senate seat from California since Alan Cranston was re-elected in 1986. This was the first time since 1988 where both major party nominees for a Senate seat in California were men and was also the first time where both major party nominees for the Class 3 Senate seat in California were men since 1986.

Candidates

Democratic Party

Advanced to general

Eliminated in primary

  • Akinyemi Agbede, mathematician
  • Dan O'Dowd, founder and president of Green Hills Software and candidate for U.S. Senate in 1994
  • Douglas Howard Pierce, businessman and candidate for U.S. Senate in 2018
  • Obaidul Huq Pirjada, attorney
  • Timothy J. Ursich, doctor

Declined

  • Ro Khanna, U.S. Representative for California's 17th congressional district (2017–present) (endorsed Padilla)

Republican Party

Advanced to general

  • Mark P. Meuser, attorney and candidate for California Secretary of State in 2018

Eliminated in primary

  • James P. Bradley, businessman, candidate for U.S. Senate in 2018, and candidate for California's 33rd congressional district in 2020
  • Jon Elist, small business owner
  • Myron L. Hall, physician
  • Sarah Sun Liew, entrepreneur
  • Robert George Lucero Jr., consultant
  • Enrique Petris, businessman
  • Chuck Smith, retired law enforcement officer
  • Carlos Guillermo Tapia, businessman
  • Cordie Williams, marine veteran and doctor
  • Lijun Zhou, businesswoman (write-in, general election only)

Withdrawn

  • Yvonne R. Girard, retired government employee (died)
  • Elizabeth Heng, candidate for California's 16th congressional district in 2018 and former U.S. House staffer (ran in the CA-22 special election)

Green Party

Eliminated in primary

  • James "Henk" Conn, educator and candidate for mayor of Long Beach in 2018
  • Pamela Elizondo, entrepreneur

Peace and Freedom Party

Eliminated in primary

No party preference

Eliminated in primary

  • Daphne Bradford, entrepreneur and candidate for president in 2020
  • Eleanor Garcia, industrial worker (Socialist Workers Party)
  • Don J. Grundmann, chiropractor (Constitution Party)
  • Deon D. Jenkins
  • Irene Ratliff (write-in, both general and special elections)
  • Marc Alexander Roth (write-in, general election only)
  • Mark A. Ruzon (write-in, general election only), software engineer (American Solidarity Party)

Primary elections

Endorsements

James P. Bradley (R)

Individuals

  • Andrew Wakefield, former physician and anti-vaccine activist
Mark Meuser (R)

Newspapers

  • Santa Barbara News-Press

Organizations

  • California Pro-Life Council
  • California Republican Party
  • Rebuild California
Alex Padilla (D)

U.S. Senators

  • Dianne Feinstein, U.S. Senator from California
  • Chuck Schumer, U.S. Senator from New York and Senate Majority Leader
  • Elizabeth Warren, U.S. Senator from Massachusetts

Statewide officials

U.S. Representatives

  • Pete Aguilar, U.S. Representative for CA-31
  • Nanette Barragán, U.S. Representative for CA-44
  • Karen Bass, U.S. Representative for CA-37
  • Ami Bera, U.S. Representative for CA-07
  • Julia Brownley, U.S. Representative for CA-26
  • Salud Carbajal, U.S. Representative for CA-24
  • Tony Cárdenas, U.S. Representative for CA-27
  • Judy Chu, U.S. Representative for CA-29
  • Lou Correa, U.S. Representative for CA-46
  • Jim Costa, U.S. Representative for CA-16
  • Mark DeSaulnier, U.S. Representative for CA-11
  • Anna Eshoo, U.S. Representative for CA-18
  • John Garamendi, U.S. Representative for CA-03
  • Jimmy Gomez, U.S. Representative for CA-34
  • Josh Harder, U.S. Representative for CA-10
  • Jared Huffman, U.S. Representative for CA-02
  • Sara Jacobs, U.S. Representative for CA-53
  • Ro Khanna, U.S. Representative for CA-17
  • Barbara Lee, U.S. Representative for CA-13
  • Mike Levin, U.S. Representative for CA-49
  • Ted Lieu, U.S. Representative for CA-33
  • Zoe Lofgren, U.S. Representative for CA-19
  • Alan Lowenthal, U.S. Representative for CA-47
  • Doris Matsui, U.S. Representative for CA-06
  • Jerry McNerney, U.S. Representative for CA-09
  • Grace Napolitano, U.S. Representative for CA-32
  • Jimmy Panetta, U.S. Representative for CA-20
  • Nancy Pelosi, U.S. Representative for CA-12 and Speaker of the House
  • Scott Peters, U.S. Representative for CA-52
  • Katie Porter, U.S. Representative for CA-45
  • Lucille Roybal-Allard, U.S. Representative for CA-40
  • Raul Ruiz, U.S. Representative for CA-36
  • Linda Sánchez, U.S. Representative for CA-38
  • Adam Schiff, U.S. Representative for CA-28
  • Brad Sherman, U.S. Representative for CA-30
  • Jackie Speier, U.S. Representative for CA-14
  • Eric Swalwell, U.S. Representative for CA-15
  • Mark Takano, U.S. Representative for CA-41
  • Mike Thompson, U.S. Representative for CA-05
  • Norma Torres, U.S. Representative for CA-35
  • Juan Vargas, U.S. Representative for CA-51
  • Maxine Waters, U.S. Representative for CA-43

Organizations

  • California Teachers Association
  • Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
  • Equality California
  • NARAL Pro-Choice California
  • National Education Association

Newspapers

  • The Fresno Bee
  • Los Angeles Times
  • Marin Independent Journal
  • La Opinión
  • The Orange County Register
  • The San Diego Union-Tribune
  • The San Luis Obispo Tribune

Stonewall Democrats clubs

  • Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club (San Francisco)
  • East Bay Stonewall Democratic Club (Berkeley)
  • Fresno Stonewall Democrats
  • Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club (San Francisco)
  • San Diego Democrats for Equality
  • Stonewall Democrats
John Parker (P&F)

Organizations

  • Green Party of California

Campaign

Incumbent senator Alex Padilla was appointed to the job in January 2021 following Kamala Harris's election to the office of Vice President of the United States. Following his appointment, Padilla quickly began to focus on his 2022 election campaign, as the fact that he has not been elected to the position means that he has a relatively low profile. Padilla's election strategy focused on advocating for progressive policies and building ties with left-wing organizations that had a poor relationship with California's other Senator, Dianne Feinstein. The potential Democratic opponent to Padilla considered most likely to join the race was U.S. Representative Ro Khanna, a staunchly left-wing Democrat who rose to prominence as the co-chair of the Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign, and who had a loyal base of support from California's Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities. On August 9, 2021, Khanna announced that he would be endorsing Padilla for election, which was viewed as likely ending any possibility that Padilla would face a serious Democratic opponent. It was noted by the San Francisco Chronicle that it was considered unlikely that Padilla would face any serious Republican opponent, as California's heavily Democratic lean caused potentially strong candidates, such as U.S. Representatives Mike Garcia and Young Kim, to prefer to remain in their positions rather than launch a long-shot Senate run.

In April 2022, billionaire businessman Dan O'Dowd entered the race, launching a $650,000 ad campaign. O'Dowd's goal with this ad buy, and with entering the race in the first place, was to "make computers safe for humanity" and draw the attention of the public and politicians to the dangers of Tesla's unfinished Full Self-Driving software being rolled out to 100,000 cars on public roads.

Special election blanket primary

Polling

Poll source Date(s)
administered 		Sample
size 		Margin
of error 		Daphne
Bradford
(NPP) 		James
Bradley
(R) 		Jon
Elist
(R) 		Myron
Hall
(R) 		Mark
Meuser
(R) 		Dan
O'Dowd
(D) 		Alex
Padilla
(D) 		Timothy
Ursich Jr.
(D) 		Undecided
Berkeley IGS May 24–31, 2022 3,438 (LV) ± 2.2% 1% 7% 5% 2% 14% 3% 44% 2% 21%
SurveyUSA May 13–15, 2022 709 (LV) ± 4.5% 1% 8% 7% 3% 11% 6% 40% 2% 22%

Results

Special election blanket primary results
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Alex Padilla (incumbent) 3,740,582 55.0
Republican Mark P. Meuser 1,503,480 22.1
Republican James P. Bradley 472,052 6.9
Republican Jon Elist 403,722 5.9
Democratic Timothy J. Ursich 226,447 3.3
Democratic Dan O'Dowd 191,531 2.8
Republican Myron L. Hall 143,038 2.1
No party preference Daphne Bradford 112,191 1.6
Peace and Freedom John Parker (write-in) 9,951 0.1
No party preference Irene Ratliff (write-in) 12 0.0
Total votes 6,803,006 100.0

Regular election blanket primary

Polling

Poll source Date(s)
administered 		Sample
size 		Margin
of error
(D) Akinyemi Agbede
(I) Daphne Bradford
(R) James Bradley
(G) James Conn
(R) Jon Elist
(G) Pamela Elizondo
(I) Eleanor Garcia
(I) Don Grundmann
(R) Myron Hall
(I) Deon Jenkins
(R) Sarah Sun Liew
(R) Robert Lucero Jr.
(R) Mark Meuser
(D) Dan O'Dowd
(D) Alex Padilla
(PF) John Parker
(R) Enrique Petris
(D) Douglas Pierce
(D) Obaidul Huq Pirjada
(R) Chuck Smith
(R) Carlos Tapia
(D) Timothy Ursich Jr.
(R) Cordie Williams
Undecided
Berkeley IGS May 24–31, 2022 3,438 (LV) ± 2.2% 1% 0% 3% 0% 2% 1% 0% 0% 1% 0% 1% 0% 11% 1% 42% 1% 0% 1% 1% 6% 1% 1% 2% 22%
SurveyUSA May 13–15, 2022 709 (LV) ± 4.5% 2% 0% 9% 1% 4% 0% 0% 0% 3% 0% 3% 2% 4% 1% 36% 0% 1% 2% 2% 2% 1% 1% 1% 24%

Results

Regular election blanket primary results
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Alex Padilla (incumbent) 3,725,544 54.1
Republican Mark P. Meuser 1,028,374 14.9
Republican Cordie Williams 474,321 6.9
Republican Jon Elist 289,716 4.2
Republican Chuck Smith 266,766 3.9
Republican James P. Bradley 235,788 3.4
Democratic Douglas Howard Pierce 116,771 1.7
Peace and Freedom John Parker 105,477 1.5
Republican Sarah Sun Liew 76,994 1.1
Democratic Dan O'Dowd 74,916 1.1
Democratic Akinyemi Agbede 70,971 1.0
Republican Myron L. Hall 66,161 1.0
Democratic Timothy J. Ursich 58,348 0.8
Republican Robert George Lucero Jr. 53,398 0.8
Green James "Henk" Conn 35,983 0.5
No party preference Eleanor Garcia 34,625 0.5
Republican Carlos Guillermo Tapia 33,870 0.5
Green Pamela Elizondo 31,981 0.5
Republican Enrique Petris 31,883 0.5
Democratic Obaidul Huq Pirjada 27,889 0.4
No party preference Daphne Bradford 26,900 0.4
No party preference Don J. Grundmann 10,181 0.1
No party preference Deon D. Jenkins 6,936 0.1
No party preference Mark A. Ruzon (write-in) 206 0.0
Republican Lijun Zhou (write-in) 58 0.0
No party preference Irene Ratliff (write-in) 7 0.0
No party preference Marc Alexander Roth (write-in) 1 0.0
Total votes 6,884,065 100.0

General elections

Predictions

Source Ranking As of
The Cook Political Report Solid D March 4, 2022
Inside Elections Solid D April 1, 2022
Sabato's Crystal Ball Safe D March 1, 2022
Politico Solid D April 1, 2022
RCP Safe D February 24, 2022
Fox News Solid D May 12, 2022
DDHQ Solid D July 20, 2022
538 Solid D June 30, 2022
The Economist Safe D September 7, 2022

Polling

Special election

Poll source Date(s)
administered 		Sample
size 		Margin
of error 		Alex
Padilla (D) 		Mark
Meuser (R) 		Undecided
Research Co. November 4–6, 2022 450 (LV) ± 4.6% 59% 35% 6%
SurveyUSA October 7–10, 2022 1,013 (LV) ± 4.4% 56% 34% 10%

Regular election

Poll source Date(s)
administered 		Sample
size 		Margin
of error 		Alex
Padilla (D) 		Mark
Meuser (R) 		Undecided
Research Co. November 4–6, 2022 450 (LV) ± 4.6% 60% 35% 5%
USC October 30 – November 2, 2022 802 (RV) ± 3.5% 63% 37% –
ActiVote July 22 – October 20, 2022 208 (LV) ± 7.0% 65% 35% –
SurveyUSA October 7–10, 2022 1,013 (LV) ± 4.4% 56% 34% 11%

Results

2022 United States Senate special election in California
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Democratic Alex Padilla (incumbent) 6,559,303 60.89% N/A
Republican Mark Meuser 4,212,446 39.11% N/A
Total votes 10,771,749 100.00% N/A
Democratic hold
2022 United States Senate election in California
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Democratic Alex Padilla (incumbent) 6,621,616 61.06% N/A
Republican Mark Meuser 4,222,025 38.94% N/A
Total votes 10,843,641 100.00% N/A
Democratic hold

By county

By congressional district

Padilla won 42 of 52 congressional districts in the regular and special elections, including two that elected Republicans.

District Padilla Meuser Representative
1st 36% 64% Doug LaMalfa
2nd 73% 27% Jared Huffman
3rd 46% 54% Kevin Kiley
4th 66% 34% Mike Thompson
5th 40% 60% Tom McClintock
6th 57% 43% Ami Bera
7th 66% 34% Doris Matsui
8th 75% 25% John Garamendi
9th 51% 49% Josh Harder
10th 66% 34% Mark DeSaulnier
11th 86% 14% Nancy Pelosi
12th 91% 9% Barbara Lee
13th 49% 51% John Duarte
14th 70% 30% Eric Swalwell
15th 77% 23% Jackie Speier (117th Congress)
Kevin Mullin (118th Congress)
16th 74% 26% Anna Eshoo
17th 71% 29% Ro Khanna
18th 68% 32% Zoe Lofgren
19th 67% 33% Jimmy Panetta
20th 32% 68% Kevin McCarthy
21st 53% 47% Jim Costa
22nd 51% 49% David Valadao
23rd 41% 59% Jay Obernolte
24th 61% 39% Salud Carbajal
25th 55% 45% Raul Ruiz
26th 55% 45% Julia Brownley
27th 51% 49% Mike Garcia
28th 65% 35% Judy Chu
29th 76% 24% Tony Cárdenas
30th 77% 23% Adam Schiff
31st 61% 39% Grace Napolitano
32nd 69% 31% Brad Sherman
33rd 57% 43% Pete Aguilar
34th 83% 17% Jimmy Gomez
35th 57% 43% Norma Torres
36th 69% 31% Ted Lieu
37th 86% 14% Karen Bass (117th Congress)
Sydney Kamlager-Dove (118th Congress)
38th 60% 40% Linda Sánchez
39th 56% 44% Mark Takano
40th 46% 54% Young Kim
41st 47% 53% Ken Calvert
42nd 69% 31% Lucille Roybal-Allard (117th Congress)
Robert Garcia (118th Congress)
43rd 80% 20% Maxine Waters
44th 72% 28% Nanette Barragán
45th 49% 51% Michelle Steel
46th 61% 39% Lou Correa
47th 51% 49% Katie Porter
48th 40% 60% Darrell Issa
49th 52% 48% Mike Levin
50th 63% 37% Scott Peters
51st 61% 39% Sara Jacobs
52nd 65% 35% Juan Vargas

See also

wikipedia, wiki, encyclopedia, book, library, article, read, free download, Information about 2022 United States Senate elections in California, What is 2022 United States Senate elections in California? What does 2022 United States Senate elections in California mean?

Home Page | Go up