Kern Elections Division delivers unofficial final results

With nearly all votes accounted for, the Kern County Elections Division delivered Friday an unofficial final count of its results. The update didn’t change the placement of candidates in any particular race, but rather cemented the contenders for races voters can expect in the coming months.

Among those results is the confirmation that Republican

Assemblyman Vince Fong of Bakersfield and Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux will advance to a runoff election on May 21 after securing enough votes in the March 19 special primary for the 20th Congressional District.

With more than 95% of the ballots reported, according to a New York Times analysis, Fong captured 42.3% of the vote, compared with Boudreaux’s 25.8%.

The two candidates now vie for the full term and partial term for the seat left open by former Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who resigned from Congress at the end of December.

In the back-to-back races, the two claimed victories with parallel point spreads; in the March 5 primary held weeks earlier, Fong gained 41.9% of the votes, compared with the longtime sheriff’s 24.1%.

Kyle Kirkland, R-Fresno, who took less than 5% of the Republican votes in either race, announced Thursday his endorsement of Boudreaux.

“Ahead of us, we have two elections to fill a vacancy in Congress for the remainder of the year and continue on through 2025 and 2026,” Kirkland wrote. “There is one choice that clearly reflects our community’s values and will fight for us in Washington: Sheriff

Mike Boudreaux.”

It’s a year with low turnout — about 34% of registered voters — but not as bad as people expected: 15,000 more voters cast a ballot this cycle than in the 2022 primary race, when McCarthy routed Bakersfield schoolteacher Marisa Wood with 61.3% of the vote. Nearly 36,000 more voters submitted a ballot in the general primary for California’s 20th

District as compared to the special election, according to a New York Times analysis.

Voters will be asked to cast their ballot once again in two months, to decide who fills McCarthy’s remaining months in Congress.

Head west into California’s 22nd Congressional District and results are much closer, as incumbent David Valadao, R-Hanford, holds a 1.4% lead — about 800 votes — over repeat challenger Rudy Salas, D-Bakersfield. With nearly 62,000 votes reported — more than 95% according to The New York Times — only one-fifth of registered voters submitted a vote in this primary race.

Valadao and Salas will advance to another general election rematch in November.

And at the state level, the Elections Division reports that Jasmeet Bains will win her reelection bid for the 35th Assembly District outright with 57% of the vote against lone challenger Robert Rosas.

In the 32nd Assembly District race — a J-shaped district that carves into portions of Kern and Tulare counties — Fong holds an overwhelming but moot lead, given his national aspirations. Bakersfield City Councilman Ken Weir, who received Fong’s endorsement in January, leads the pool of write-in candidates with more than 12,000 ballots.

On the Kern County Board of Supervisors, incumbents David Couch and Phillip Peters, who represent the 4th and 1st districts, respectively, are the expected winners as both secured more than 50% of the vote.

But in the 5th District, incumbent Leticia Perez will likely head into a November runoff race after earning 44.8% of ballots against three challengers — Kimberly Salas, Darren Amos and David Abbasi — who each teased away healthy portions of the vote.