Steve Hilton held a narrow lead over Tom Steyer in California’s governor race on June 6 as election workers kept processing ballots, while Xavier Becerra had already secured a spot in the November general election. Hilton was at 26.1% and Steyer at 21.3%, leaving the Democrat trailing the Republican in a contest that was still shifting as more votes were tallied.
That is why the governor race California search is spiking now: the state was still counting primary ballots postmarked by Election Day on June 7, a day after in-person voting ended on June 2, and the top-two system means the final count decides which two candidates move on. In California, the race is not just about who is ahead on a given night. It is about who survives the count.
The secretary of state’s office said Steyer remained in third place, which is the kind of detail that makes the race more than a simple two-man duel. Becerra’s advance was already locked in, but the second general-election spot was still being fought over as Hilton kept a slim edge. The numbers were close enough that a few batches of ballots could still matter, and California officials were continuing to work through them on June 7, the sixth day of post-election processing.
That carries a political twist that is hard to miss: Steyer is a Democrat, yet he was still behind Hilton, a Republican, in the governor count. California’s top-two primary system advances the leading vote-getters regardless of party, and that can produce outcomes that do not follow the usual partisan script. The race has also drawn national attention because voters are choosing a successor to Gov. Gavin Newsom, making the late count matter well beyond the state’s borders.
For now, the answer is simple and unfinished at the same time: Hilton was ahead, Becerra was already through, and Steyer was still trying to climb out of third. The remaining ballots will decide whether the November matchup holds or whether the governor race California has been tracking ends with a different finalist after the final count is done.
