GOP shut out of California Senate election as Democrats take both ballot slots

Predicting election results can be tough, but here’s an easy one: A Democrat will win the November contest to succeed Sen. Barbara Boxer, California Democrat.

For the first time in California history, there will be no Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate on the November ballot thanks to Tuesday’s primary, which saw Democrats capture first and second places under the state’s recently implemented top-two system.

With 94 percent of precincts counted, Attorney General Kamala Harris won the primary with 40 percent of the vote, and Rep. Loretta Sanchez placed second with 18 percent. Republicans took the next four slots, led by former California Republican Party chair Duf Sundheim, with 8 percent.

In all, there were 34 candidates on the packed California primary ballot, most of whom received 1 percent of the vote or less.

At her election results watch party, Ms. Harris called on voters on either side of the divide between Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernard Sanders to unite.

“We spoke in this election, whether we were supporting Bernie or we were supporting Hillary. We all came together. It was about unity,” Ms. Harris said in a video posted on her campaign Facebook page.

Since direct election of Senate members began a century ago, California has had three U.S. Senate races — in 1934, 1940 and 1952 — with no Democrat on the ballot, but this year’s contest will be the first without a Republican candidate, said Richard Winger, editor of Ballot Access News.

California voters approved the top-two system in 2010, which has resulted in at least two dozen congressional and legislative races featuring two candidates of the same party in the general election, but 2016 marks the first one-party contest for Senate.

Only California and Washington use the top-two primary system. Louisiana has a hybrid that calls for a runoff between the top two candidates if no one wins 50 percent of the vote in the general election.

Ms. Harris, the first top Democrat to enter the race, ran to the left of Ms. Sanchez in the primary with a progressive-friendly platform.

“We are prepared to do what is necessary to pass comprehensive immigration reform, we are prepared to do what is necessary to combat climate change, we are prepared to do what is necessary to reform our criminal justice system, we are prepared to do what is necessary to eliminate the income divide that is making so many families suffer,” Ms. Harris said Tuesday.

The race comes with the California Republican Party struggling to remain relevant as its voter registration dwindles to 27 percent. The last Republican elected to the Senate was Pete Wilson in 1988.

The contest represents the first California U.S. Senate race in 24 years without an incumbent. Both Ms. Boxer, who is retiring, and fellow California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein were elected in 1992.