Democrat Alex Padilla and Republican Mark Meuser will advance to the November general and special elections for U.S. Senator for California, according to the Associated Press.
AP projected that Padilla would advance to the general election for both the partial term and the full term in the first 22 minutes after the polls closed. By 9:30 p.m., AP projected that Meuser would advance in both elections, KTLA sister station KTXL reports.
The position of U.S. Senator for California appeared twice on the primary election ballot because voters were selecting a candidate for the period between Election Day in November and Jan. 3, 2023, as well as selecting a candidate for the full senate term that will start on Jan. 3, 2023 and will continue until 2029.
The current Senator, Alex Padilla, was appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to temporarily fill the vacancy after Kamala Harris was elected vice president.
There were eight candidates running in the special election for the period between November and January, and there were 23 candidates running in the general election for the full term that starts in 2023.
In the general election on November 8, voters will elect a winner of the special election and the general election.
The winner of the special election will assume office soon after that day, and the winner of the general election will swear in on January 3, 2023.
Padilla was previously Secretary of State of California, a state senator and a Los Angeles city councilman. He is the first Latino to represent California in the U.S. Senate.
In his decades in public office, he has led efforts to expand immigrant rights and voting access in the state.
Meuser, a constitutional attorney, has criticized California’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and even went so far as to file more than 20 lawsuits against Gov. Gavin Newsom for his emergency restrictions.
He has also blamed Padilla and other state leaders for the state of the economy and inflation in California.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
