2018 United States Senate election in California


The 2018 United States Senate election in California took place on November 6, 2018, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent California, concurrently with other elections to the United States Senate, elections to the United States House of Representatives, and various state and local elections.
Under California's non-partisan blanket primary law, all candidates appear on the same ballot, regardless of party. In the primary, voters may vote for any candidate, regardless of their party affiliation. In the California system, the top two finishers—regardless of party—advance to the general election in November, even if a candidate receives a majority of the votes cast in the primary election. Washington and Louisiana have similar "jungle primary" style processes for U.S. Senate elections, as does Mississippi for U.S. Senate special elections.
The candidate filing deadline was March 8, 2018 and the primary election was held on June 5, 2018.
Four-term Democratic incumbent Dianne Feinstein won reelection in 2012 with 63% of the vote, taking the record for the most popular votes in any U.S. Senate election in history with 7.86 million votes. Feinstein is the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. She turned 85 years old in 2018, leading some to speculate that she would retire in January 2019, as her long-time colleague Barbara Boxer did in January 2017. However, Feinstein stood for reelection for her fifth consecutive term, winning 44.2% of the vote in the top-two primary; she faced Democratic challenger Kevin De León in the general election, who won 12.1% of the primary vote. For the second time since direct elections to the Senate began after the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, no Republican appeared on the general election ballot for U.S. Senate in California. The highest Republican finisher in the primary won only 8.3 percent of the vote, and the 10 Republicans only won 31.2 percent of the vote between them.
In the general election, Feinstein defeated De León by an eight-point margin, 54% to 46%.

Candidates

Democratic Party

Declared

Declared

Declared

Declared

Declared

Declared

Endorsements

Fundraising

Polling

;with Timothy Charles Kalemkarian, Caren Lancona, John Melendez, and Stephen Schrader
Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Kevin
de León
Dianne
Feinstein
Timothy
Charles
Kalemkarian
Caren
Lancona
Patrick
Little
John
Melendez
Stephen
Schrader
Other /
Undecided
March 22–25, 2018517± 5.0%5%31%5%2%5%5%7%42%
January 7–9, 2018506± 4.4%4%34%6%5%5%2%5%38%

;with Tom Steyer
Poll
source		Date
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Kevin
de León
Dianne
Feinstein
Timothy
Charles
Kalemkarian
Caren
Lancona
Patrick
Little
Tom
Steyer
Other /
Undecided
January–9, 2018506± 4.4%3%29%5%5%5%5%46%

;with John Cox
Poll
source		Date
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		John
Cox 		Kevin
de León 		Dianne
Feinstein 		Undecided
September 20171,197± 3.4%32%14%40%14%

;with Xavier Becerra, Kevin Faulconer, Brad Sherman, Eric Swalwell, and Ashley Swearingin
Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Xavier
Becerra 		Kevin
de León 		Kevin
Faulconer 		Brad
Sherman 		Eric
Swalwell 		Ashley
Swearingin 		Undecided
January 17–18, 2017882± 3.3%21%4%18%11%5%13%28%

Results

Democratic candidates won a combined total of 4,231,444, Republican candidates 2,216,223 votes, and other candidates 223,053 votes.

General election

Debates

Fundraising

Predictions

Because of California’s top-two runoff system, the seat was guaranteed to be won/held by a Democrat since the initial primary produced two Democratic candidates.
SourceRankingAs of
The Cook Political ReportSeptember 28, 2018
Inside ElectionsNovember 14, 2017
Sabato's Crystal BallNovember 15, 2017
Daily KosApril 9, 2018
Fox News^July 9, 2018
CNNJuly 12, 2018
RealClearPoliticsJune 27, 2018
FiveThirtyEightOctober 20, 2018

^Highest rating given

Polling

;with Feinstein, de León, and Tom Steyer
Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Kevin
de León 		Dianne
Feinstein 		Tom
Steyer 		Not
voting		Other
October 27 – November 6, 2017949± 4.0%24%50%17%31%9%

;with Feinstein, de León, and John Cox
Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		John
Cox 		Kevin
de León 		Dianne
Feinstein 		Undecided
September 20171,197± 3.4%30%15%38%17%

Results

The race had an undervote of around 1.3 million votes compared to the gubernatorial election, likely by Republican voters choosing neither candidate. De León won many of the same counties and congressional districts won by Republican gubernatorial nominee John Cox, as many voters may have expressed opposition to the incumbent senator. No county voted for both Feinstein and Cox. Congressional districts 39, 45, and 48 were the only congressional districts that voted for both Feinstein and Cox.

Results by county

Results by county. Blue represents counties won by Feinstein. Yellow represents counties won by de León.
CountyFeinstein #Feinstein %de León #de León %Total
Alameda318,37758.4226,95041.6545,327
Alpine26748.828051.2547
Amador5,83541.48,24458.614,079
Butte32,41842.943,10857.175,526
Calaveras7,03140.410,35759.617,388
Colusa1,64335.13,03964.94,682
Contra Costa222,34958.3158,74841.7381,097
Del Norte2,59037.84,25462.26,844
El Dorado33,77246.538,79153.572,563
Fresno103,49147.7113,55752.3217,048
Glenn2,34134.84,38865.26,729
Humboldt21,33644.826,31955.247,655
Imperial13,12143.317,15056.730,271
Inyo2,34439.93,53260.15,876
Kern66,62840.099,98160.0166,609
Kings9,59937.915,74862.125,347
Lake8,14244.110,31755.918,459
Lassen2,03029.84,78870.26,818
Los Angeles1,565,16757.71,146,04442.32,711,211
Madera13,28441.119,03258.932,316
Marin80,31965.342,63834.7122,957
Mariposa2,74941.13,93958.96,688
Mendocino15,11349.315,52950.730,642
Merced23,65945.827,98554.251,644
Modoc75128.71,86771.32,618
Mono2,00147.72,19752.34,198
Monterey56,32052.750,56247.3106,882
Napa27,90454.523,29045.551,194
Nevada22,19848.123,91151.946,109
Orange501,67854.4420,81445.6922,492
Placer66,57846.576,73353.5143,311
Plumas2,81538.94,42861.17,243
Riverside269,56749.2278,40950.8547,976
Sacramento241,57153.0213,94947.0455,520
San Benito8,60747.99,37152.117,978
San Bernardino233,10350.0233,36050.0466,463
San Diego526,62852.9468,56447.1995,192
San Francisco226,16764.2125,95435.8352,121
San Joaquin79,08846.192,35153.9171,439
San Luis Obispo53,24249.654,02750.4107,269
San Mateo168,67963.099,13637.0267,815
Santa Barbara75,27455.161,21744.9136,491
Santa Clara339,86659.8228,64240.2568,508
Santa Cruz64,17857.547,41642.5111,594
Shasta19,39734.936,22765.155,624
Sierra50638.580861.51,314
Siskiyou5,77239.38,93060.714,702
Solano70,17452.962,50647.1132,680
Sonoma108,47256.085,22044.0193,692
Stanislaus58,37542.977,72457.1136,099
Sutter10,50142.614,16657.424,667
Tehama5,43532.611,25367.416,688
Trinity1,74638.12,83861.94,584
Tulare33,00539.949,76560.182,770
Tuolumne7,78340.811,27159.219,054
Ventura137,14151.3130,10148.7267,242
Yolo35,07151.932,55148.167,622
Yuba6,22439.29,66660.815,890
Totals6,019,42254.25,093,94245.811,113,364