New, returning leaders elected in Contra Costa County, mixed results on ballot measures
Top two candidates in Congressional, Assembly races set for November runoffs
By Allen D. Payton
Four new leaders were elected, and three leaders were re-elected in Contra Costa County Tuesday night. One countywide ballot measure passed, while two failed and the November run-off candidates were decided for both congressional districts.
New Leaders
As of the latest June 2026 Primary Election Night Results posted by the Contra Costa Elections Division Wednesday, June 3, 2026, 12:46:24 AM, three new candidates in competitive countywide races led by large margins. Dr. Dana Eaton dominates Dr. Jag Lathan for Superintendent of Schools with 99,939 votes or 73.44% to 36,139 or 26.565 of the vote; for Auditor-Controller, Peter Karumbi is ahead of Deepika Naharas 107,672 votes or 79.23% to 28,223 or 20.77% of the vote; and in the Assessor’s race, Vince Robb is beating both his opponents, Nick Spinner and Kismet Kathrani with 99,681 votes or 67.99% to 33,165 or 22.62% and 13,722 or 9.39% of the vote, respectively. Since Robb received more than 50% of the vote, there will be no top-two runoff in November.
Appointed Treasurer-Tax Collector Dan Mierzwa had no opponent and was elected to the position with 127,277 votes.
Robb “Surprised” “Grateful”
“I went all in just to go for this. I’m surprised at how high the percentage is especially since it was a race with two opponents,” Robb said when reached for comment. “I’m grateful to the voters of the county for placing their trust in me. I’m thankful they looked to my experience and the office overall and see we’re a well-oiled machine. The staff there is great. This is a victory for the staff, there, too. We treat people like they want to be treated. I look forward to serving the people and the businesses in Contra Costa for the next four years.”
Eaton Cautiously Optimistic
“I’m cautiously optimistic. I felt like the results were pretty strong. But I’m waiting for all the votes to be counted,” Eaton said. “We were expecting 250,000 total votes cast. That would be like 35%. My experience in these is takes a couple of Fridays. We feel like we had a great opening night and we hope it holds.”
Efforts to reach the other leading candidates in the contested county races were unsuccessful prior to publication time.
Re-Elected Leaders
County Clerk-Recorder-Registrar Kristin Connelly was the only incumbent County official facing an opponent, this year. She is way ahead of challenger Pratima Sonavne with 124,794 votes or 87.02% to 18,611 or 12.98% of the vote.
Incumbent County Supervisors John Gioia in District 1 and Ken Carlson in District 4 also ran unopposed and were re-elected to four-year terms on the Board. Gioia received 20,898 votes while Carlson received 30,446, so far.
Ballot Measures – Urban Limit Line Extended, But County Sales Tax, College Bond Fail
For the three countywide ballot measures, Election Night results show only one is passing. Measure A, the Urban Limit Line renewal by more than 2-to-1. The yes votes total 107,061 or 67.91% and the no votes total 50,593 or 32.09% of the vote.
But Measure B, the County’s half-cent sales tax failed with 66,118 yes votes or 41.41% to 95,300 no votes or 58.59% of the vote. Measure G, the College District bond which required 55% to pass also failed, only receiving 74,995 yes votes or 46.78% to 85,329 no votes or 53.22% of the vote.
(See separate article for local measures, later).
The latest results from the Secretary of State show the following:
November Congressional Candidates Set
In the race for the new 9th Congressional district which now includes Antioch, Pittsburg, portions of Oakley and most of San Joaquin County, incumbent Democrat Representative Josh Harder will face Republican John McBride in November. Harder has 40,267 votes or 57.7% to McBride’s 16,997 or 24.4%. The other three Republican candidates were Martin Veprauskas with 5,876 or 8.4%, Khalid Jeffrey Jafri with 5,330 or 7.6% and Parminder “Happy” Singh with 1,313 or 1.9% of the vote.
In the new 10th District, which includes most of Contra Costa County and a small portion of Alameda County, incumbent Democrat Representative Mark DeSaulnier will face Republican Jeff Frese. The congressman has 69,312 votes or 57.3% to Frese’ 18,253 or 15.1%. Two other Republicans, threepeat candidate Katherine Piccinini has 15,409 votes or 12.7% to Dr. Angela Griffiths’ 8,500 or 7.0% of the vote. Three other Democrats trailed with 4,045 votes or 3.3% for Joshua Hamilton, 3,420 or 2.8% for Mitchell Maisler and 2,026 or 1.7% of the vote for Bob Rowland.
In the new 8th District, which includes portions of West County, Democrat incumbent Democrat Representative John Garamendi with 51,388 votes or 53.4% of the vote, will once again face Republican Rudy Recile, with 30,750 votes or 32.0%, in November. Recile beat out two Democrats, Nicolas Carjuzza who has 10% and Aaron Rowden who has 4.7% of the vote.
November Assembly Candidates Set
In the 15th Assembly District (AD), which includes northern and eastern portions of the county, incumbent Democrat Annamarie Avila-Farias had only one opponent in the primary, Arthur Webb, registered No Party Preference referred to as independent. She was leading him by 40,930 votes or 66.5% to 20,616 or 33.5% of the vote.
In the 16th AD, which includes Walnut Creek, Lamorinda and the San Ramon Valley, incumbent Democrat Rebecca Bauer-Kahan will again face Republican Joseph Rubay in November. She’s beating him and independent candidate, Chirag Kathrani, by 48,559 votes or 61.4% to 27,811 or 35.2% and 2,676 or 3.4% of the vote, respectively.
In the 14th AD, which includes most of West County, incumbent Democrat Buffy Wicks will face Republican challenger, Borgar Solnordal in November. She is leading him and Green Party candidate, Mark Rendon, by 43,584 votes or 78.7% to 6,924 or 12.5% and 4,839 or 8.7% of the vote, respectively.
Finally, in the 11th AD, which includes portions of far East County, incumbent Democrat Lori Wilson will face independent candidate Jenny Leilani Callison in November. Wilson is beating her and independent Rochelle Carter by 44,608 votes or 63.4% to 17,572 or 25% and 8,199 or 11.6% of the vote, respectively.
Ballots Still to Be Counted
Ballots postmarked by Tuesday will still be counted if they arrive at the County Elections Division within seven days following the election. The Clerk has 28 days to certify the election, but that can happen much quicker with the low-voter turn-out which is common for non-presidential year primary elections. So far, votes from 23.88% of those registered to vote in the county have been counted. That number is expected to increase but by how much is not yet clear.
UPDATE 1: According to the Associated Press’ California Governor all-primary results report, the 174,683 votes counted represents an estimated 63% of the total vote count in Contra Costa County. That could leave another 102,600 votes remaining to be counted countywide.
Please check back later for any updates to this report.
the attachments to this post:
11th AD Election Night Results 060226
14th AD Election Night Results 060226
16th AD Election Night Results 060226
15th AD Election Night Results 060226
CD8 Election Night Results 060226
CD10 EN Results 06-02-26
CD9 EN Results 06-02-26
CoCoCo Offices 06-02-26 EN Results
