List of special elections to the California State Senate

Special elections to the California State Senate are called by the Governor of California when a vacancy arises within the State Senate. Most special elections are conducted in two rounds. The first is an open primary and the candidate with the most votes must have a majority of the votes plus one to win the seat. If no candidate wins a majority, a second round is held with the two top candidates regardless of party.

Recall elections, the process by which voters petition for the removal of an elected official, are also included.

List of special elections

The dates listed indicate the time of the final election, either a runoff election or the open primary round if no second round was held.

District	Date	Predecessor	Winner
33	October 3, 1961	James McBride (D)	Robert Lagomarsino (R)
31	February 13, 1962	John Hollister (R)	Alvin Weingand (D)
5	March 16, 1965	Edwin Regan (D)	Fred Marler (R)
9	August 15, 1967	Gene McAteer (D)	Milton Marks (R)
7	March 25, 1969	George Miller (D)	John Nejedly (R)
34	August 18, 1970	John Schmitz (R)	Dennis Carpenter (R)
27	July 20, 1971	George Danielson (D)	David Roberti (D)
36	June 6, 1972	Gordon Cologne (R)	W. Craig Biddle (R)
22	February 27, 1973	Tom Carrell (D)	Alan Robbins (D)
38	March 6, 1973	Clair Burgener (R)	John Stull (R)
20	January 15, 1974	William Coombs (R)	Ruben Ayala (D)
24	July 2, 1974	Robert Lagomarsino (R)	Omer Rains (D)
29	April 1, 1975	Mervyn Dymally (D)	Bill Greene (D)
6	June 8, 1976	George Moscone (D)	John Foran (D)
22	March 8, 1977	Anthony Beilenson (D)	Alan Sieroty (D)
31	April 17, 1979	George Deukmejian (R)	Ollie Speraw (R)
14	June 9, 1979	George Zenovich (D)	Kenneth Maddy (R)
12	June 5, 1980	Jerry Smith (D)	Dan O'Keefe (R)
35	April 13, 1982	John Briggs (R)	John Seymour (R)
33	May 12, 1987	Paul Carpenter (D)	Cecil Green (D)
39	December 5, 1989	Larry Stirling (R)	Lucy Killea (D)
31	April 10, 1990	Bill Campbell (R)	Frank Hill (R)
26	April 10, 1990	Joseph Montoya (D)	Charles Calderon (D)
5	January 8, 1991	John Garamendi (D)	Patrick Johnston (D)
1	May 14, 1991	John Doolittle (R)	Tim Leslie (R)
35	May 14, 1991	John Seymour (R)	John Lewis (R)
20	June 2, 1992	Alan Robbins (D)	David Roberti (D)
32	March 2, 1993	Ed Royce (R)	Rob Hurtt (R)
2	April 27, 1993	Barry Keene (D)	Mike Thompson (D)
16	April 27, 1993	Don Rogers (R)	Phil Wyman (R)
4	November 2, 1993	Mike Thompson (D)	Maurice Johannessen (R)
11	November 2, 1993	Becky Morgan (R)	Tom Campbell (R)
40	December 28, 1993	Wadie Deddeh (D)	Steve Peace (D)
29	November 8, 1994	Frank Hill (R)	Dick Mountjoy (R)
35	May 9, 1995	Marian Bergeson (R)	Ross Johnson (R)
11	March 26, 1996	Tom Campbell (R)	Byron Sher (D)
9	September 1, 1998	Barbara Lee (D)	Don Perata (D)
32	March 7, 2000	Joe Baca (D)	Nell Soto (D)
24	March 6, 2001	Hilda Solis (D)	Gloria Romero (D)
35	June 6, 2006	John Campbell (R)	Tom Harman (R)
26	May 19, 2009	Mark Ridley-Thomas (D)	Curren Price (D)
37	June 8, 2010	John Benoit (R)	Bill Emmerson (R)
15	August 17, 2010	Abel Maldonado (R)	Sam Blakeslee (R)
1	January 4, 2011	Dave Cox (R)	Ted Gaines (R)
17	February 15, 2011	George Runner (R)	Sharon Runner (R)
28	February 15, 2011	Jenny Oropeza (D)	Ted Lieu (D)
4	January 8, 2013	Doug LaMalfa (R)	Jim Nielsen (R)
40	March 2, 2013	Juan Vargas (D)	Ben Hueso (D)
32	May 14, 2013	Gloria Negrete McLeod (D)	Norma Torres (D)
16	July 23, 2013	Michael Rubio (D)	Andy Vidak (R)
26	September 17, 2013	Curren Price (D)	Holly Mitchell (D)
23	March 25, 2014	Bill Emmerson (R)	Mike Morrell (R)
35	December 9, 2014	Rod Wright (D)	Isadore Hall, III (D)
21	March 17, 2015	Steve Knight (R)	Sharon Runner (R)
37	March 17, 2015	Mimi Walters (R)	John Moorlach (R)
7	May 19, 2015	Mark DeSaulnier (D)	Steve Glazer (D)
32	August 7, 2018	Tony Mendoza (D)	Vanessa Delgado (D)
1	June 4, 2019	Ted Gaines (R)	Brian Dahle (R)
33	June 4, 2019	Ricardo Lara (D)	Lena Gonzalez (D)
28	May 12, 2020	Jeff Stone (R)	Melissa Melendez (R)
30	March 2, 2021	Holly Mitchell (D)	TBD (D or R)

List of recall elections

When applicable, the candidate who succeeded the recalled state senator is listed. If the recall election was not successful the winner is listed as "none".

District	Date	Recall target	Replacement
20	April 12, 1994	David Roberti (D)	Not applicable, recall failed
12	June 3, 2008	Jeff Denham (R)	Not applicable, recall failed
29	June 5, 2018	Josh Newman (D)	Ling Ling Chang (R)

Results

2014 35th district special election

2014 California's 35th State Senate district special election
Vacancy resulting from the resignation of Rod Wright
Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Isadore Hall, III	17,951	55.9
	Republican	James Spencer	8,014	25.0
	Democratic	Louis L. Dominguez	4,067	12.7
	Democratic	Hector Serrano	2,069	6.4
Total votes			32,101	100.0
	Democratic hold

2015 7th district special election

2015 California's 7th State Senate district special election
Vacancy resulting from the resignation of Mark DeSaulnier
Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Steve Glazer	38,411	33.7
	Democratic	Susan Bonilla	28,389	24.9
	Democratic	Joan Buchanan	25,534	22.4
	Republican	Michaela M. Hertle (withdrawn)	18,281	16.1
	Democratic	Terry Kremin	3,242	2.8
Total votes			113,857	100.0
General election
	Democratic	Steve Glazer	68,996	54.5
	Democratic	Susan Bonilla	57,491	45.5
Total votes			126,487	100.0
	Democratic hold

2015 21st district special election

2015 California's 21st State Senate district special election
Vacancy resulting from the resignation of Steve Knight
Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Sharon Runner	26,360	94.1
	Democratic	Steve Hill (write-in)	996	3.6
	Democratic	Joshua Conaway (write-in)	252	0.9
	Republican	Jerry J. Laws (write-in)	120	0.4
	No party preference	Joshua C. Chandler (write-in)	108	0.4
	Democratic	Richard E. Macias (write-in)	91	0.3
	No party preference	Jason Zink (write-in)	90	0.3
Total votes			28,017	100.0
	Republican hold

2015 37th district special election

2015 California's 37th State Senate district special election
Vacancy resulting from the resignation of Mimi Walters
Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	John Moorlach	38,125	50.3
	Republican	Don Wagner	33,411	44.0
	Republican	Naz Namazi	2,621	3.5
	Democratic	Louise Stewardson (write-in)	1,696	2.2
Total votes			75,853	100.0
	Republican hold

2018 29th district special recall election

2018 California's 29th State Senate district special recall election
Choice	Votes	%
Yes	91,892	58.13
No	66,197	41.87
Total votes	158,089	100.00

2018 California's 29th State Senate district special recall election
Successor of Josh Newman if a majority vote in favor of recall
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Ling Ling Chang	50,215	33.80
	Democratic	Joseph Cho	31,726	21.36
	Republican	Bruce Whitaker	28,704	19.32
	Democratic	Josh Ferguson	17,745	11.95
	Democratic	Kevin Carr	12,713	8.56
	Republican	George C. Shen	7,442	5.01
Total votes			148,545	100.0
	Republican gain from Democratic

2018 32nd district special election

The first round of the special election was consolidated with the regularly scheduled primary election. Although most of the candidates in the two contests were the same, the results were very different. Rita Topalian finished first in both races, but different candidates finished in second place. Vanessa Delgado finished in 2nd place in the special election, but 3rd place in the regularly scheduled primary election. She received a similar number of votes in both races, but candidate Bob Archuleta received about 54% more votes in the regularly scheduled election than he did in the special election. The different results have been attributed to the different order in which the candidates were listed on the ballot.[1]

2018 California's 32nd State Senate district special election
Vacancy resulting from the resignation of Tony Mendoza
Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Rita Topalian	29,135	25.0
	Democratic	Vanessa Delgado	18,898	16.2
	Democratic	Tony Mendoza	16,779	14.4
	Democratic	Bob Archuleta	13,593	11.7
	Republican	Ion Sarega	10,720	9.2
	Democratic	Vicky Santana	7,960	6.8
	Democratic	Ali S. Taj	6,961	6.0
	Democratic	Vivian Romero	5,379	4.6
	Democratic	Rudy Bermudez	5,117	4.4
	Democratic	John Paul Drayer	1,294	1.1
	Democratic	Darren Joseph Gendron	599	0.5
Total votes			116,435	100.0
General election
	Democratic	Vanessa Delgado	26,635	52.4
	Republican	Rita Topalian	24,240	47.6
Total votes			50,875	100.0
	Democratic hold

2019 1st district special election

2019 California's 1st State Senate district special election
Vacancy resulting from the resignation of Ted Gaines[2]
Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Brian Dahle	57,725	29.6
	Republican	Kevin Kiley	54,290	27.9
	Democratic	Silke Pflueger	49,164	25.2
	Republican	Rex Hime	18,050	9.3
	Democratic	Steve Baird	10,855	5.6
	Republican	Theodore Dziuba	4,672	2.4
Total votes			194,756	100.0
General election
	Republican	Brian Dahle	84,503	53.9
	Republican	Kevin Kiley	72,169	46.1
Total votes			156,672	100.0
	Republican hold

2019 33rd district special election

2019 California's 33rd State Senate district special election
Vacancy resulting from the resignation of Ricardo Lara[3]
Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Lena Gonzalez	10,984	31.6
	Republican	Jack M. Guerrero	4,860	14.0
	Democratic	Ali Saleh	3,334	9.6
	Democratic	Ana Maria Quintana	3,038	8.8
	Democratic	José Luis Solache	2,594	7.5
	Democratic	Denise Diaz	2,404	6.9
	Republican	Martha Flores Gibson	2,225	6.4
	Democratic	Leticia Vasquez Wilson	1,839	5.3
	Democratic	Al Austin, II	1,356	3.9
	Democratic	Thomas Jefferson Cares	824	2.4
	Democratic	Chris Garcia	720	2.1
	Green	Cesar Flores	529	1.5
Total votes			34,711	100.0
General election
	Democratic	Lena Gonzalez	32,394	69.8
	Republican	Jack M. Guerrero	14,049	30.2
Total votes			46,443	100.0
	Democratic hold

2020 28th district special election

2020 California's 28th State Senate district special election
Vacancy resulting from the resignation of Jeff Stone
Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Melissa Melendez	81,918	40.5
	Democratic	Elizabeth Romero	47,516	23.5
	Democratic	Joy Silver	42,222	20.9
	Republican	John Schwab	24,536	12.1
	Democratic	Anna Nevenic	5,912	2.9
Total votes			202,104	100.0
General election
	Republican	Melissa Melendez	105,525	55.4
	Democratic	Elizabeth Romero	84,902	45.6
Total votes			190,427	100.0
	Republican hold

2021 30th district special election

2021 California's 30th State Senate district special election
Vacancy resulting from the resignation of Holly Mitchell[4]
Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	No party preference	Renita Duncan
	Peace and Freedom	Ernesto Alexander Huerta
	Republican	Tiffani Jones
	Democratic	Sydney Kamlager
	Democratic	Daniel Lee
	Republican	Joe Lisuzzo
	Democratic	Cheryl C. Turner
Total votes
General election
Total votes

References

Myers, John (June 9, 2018). "Los Angeles voters picked different candidates for the same job". Los Angeles Times.
"CANDIDATES FOR MARCH 26, 2019, SPECIAL PRIMARY ELECTION" (PDF). Secretary of State of California. February 1, 2019. Retrieved February 2, 2019.
"CANDIDATES FOR MARCH 26, 2019, SPECIAL PRIMARY ELECTION" (PDF). Secretary of State of California. February 1, 2019. Retrieved February 2, 2019.
"CANDIDATES FOR MARCH 2, 2021, SPECIAL PRIMARY ELECTION" (PDF). California Secretary of State.

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[1] Myers, John (June 9, 2018). "Los Angeles voters picked different candidates for the same job". Los Angeles Times.

[2] "CANDIDATES FOR MARCH 26, 2019, SPECIAL PRIMARY ELECTION" (PDF). Secretary of State of California. February 1, 2019. Retrieved February 2, 2019.

[3] "CANDIDATES FOR MARCH 26, 2019, SPECIAL PRIMARY ELECTION" (PDF). Secretary of State of California. February 1, 2019. Retrieved February 2, 2019.

[4] "CANDIDATES FOR MARCH 2, 2021, SPECIAL PRIMARY ELECTION" (PDF). California Secretary of State.