CA Scheming: AP Calls LA Runoff Spot for Raman; Decision Desk Projects Hilton Will Advance
“The Dumocrats are at it again! They are trying to STEAL THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA PRIMARY, AND THE MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES, PRIMARY …”
On Monday, I reported that after another tranche of ballots was counted in the Los Angeles mayoral race, City Councilwoman Nithya Raman had overtaken Spencer Pratt. At the time, I noted how extraordinary the shift was. With 63% of ballots counted the morning after Election Day, Pratt held a commanding lead over Raman, 30.4% to 22.3%.
Yet after election officials processed another batch of ballots equal to roughly 20% of all votes cast, bringing the total count to 83%, the race was transformed. Raman’s support had climbed to 27.1%, while Pratt’s fell to 26.7%, erasing his 8.1-point lead and then some, pushing him into third place.
Based on those numbers, the Decision Desk projected that Raman would advance to the general election.
Later in the day, another round of ballots was added, increasing the share of votes counted to 92.5%. Raman’s support grew further to 28.5%, while Pratt’s slipped to 25.8%.
Following this update, The Associated Press joined the Decision Desk HQ in projecting Raman the winner of the coveted second-place runoff spot.
The AP reported:
Progressive city council member Nithya Raman has advanced to a November runoff against Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, setting up an unexpected matchup between two Democrats and former political allies to run the struggling city of nearly 4 million.
Unexpected? Not quite.
On Monday night, the Decision Desk projected that Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton would advance to the general election.
Although it’s good news that Hilton will move on to the runoff, his path to get there was far less comfortable than it first appeared. As more ballots were counted, his early strength faded, raising questions about whether he would ultimately secure one of the two runoff positions.
As of 9 a.m. Wednesday, the day after the primary, with 62% of precincts reporting, Hilton led his Democratic opponents with 27.8% of the vote. Former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra followed at 25.4%, while billionaire Tom Steyer — who reportedly poured $200 million into his primary campaign — trailed at 19.6%. The early returns put Hilton in a strong position to advance to the general election.
By Monday, however, with 84% of the ballots counted, the landscape had shifted considerably. Hilton’s and Becerra’s positions had reversed. Becerra now led the field with 27.7% of the vote, while Hilton had slipped into second place at 25.1%. Meanwhile, Steyer continued to gain ground as additional ballots were processed, climbing to 22.4% — an increase of 2.8 percentage points from his election-night showing.
The Decision Desk projected Hilton would win the second spot and go on to compete in November.
Decision Desk HQ projects Steve Hilton wins the second of two spots in the CA Governor Top-Two Primary #DecisionMade: 8:37 PM EDT pic.twitter.com/VDwoKFUcLr
— Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) June 9, 2026
🚨 BREAKING: Decision Desk HQ has projected Steve Hilton (R) and Xavier Becerra (D) as the top two advancing to the November runoff in the California Governor primary.
The surprise here: Becerra was declared a winner days ago, but it took many days of late ballot counting this… pic.twitter.com/CbcyRRfsAL
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) June 9, 2026
At one point in early May, polls showed Hilton leading the pack and a second Republican candidate, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, running close behind. Needless to say, Democrats were panicked over the prospect of GOP candidates winning both of the coveted runoff spots.
Asked by a reporter about this possibility last month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom alluded to a plan that was designed to prevent this from happening. He said, “There is a ‘break the glass’ scenario and there’s many people that have a deep understanding of what it would look like if Democrats were locked out and we’re going to do everything to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
For obvious reasons, Newsom refused to provide specifics, but according to Politico, it may have involved an “opposition campaign” against Bianco that “could drive GOP voters to Hilton” and away from him.
Politico reported:
[T]he Democratic Governors Association recently began sending mail highlighting Republican Steve Hilton as a fierce conservative. The ostensible opposition campaign could drive GOP voters to Hilton, ensuring he consolidates the party’s voters and saps the support of the other Republican candidate, Chad Bianco, enough to keep him from finishing in the top two.
[I covered this story here.]
Gov. Gavin Newsom said he has a secret “break the glass” plan to prevent California from electing a Republican governor. He recently signed a law that states mail in ballots signatures do not have to match.
SB73 Section 3. Clause F reads : (f) A vote by mail voter observer shall… pic.twitter.com/NfuKmz9dFS— Denise Aguilar (@InformedMama209) June 4, 2026
At any rate, after Hilton’s and Pratt’s strong initial showings were followed by what many conservatives see as a disproportionate decline in support as additional ballots were counted, concerns about California’s electoral system have only intensified. Some — including me — are now asking whether Hilton stands a chance in the general election pitted against the California Democrats’ entrenched control over elections in the state.
President Donald Trump, who has been down this road before, blasted California’s vote-counting process in a Truth Social post last week.
The Dumocrats are at it again! They are trying to STEAL THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA PRIMARY, AND THE MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES, PRIMARY, AWAY FROM TWO GREAT REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES. Here we go with the very late and massive numbers of MAIL IN BALLOTS
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on LinkedIn.
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Comments
“We will continue to count ballots until our preferred candidate wins.”
There is absolutely no doubt that this election is rigged.
The problem is that there’s nothing that the victims of this fraud can do.
You can vote your way into socialism, but you can’t vote your way out.
Karen Bass as a mayor is so bad that things would improve if she left office and that office remained vacant.
OMG! Where’s your evidence??!!
(Pay no attention that our news services run stories all the time with fake or no evidence at all).
I know of 2 convicted felons, including one still in federal prison that are still getting mail in ballots.
You have to specify the state before anyone can tell whether this is legal or not legal. Yes, some states actually permit convicted felons to vote while incarcerated. There is a whole NGO devoted to it.
Rigged? If you call a system set up to guarantee one party power and shut out all others then yes, it’s rigged just like Dems wanted it to be.
Where is the admin? DOJ? FBI? Anyone?
Election security was a massive issue on the ticket. SAVE America died on the table because of decrepit RINOs. We let CA commit flagrant voter fraud to no consequences now? Are we even serious about protecting election integrity?
Posting can only do so much. Trump must act.
What can Trump do about it? It’s entirely an internal state matter.
The shenanigans in both races tell a very interesting story.
One that likely would have killed the Democratic party.
So open cheating was the vehicle used to hide it.
Hilton won the primary.
As did Pratt.
They both broke the 50% line.
The Democrats, who control the California fraud system, knew this. Possibly before election day.
And they knew it would show if either Republican made it to the runoff.
So open cheating was chosen as preferable to revealing that California is not, in fact, a blue state.
This is obviously speculation– but it is based on the actions chosen.
They could have had a simple run-off in LA. Republicans expected Pratt to lose the general. Just the run off would have been taken as a small victory that would have made them happy….while accomplishing nothing.
But they couldn’t do that.
Because, despite their shenanigans, Pratt was winning. And they had the ballots their vote fraud infused election system allowed them to see. They knew how this was going to turn out.
Pratt could not be in the run off. Because he would be able to beat their cheat. They knew–because he won the primary.
The open cheating is meant ti hide the larger cheat they’re pulling off–that this ended in the primary.
The primary they already rigged to create their one party rule.
The upending of which would show that they’d lost California.
Look. There was a downvote.
I wonder who it could be?
Could it be someone utterly shocked to see how completely the leftist subterfuge has failed? Someone who every day posts here to tell us that, sadly, the day of the right is over and the left is inevitably and perpetually correct. Someone who does this while drenching all of us in the best crocodile tears a concern troll can muster?
LA doubling down on stupid like NY. Its going to get worse before it gets better.
There is no indication that it is going to get better.
Subotai Bahadur
As the old saw goes, it’s not who votes that count, it’s who counts the votes.
Amazing how for a week they kept saying they had no idea how long it would take to ‘count all the votes’, then less than a day after Raman passes Pratt, ‘OK GUYS ELECTION OVER’.
Yes, I saw that!
Must of gotten super duper counters in that
Now if Pratt had been smart, he would have 75,000 ballots ready to go with him winning 90/10 to dump
Just wait right here, we found these at the doorstep, someone missed them!
As far as the Governor race, too much publicity with the mayoral race
Don’t worry, the Republican doesn’t have a prayer
Unless he’s smart and prints those ballots with his name marked !
Hilton will be allowed to the general election.
Pratt had to be taken out because he was a direct victim of Democrat policies and was drawing a lot of attention to their incompetence at governing. The media was paying a lot more attention to Pratt because of his semi-celebrity status and his ability to generate attention with things such as the spray painting of ads onto sidewalks. Hilton won’t generate the interest because he has been around awhile and isn’t the shiny new thing Pratt is. Hilton has very little chance of winning the general and the Democrats don’t care about helping Steyer as he is just a rich Billionaire who should be funding campaigns, not running in one. Also, by letting Hilton stay in second, they can use that to claim that the voting process is legitimate.
AP credibility lower than whale sh
murderer karmelo anthony verdict about to come in and blks yelling in wht mans face all caught on foxnews
we know this is about race the racist blks getting away with murder after murder they owe america reparations
cops came over to calm wht guy and told him to leave as he was surrounded by wild animalistic behavior as blks were jumping allll around the wht guy
The cope from his supporters has been ridiculous.
When it started they screamed LOL THE WITNESSES SAID HE PUT HANDS ON KARMELO THAT MEANS SELF-DEFENSE.
Now it’s shifted to, ‘LOL MANSLAUGHTER THEY COULDN’T PROVE INTENT TO KILL’.
These people are disconnected from reality.
But I am afraid that the jury is going to split the baby and do manslaughter just as a pathetic attempt to try and stop them from chimping out.
Now we get to LOL.
Whew. Crisis averted. When they said they were going to read it and 20 minutes went by without it I thought they got cold feet.
Guilty of murder.
It’s a sad day when we have to be relieved that a case this clean cut is doubted.
yeah but the setup is evident
no blk jurors>>appeal and will get a retrial
and the local foxnews I watched it was soooo sympathetic to the murderer ..unfn real
I will point out a silver thread.
The misery index has reached the point where they have to increase the cheat.
It really makes me wonder how “blue” California actually is. I’m not naive, it’s probably more “blue” than the Soviet Union was “communist by choice,” but not as much as I thought 3 months ago.
When you write this look at EVERY ‘blue’ state.
Look at how they’ve concocted their election systems, how their state and local parties run.
Very quickly the true horror becomes apparent.
There are no blue states.
There are extremely few blue cities.
But there is enormous leftist control of the electoral system. All of it.
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