California votes to keep vast majority of incumbents — except mayors

Incumbents did really well in California in the 2024 General Election — 94% were reelected to office, according to Ballotpedia. That rate is in line with how most of the rest of the country voted — very few states kept less than 90% of their incumbents. 

“What we see over the last three big elections is that incumbency rates overall have gone up,” University of the Pacific Politics Professor Dari Tran said. 

California incumbents won 89% of their elections in 2022 and 85% in 2020. Nearly all California legislators up for reelection kept their seats. 

But California voters did largely diverge from those in other states in one aspect — executive level officials, like mayors, only won about half of the time. 

“It looks like they're blaming mayors for a lot of what's going on in cities,” Tran said. Two years ago, voters chose to keep about three quarters of them. 

Tran said lower numbers like those especially stand out for incumbent win rates. 

“People who are at least moderately happy with the way things are going — they're going to vote for the incumbent,” she said. 

In Sacramento, the race for mayor remains undecided. The race does not involve an incumbent mayor, as the city’s current mayor Darrell Steinberg, who has served in the role since 2016, did not seek re-election. However, one candidate in the race is Assembly member Kevin McCarty, who vacated his role in the state legislature to run for mayor. His seat is expected to be taken by Maggie Krell, a former prosecutor. 

McCarty holds a slight lead over Epidemiologist Dr. Flojaune Cofer in the race for Sacramento mayor.