District 2 Orange County Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento appeared headed to a second term as more votes were tallied in the June 2 primary.
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After the latest results were posted at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sarmiento was winning with 63% of the ballots cast in a race that had three challengers. If a candidate secures more than 50% of the vote, he or she outright wins the seat — otherwise, the top two vote-getters head to a November runoff.
District 5 incumbent Supervisor Katrina Foley, after losing her early lead Tuesday night, continued to trail challenger Diane Dixon, a state assemblymember and former Newport Beach council member, with Wednesday’s update. Both appear headed to the runoff.
It’s been a four-person battle for the open District 4 supervisor seat, with Orange County Board of Education trustee Tim Shaw and Buena Park Mayor Connor Traut jumping ahead early Tuesday night. As of Wednesday’s results update, Shaw was leading, but both would head to the runoff.
In the District 2 race, Kimberly Davis was in a distant second place behind Sarmiento with 15% of the vote, followed by Nelida Mendoza, a former Santa Ana City Council colleague of Sarmiento, and James Wallace.
“I feel cautiously optimistic and hopeful that we have a large enough lead that we’ll be able to sustain it,” Sarmiento said. “I’m proud of the campaign we ran because we spoke about the issues that are important to working families in my district, having to do with affordability, with securing accessible healthcare with just representing people’s concerns about cost of living.”
As of Wednesday, just over 2,100 votes separated Shaw, who had 33.6% of the vote, and Traut, who had 30.7% of the ballots cast in the District 4 race, which guarantees a new face on the Board of Supervisors.
Fullerton Mayor Fred Jung was in third with nearly 19% of the vote, followed by La Habra Councilmember Rose Espinoza with about 17%.
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“I sort of figured no one is going to clear 50%, so the key is just making sure I’m in the top two and survive until November,” said Shaw, who is also a former La Habra council member. “I’m just grateful to so many people who supported me to get this far.”
Traut also expressed optimism and gratitude.
“I want to thank every volunteer, supporter, community leader and neighbor who believed in our campaign and helped us reach voters across north Orange County,” he said in a statement. “Most of all, I want to thank my family for their love and support throughout this journey.”
The winner will replace Supervisor Doug Chaffee, who is termed out next January.
In District 5, Dixon was in first place with 48.5% of the votes after Wednesday’s update. Foley had 45.4% of the votes. Lucy Vellema, an educator, trailed in a distant third place, at about 6%. Unless one pulls to more than 50%, Dixon and Foley will face off in November.
Foley said she is proud of the race she ran.
“I think we ran an excellent campaign and, most importantly, a positive campaign on what have I done for the voters and what will I do in the future,” she said.
In other countywide contests, the incumbents appear headed for reelection. County Assessor Claude Parrish, Clerk-Recorder Hugh Nguyen and Treasurer-Tax Collector Shari Friedenrich all led their challengers by more than 70% of the vote. Auditor-Controller Andrew Hamilton had no challenger.
The registrar of voters will continue to tally votes daily until all are counted. Results are updated daily at 5 p.m. at ocvote.gov. The registrar’s office said Wednesday there are nearly 271,000 ballots left to be counted.
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