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)

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	State senator	Winner
20	April 12, 1994	David Roberti (D)	None
12	June 3, 2008	Jeff Denham (R)	None

Results

35th district special election, 2014

California's 35th State Senate district special election, 2014 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

7th district special election, 2015

California's 7th State Senate district special election, 2015 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

21st district special election, 2015

California's 21st State Senate district special election, 2015 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

37th district special election, 2015

California's 37th State Senate district special election, 2015 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

References