List of special elections to the California State Assembly

Special elections to the California State Assembly are called by the Governor of California when a vacancy arises within the State Assembly. 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 only include the open primary round if no second round was held.

District	Date	Predecessor	Winner
30	January 23, 1962	Ralph Brown (D)	John Veneman (R)
8	November 5, 1962	Jimmy Hicks (D)	Walter Powers (D)
49	May 9, 1967	Charles Chapel (R)	Robert Beverly (D)
30	May 20, 1969	John Veneman (R)	Clare Berryhill (R)
34	June 17, 1969	Alan Pattee (R)	Bob Wood (R)
48	November 16, 1971	David Roberti (D)	Bill Brophy (R)
76	November 16, 1971	Pete Wilson (R)	Bob Wilson (D)
49	June 6, 1972	Peter Schabarum (R)	William Lancaster (R)
38	May 29, 1973	Carley Porter (D)	Bob McLennan (R)
67	June 26, 1973	Larry Townsend (D)	Paul Bannai (R)
80	June 26, 1973	John Stull (R)	William Craven (R)
12	September 4, 1973	Robert Monagan (R)	Doug Carter (R)
14	September 4, 1973	Robert Crown (D)	Bill Lockyer (D)
15	March 4, 1975	Carlos Bee (D)	Floyd Mori (D)
4	December 2, 1975	Edwin Z'berg (D)	Vic Fazio (D)
47	July 15, 1975	Bill Greene (D)	Teresa Hughes (D)
46	June 2, 1977	Charles Warren (D)	Mike Roos (D)
44	June 28, 1977	Alan Sieroty (D)	Mel Levine (D)
55	June 3, 1986	Richard Alatorre (D)	Richard Polanco (D)
56	May 12, 1987	Gloria Molina (D)	Lucille Roybal-Allard (D)
16	April 12, 1988	Art Agnos (D)	John Burton (D)
50	February 7, 1989	Curtis Tucker, Sr. (D)	Curtis Tucker, Jr. (D)
76	October 3, 1989	Bill Bradley (R)	Tricia Hunter (R)
27	January 30, 1990	Gary Condit (D)	Sal Cannella (D)
78	June 5, 1990	Lucy Killea (D)	Jeff Marston (R)
26	May 14, 1991	Patrick Johnston (D)	Dean Andal (R)
46	July 30, 1991	Mike Roos (D)	Barbara Friedman (D)
5	September 17, 1991	Tim Leslie (R)	B. T. Collins (R)
67	September 17, 1991	John Lewis (R)	Mickey Conroy (R)
31	February 21, 1993	Bruce Bronzan (D)	Cruz Bustamante (D)
5	July 27, 1993	B. T. Collins (R)	Barbara Alby (R)
27	November 2, 1993	Sam Farr (D)	Bruce McPherson (R)
79	April 12, 1994	Steve Peace (D)	Denise Moreno Ducheny (D)
43	May 3, 1994	Pat Nolan (R)	Jim Rogan (R)
60	May 16, 1995	Paul Horcher (R)	Gary Miller (R)
59	June 6, 1995	Dick Mountjoy (R)	Bob Margett (R)
72	September 12, 1995	Ross Johnson (R)	Dick Ackerman (R)
67	November 28, 1995	Doris Allen (R)	Scott Baugh (R)
13	March 26, 1996	Willie Brown (D)	Carole Migden (D)
46	January 13, 1998	Louis Caldera (D)	Gil Cedillo (D)
16	March 30, 1999	Don Perata (D)	Audie Bock (G)
49	April 3, 2001	Gloria Romero (D)	Judy Chu (D)
65	April 3, 2001	Jan Leja (R)	Russ Bogh (R)
53	September 13, 2005	Mike Gordon (D)	Ted Lieu (D)
39	May 15, 2007	Richard Alarcón (D)	Felipe Fuentes (D)
55	February 5, 2008	Laura Richardson (D)	Warren Furutani (D)
51	September 1, 2009	Curren Price (D)	Steven Bradford (D)
72	January 12, 2010	Michael Duvall (R)	Chris Norby (R)
43	June 8, 2010	Paul Krekorian (D)	Mike Gatto (D)
4	May 3, 2011	Ted Gaines (R)	Beth Gaines (R)
80	May 21, 2013	Ben Hueso (D)	Lorena Gonzalez (D)
52	July 23, 2013	Norma Torres (D)	Freddie Rodriguez (D)
45	November 19, 2013	Bob Blumenfield (D)	Matt Dababneh (D)
54	December 3, 2013	Holly Mitchell (D)	Sebastian Ridley-Thomas (D)
31	April 5, 2016	Henry Perea (D)	Joaquin Arambula (D)
51	December 5, 2017	Jimmy Gomez (D)	Wendy Carrillo (D)
54	April 3, 2018	Sebastian Ridley-Thomas (D)	Sydney Kamlager (D)
39	June 5, 2018	Raul Bocanegra (D)	Luz Rivas (D)
45	June 5, 2018	Matt Dababneh (D)	Jesse Gabriel (D)
79	April 6, 2021	Shirley Weber (D)	Akilah Weber (D)
54	May 18, 2021	Sydney Kamlager (D)	Isaac Bryan (D)
18	August 31, 2021	Rob Bonta (D)	Mia Bonta (D)
17	April 19, 2022	David Chiu (D)	To be chosen
49	April 19, 2022	Ed Chau (D)	To be chosen
11	June 7, 2022	Jim Frazier (D)	To be chosen
80	June 7, 2022	Lorena Gonzalez (D)	To be chosen

List of recall elections[]

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

District	Date	Incumbent	Winner
60	May 16, 1995	Paul Horcher (I)	Gary Miller (R)
17	August 22, 1995	Michael Machado (D)	None
67	November 28, 1995	Doris Allen (R)	Scott Baugh (R)

Results[]

80th district special election, 2013[]

California's 80th State Assembly district special election, 2013
Vacancy resulting from the resignation of Ben Hueso
Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Lorena Gonzalez	18,125	71.2
	Democratic	Steve Castaneda	6,646	26.1
	Libertarian	Kaiden Degas (write-in)	548	2.2
	Republican	Lincoln Pickard (write-in)	140	0.5
Total votes			25,459	100.0
	Democratic hold

52nd district special election, 2013[]

California's 52nd State Assembly district special election, 2013
Vacancy resulting from the resignation of Norma Torres
Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	No party preference	Paul S. Leon	4,219	24.9
	Democratic	Freddie Rodriguez	3,758	22.2
	Republican	Dorothy F. Pineda	2,453	14.5
	Democratic	Jason A. Rothman	1,545	9.1
	Democratic	Tom Haughey	1,482	8.7
	Democratic	Danielle Soto	1,259	7.4
	Democratic	Doris Louise Wallace	887	5.2
	Democratic	Paul Vincent Avila	752	4.4
	Democratic	Manuel Saucedo	597	3.5
Total votes			16,952	100.0
General election
	Democratic	Freddie Rodriguez	7,630	51.3
	No party preference	Paul S. Leon	7,230	48.7
Total votes			14,860	100.0
	Democratic hold

45th district special election, 2013[]

California's 45th State Assembly district special election, 2013
Vacancy resulting from the resignation of Bob Blumenfield
Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Matt Dababneh	6,088	24.7
	Republican	Susan Shelley	5,205	21.1
	Democratic	Jeff Ebenstein	3,407	13.8
	Republican	Chris Kolski	3,141	12.7
	Democratic	Andra Hoffman	2,477	10.0
	Democratic	Damian Carroll	1,680	6.8
	Democratic	Elizabeth Badger	679	2.8
	Democratic	Dennis De Young	673	2.7
	Republican	Armineh Chelebian	624	2.5
	No party preference	Eric Lewis	432	1.8
	Democratic	Dan McCrory	262	1.1
Total votes			24,668	100.0
General election
	Democratic	Matt Dababneh	14,984	50.6
	Republican	Susan Shelley	14,655	49.4
Total votes			29,639	100.0
	Democratic hold

54th district special election, 2013[]

California's 54th State Assembly district special election, 2013
Vacancy resulting from the resignation of Holly Mitchell
Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Sebastian Ridley-Thomas	13,992	60.2
	Democratic	Christopher R. Armenta	8,270	35.6
	Democratic	John Jake	931	4.0
	No party preference	Morry Waksberg (write-in)	31	0.1
Total votes			23,224	100.0
	Democratic hold

31st district special election, 2016[]

California's 31st State Assembly district special election, 2016
Vacancy resulting from the resignation of Henry Perea
Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Joaquin Arambula	19,621	53.8
	Republican	Clint Olivier	14,708	40.3
	Democratic	Ted Miller	2,152	5.9
Total votes			36,481	100.0
	Democratic hold

51st district special election, 2017[]

California's 51st State Assembly district special election, 2017
Vacancy resulting from the resignation of Jimmy Gomez
Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Wendy Carrillo	5,058	22.2
	Democratic	Luis López	4,243	18.6
	Democratic	Mike Fong	3,675	16.1
	Democratic	Gabriel Sandoval	2,370	10.4
	Democratic	Ron Birnbaum	2,213	9.7
	Democratic	Alex De Ocampo	1,803	7.9
	Democratic	David Vela	1,075	4.7
	Democratic	Mark Vargas	1,022	4.5
	Libertarian	Andrew S. Aguero	405	1.8
	No party preference	Patrick Koppula	328	1.4
	Democratic	Barbara Torres	284	1.2
	Peace and Freedom	John Prysner	232	1.0
	Democratic	Mario Olmos	122	0.5
Total votes			22,830	100.0
General election
	Democratic	Wendy Carrillo	11,100	53.5
	Democratic	Luis López	9,631	46.5
Total votes			20,731	100.0
	Democratic hold

54th district special election, 2018[]

California's 54th State Assembly district special election, 2018
Vacancy resulting from the resignation of Sebastian Ridley-Thomas
Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Sydney Kamlager	22,605	69.0
	Democratic	Tepring Michelle Piquado	4,673	14.3
	Republican	Glen Ratcliff	3,826	11.7
	Democratic	Grayson A. Pangilinan	1,182	3.6
	Democratic	Steve Dunwoody (write-in)	495	1.5
Total votes			32,781	100.0
	Democratic hold

39th district special election, 2018[]

California's 39th State Assembly district special election, 2018
Vacancy resulting from the resignation of Raul Bocanegra
Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Luz Rivas	8,222	42.9
	Republican	Ricardo Antonio Benitez	3,862	20.1
	Democratic	Antonio Sanchez	3,802	19.8
	Democratic	Patty López	1,907	9.9
	Democratic	Yolie Anguiano	922	4.8
	Democratic	Patrea Patrick	467	2.4
Total votes			19,182	100.0
General election
	Democratic	Luz Rivas	31,851	70.8
	Republican	Ricardo Antonio Benitez	13,165	29.2
Total votes			45,016	100.0
	Democratic hold

45th district special election, 2018[]

California's 45th State Assembly district special election, 2018
Vacancy resulting from the resignation of Matt Dababneh
Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Jesse Gabriel	10,632	32.7
	Republican	Justin M. Clark	8,172	25.1
	Democratic	Tricia Robbins Kasson	5,507	16.9
	Democratic	Ankur Patel	3,698	11.4
	No party preference	Dennis Zine	2,491	7.7
	Democratic	David Brin	752	2.3
	Democratic	Raymond J. Bishop	685	2.1
	Democratic	Jeff Bornstein	590	1.8
	Democratic	C.R. Cochrane (write-in)	7	0.0
Total votes			32,534	100.0
General election
	Democratic	Jesse Gabriel	46,168	65.7
	Republican	Justin M. Clark	24,109	34.3
Total votes			70,277	100.0
	Democratic hold

1st district special election, 2019[]

California's 1st State Assembly district special election, 2019
Vacancy resulting from the resignation of Brian Dahle^[1]^[2]
Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Elizabeth Betancourt	27,786	39.1
	Republican	Megan Dahle	25,669	36.2
	Republican	Patrick Henry Jones	12,298	17.3
	Republican	Joe Turner	3,943	5.6
	Republican	Lane Rickard	1,305	1.8
Total votes			71,001	100.0
General election
	Republican	Megan Dahle	59,991	57.3
	Democratic	Elizabeth Betancourt	44,618	42.7
Total votes			104,609	100.0
	Republican hold

79th district special election, 2021[]

California's 79th State Assembly district special election, 2021
Vacancy resulting from the resignation of Shirley Weber^[3]
Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Akilah Weber	33,197	52.0
	Republican	Marco Contreras	21,359	33.4
	Democratic	Leticia Munguia	5,263	8.2
	Democratic	Shane Suzanne Parmely	3,241	5.1
	Democratic	Aeiramique Glass Blake	818	1.3
Total votes			63,878	100.0
	Democratic hold

54th district special election, 2021[]

California's 54th State Assembly district special election, 2021
Vacancy resulting from the resignation of Sydney Kamlager^[4]^[5]
Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Isaac Bryan	21,472	50.8
	Democratic	Heather Hutt	10,538	24.9
	Democratic	Cheryl C. Turner	4,072	9.6
	Democratic	Dallas Fowler	3,235	7.6
	No party preference	Bernard Senter	1,667	3.9
	Democratic	Samuel Robert Morales	1,304	3.1
Total votes			42,288	100.0
	Democratic hold

18th district special election, 2021[]

California's 18th State Assembly district special election, 2021
Vacancy resulting from the resignation of Rob Bonta^[6]
Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Mia Bonta	22,558	38.2
	Democratic	Janani Ramachandran	14,036	23.7
	Democratic	Malia Vella	10,053	17.0
	Republican	Stephen Slauson	5,725	9.7
	Democratic	Victor Aguilar	3,938	6.7
	Democratic	James Aguilar	1,039	1.8
	Democratic	Eugene Canson	1,029	1.7
	No party preference	Joel Britton	750	1.3
Total votes			59,128	100.0
General election
	Democratic	Mia Bonta	43,460	56.8
	Democratic	Janani Ramachandran	33,012	43.2
Total votes			76,472	100.0
	Democratic hold

17th district special election, 2022[]

California's 17th State Assembly district special election, 2022
Vacancy resulting from the resignation of David Chiu
Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	David Campos
	Democratic	Matt Haney
	Democratic	Bilal Mahmood
	Democratic	Thea Selby
Total votes

49th district special election, 2022[]

California's 49th State Assembly district special election, 2022
Vacancy resulting from the resignation of Ed Chau
Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Burton Brink
	Democratic	Mike Fong
Total votes

11th district special election, 2022[]

California's 11th State Assembly district special election, 2022
Vacancy resulting from the resignation of Jim Frazier
Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%

80th district special election, 2022[]

California's 80th State Assembly district special election, 2022
Vacancy resulting from the resignation of Lorena Gonzalez
Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%

References[]

^ https://elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov/special-elections/2019-ad1/certified-list.pdf
^ "General Election Canvass" (PDF). California Secretary of State. Retrieved December 8, 2019.
^ "Special Primary 79th State Assembly Election". San Diego Registrar of Voters. Retrieved April 6, 2021.
^ "CERTIFIED LIST OF CANDIDATES for the Special Primary Election Fifty-Fourth State Assembly District, May 18, 2021" (PDF). California Secretary of State.
^ "Final Official Election Results - Assembly District 54". California Secretary of State. May 18, 2021. Retrieved May 19, 2021.
^ "Special General Election (Post Election Update #2) - August 31, 2021". Alameda County Elections.

[1] ttps://elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov/special-elections/2019-ad1/certified-list.pdf

[2] "General Election Canvass" (PDF). California Secretary of State. Retrieved December 8, 2019.

[3] "Special Primary 79th State Assembly Election". San Diego Registrar of Voters. Retrieved April 6, 2021.

[4] "CERTIFIED LIST OF CANDIDATES for the Special Primary Election Fifty-Fourth State Assembly District, May 18, 2021" (PDF). California Secretary of State.

[5] "Final Official Election Results - Assembly District 54". California Secretary of State. May 18, 2021. Retrieved May 19, 2021.

[6] "Special General Election (Post Election Update #2) - August 31, 2021". Alameda County Elections.

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