Los Angeles City Councilmember Kevin de León was bumped off the top of the leaderboard, slipping to second place after candidate Ysabel Jurado overtook the incumbent on Tuesday, March 12, to claim the No. 1 spot in the closely watched Council District 14 race.
Although that race is still on track to a runoff election in November, it marked the first time that the embattled de León — who resisted calls to resign for his role in a racist backroom discussion — hasn’t led the District 14 race since vote tallies began trickling in on election night a week ago.
Also on Tuesday, L.A. City Councilmember Nithya Raman narrowly surpassed the 50% mark in her District 4 race. She’ll need to remain above 50% after all ballots have been counted in order to win the race outright.
Unless someone captures a majority of the vote, the top two finishers in L.A. city and school board races will advance to a runoff election in November.
Since vote counts started coming in a week ago, a number of candidates in first place held such wide leads that they’ve already declared victory. But there are other races that have yet to be decided.
Here’s how those tighter races in L.A., San Fernando and Glendale are shaping up, based on the latest vote tallies from the L.A. County registrar’s office on Tuesday. The registrar’s next update will be Wednesday.
See the latest election results
Los Angeles City Council
In District 2, former Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian remained in first place with 37.32%. Jillian Burgos, in second with 21.66%, further distanced herself from Sam Kbushyan, who was in third with 15.42%.
In District 4, Councilmember Raman surpassed the 50% mark for the first time, with 50.19%. Deputy City Attorney Ethan Weaver had 39%, and software engineer Levon Baronian had 10.81%.
In District 10’s five-person race, appointed incumbent Heather Hutt led with 37.96%. Grace Yoo, a community advocate and former city commissioner, was second with 23.42%.
In District 14, Jurado, a tenant rights attorney, squeaked past de León to claim the top spot. She had 24.46% while de León had 23.49%. The two were separated by 318 votes. Assemblymember Miguel Santiago, once in second place, is now third with 21.24%.
Los Angeles Unified School District
In the District 1 race to replace retiring board member George McKenna, Sherlett Hendy Newbill led with 25.73%. Khallid Al-Alim, who lost his endorsement from United Teachers Los Angeles after word surfaced that he had “liked” or reposted antisemitic and sexually explicit social media posts, was in second place with 20.27% while Didi Watts had 17.61%.
In District 3, incumbent Scott Schmerelson had 44.51%. Dan Chang had 29%.
In District 5, special education teacher Karla Griego had 36.29%, followed by Graciela Ortiz with 29.2%. The winner will replace retiring school board President Jackie Goldberg.
San Fernando City Council
Construction law attorney Victoria Garcia was ahead with 39.18%. Sylvia Ballin, a former mayor of San Fernando, had 32.27% and planning commissioner Sean Rivas had 28.55%. The winner in this three-person race will win outright in this primary.
Glendale
In the race for two at-large seats on the Glendale City Council, incumbent Ardy Kassakhian led with 22.84%. Vartan Gharpetian was second with 16.68%, while Vrej Agajanian had 16.12% – with 320 votes separating the two.
In the Glendale Unified school board race, Telly Tse led in Area A with 56.41%, followed by Jordan Henry with 35.2%. In a tight race in Area E, Neda Farid took over the lead with 50.82% while Aneta Krpekyan had 49.18%.
The Glendale Community College board races included Trustee Area 1 where incumbent Desirée P. Rabinov was challenged by Harry Leon, Rabinov had 51.49% to Leon’s 48.51%. In Trustee Area 5 where incumbent Sevan Benlian faced challenger Armine Pogosyan, Benlian had 65.53% and Pogosyan had 34.47%.