Assemblyman Alex Lee, D-San Jose, appeared headed Tuesday night for a runoff election in November along with businessman Bob Brunton, a rematch of the 2020 race for Lee’s seat.
With 100 percent of precincts partially reporting as of 11 p.m., Lee had garnered 40.4 percent of the vote while Brunton, the only Republican in the five-candidate field, had 21.1 percent.
Lee, who was first elected in 2020 to represent the Assembly’s District 25, is running for re-election in the newly redrawn District 24, which includes parts of southern Alameda County and northern Santa Clara County.
Brunton, who has also served on the Ohlone College Board of Trustees, has run for the former District 25 in each election cycle since 2014 but has never garnered more than 31 percent of a general election vote.
Former Assemblyman Kansen Chu had earned 18.4 percent of votes, as of Tuesday night, in an effort to reclaim the legislative seat he held from 2014 to 2020.
Chu declined to run for re-election in 2020 in order to run for a seat on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. Chu would go on to lose that race.
The top two in Tuesday’s primary will face off in the Nov. 8 general election. The district has been solidly Democratic in previous years — Lee was elected to the Assembly in 2020 with 70.5 percent of the vote.