Real-Time Results: Walnut Creek Midterm Election 2026

WALNUT CREEK, CA — The polls are closed in Contra Costa County, and voters will soon know whether Walnut Creek school board incumbents held their seats and who will represent Trustee Area 1 on the Acalanes Union High School District board, if billionaires will get their own California tax, and whether a blue wave will flood Congress, possibly sinking the final two years of President Donald Trump’s lame-duck presidency.

Millions of voters and election officials wait not only for the results but also for the president’s reaction. Trump’s Justice Department spent the final two weeks of the campaign season issuing subpoenas to California election officials and suing to block 20,000 Golden State ballots from being counted amid allegations of illegal voting. The Justice Department issued subpoenas for multiple California election officials to appear in court the day after the election.

Amid that contentious backdrop, Californians cast their ballots for a new governor, widely expected to be Democrat Xavier Becerra, who went into the election with a wide lead in the polls over Republican Steve Hilton.

The outcome of dozens of down-ballot primary races also hangs in the balance in Contra Costa County.

Click here to track your ballot and make sure it is counted.

As of September, the California Secretary of State reported that 23,164,977 Californians were registered to vote, which accounts for more than 85 percent of the state's eligible voting population.

Not surprisingly, there are far more registered Democrats than Republicans in the state, with 45 percent for the former and 25 percent for the latter. [Find your county’s registration stats here on page 17 of the Secretary of State’s report].

In Contra Costa County, the rate of voter registration is high. As of September, it was more than 90 percent — with 51.6 percent of voters registered as Democrats, 19 percent as Republicans.

Record Turnout

Based on early voting, California is poised to see 60 percent of registered voters head to the polls, a record for a gubernatorial race, Paul Mitchell, of political data analysis firm Political Data told The San Francisco Chronicle.

While the governor’s race was expected to be called early Tuesday, it’s California’s congressional races and ballot measures poised to offer the biggest upsets and surprises. Hanging in the balance is control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Mitchell predicted that five key redrawn congressional districts appear poised to deliver Democratic victories driven, in part, by high turnout among Latino voters.

“I think the blue wave is on track,” Mitchell told The Chronicle. “It seems to be on track that we’re going to have a really strong turnout.”

So far, voter turnout has been higher in competitive races such as the Central Valley’s District 22 and the 48th Congressional District in San Diego — two districts Democrats hope to flip after their mid-decade gerrymander.

As of Oct. 29, Democratic voters represented 51 percent of ballots returned statewide compared to just 28 percent among Republican voters, according to the Political Data tracker.

Click here for all County election results.

WALNUT CREEK

Two seats were open on the Walnut Creek City Council. Both uncontested. They will be filled by Brendan Moran and Cherise Khaund. They were the only candidates for two seats, with councilmembers elected citywide to four-year terms.

Walnut Creek School District board — Incumbent Heidi Hernandez Gatty, Eryn Holl King and Geetha Ganti were leading the race for three seats with 24 percent, 22 percent and 17 percent of the votes, respectively. Incumbent Wenlei Johnson and Aileen Ong each had 15 percent, followed by Rod Ehsani with 7 percent.

Acalanes Union High School District, Trustee Area 1 — Appointed board member Stacey Schweppe was leading with 58 percent of the votes, followed by education nonprofit executive Nithin Iyengar with 42 percent. Only residents of that trustee area voted in the contest (2,560 votes to 1,833 votes).

Mount Diablo Unified School District, Trustee Area 2 — Jane Baulch-Enloe was leading with 55 percent of the votes, followed by Dorothy Weisenberger with 45 percent (6,799 votes to 5,596 votes).

Mount Diablo Unified School District, Trustee Area 4 — Brian Thomas Lawrence was leading with 68 percent of the votes, followed by Al Anderson with 32 percent. Voting in both Mount Diablo contests was limited to residents of the respective trustee areas (8,587 votes to 4,045 votes).

City treasurer — Incumbent Ronald Cassano ran unopposed and had 100 percent of the votes counted (17,002 votes).

Measure T — Yes was leading with 60 percent of the votes, followed by no with 40 percent, above the majority approval requirement in the preliminary count. The measure proposed changing the city treasurer position from elected to appointed (12,516 yes votes to 8,240 no votes).

These figures reflected the 10:44 p.m. report, when ballot counting was still underway. Percentages were rounded to the nearest whole number.

Gubernatorial Race

Democrat Xavier Becerra is leading among Contra Costa County voters with 72 percent of the votes, followed by Republican Steve Hilton with 28 percent. These totals cover Contra Costa County only and do not represent the statewide result (171,635 votes to 66,994 votes).

Click here for real-time results in the California Governor’s races.

Congressional Races

All 52 of California’s Congressional seats were on the ballot.

Congressional races across California were under intense scrutiny following voter approval of Proposition 50, a partisan redistricting measure expected to reshape the state’s political map. Thanks to the redistricting, only a handful of districts were truly competitive. Democrats hoped to flip as many as five Republican House seats in a bid to overturn the GOP’s slim House majority.

Democrats think they can flip as many as five seats, with four seeming very much in reach, according to the polls. Both parties are spending like control of the House is on the line.

Click here for real-time results in California’s Congressional races.

Propositions

There were 14 statewide propositions on the ballot this week. Arguably, the most hot-button ballot initiatives involve taxation. Proposition 40 is the highly discussed billionaire tax, while Propositions 41 and 42 aim to counter the measure. Proposition 3 also addresses taxes on the state's highest earners.

Click here for real-time results for all of California’s ballot measures.