Orange County Fifth District Supervisor Katrina Foley was in a tight re-election battle Tuesday evening, falling just short of the votes needed to avoid a runoff election against her top challenger, Assemblywoman Diane Dixon, R-Newport Beach.
Foley, a Democrat, was first elected to the nonpartisan board in a 2021 special election in a five-candidate race consisting of three Republicans and two Democrats, and a majority was not required to win.
She was re-elected in 2022, defeating then-state Sen. Patricia Bates, R-Laguna Niguel, 51.3%-48.7%.
With vote-counting continuing Tuesday night, Foley had 48.4% of the vote, while Dixon had 45.8%
A third candidate, Lucy Vellema, a special education instructor, had 5.7%.
If no candidate receives a majority, the top two finishers will meet in the November general election.
Meanwhile, Fourth District voters were choosing a successor to Democrat Doug Chaffee, who is barred from running for re-election because of term limits. That race was bound for a runoff between Republican Buena Park Mayor Connor Traut and Democratic Orange County Board of Education Trustee Tim Shaw, who both had about 32% of the vote Tuesday night.
Also in the race were Fullerton Mayor Fred Jung and La Habra City Councilwoman Rose Espinoza, but they were running well behind the front-runners.
Democrat Vicente Sarmiento cruised to victory in his bid for a second term representing the Second District.
The only local congressional race to feature some suspense on election night was in the 40th District, with Republican incumbents Young Kim and Ken Calvert facing off following the congressional redistricting approved by voters in November.
As the vote tally continued, Calvert led the eight-candidate field Tuesday night with roughly 35% of the vote, with Kim following at about 20.4%. Democrat Esther Kim-Varet was pacing third at 16.4%.
The other candidates are Nina Linh, with no party preference, and Democrats Lisa Ramirez, Joe Kerr, Francis Xavier Hoffman and Claude Keissieh.