# 2018 United States Senate election in California

Elections in California :
Federal governmentU.S. President
1852
1856
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Dem
Rep
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Dem
Rep
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Dem
Rep
2008
Dem
Rep
2012
Dem
Rep
2016
Dem
Rep
2020
Dem
Rep
2024
Dem
Rep
U.S. Senate
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1850
1852 sp
1856
1857 sp
1860
1860 sp
1868
1872
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1873 sp
1878
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1885
1886 sp
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1946 sp
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1968
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1974
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1980
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1988
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1992 sp
1994
1998
2000
2004
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2010
2012
2016
2018
2022
2022 sp
2024
2024 sp
2028
2030
U.S. House of Representatives
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12th
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5th sp
1988
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32nd sp
2002
2004
2005
5th sp
48th sp
2006
50th sp
2007
36th sp
2008
12th sp
2009
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32nd sp
2010
2011
36th sp
2012
2014
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2017
34th sp
2018
2020
25th sp
2022
22nd sp
2024
16th
20th sp
30th
45th
47th
2026 :
State governmentExecutive Governor
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2003 (recall)
2006
2010
2014
2018
2021 (recall)
2022
2026
Lieutenant governor
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2010
2014
2018
2022
2026
Attorney general
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2010
2014
2018
2022
2026
Secretary of state
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1974
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1982
1986
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2010
2014
2018
2022
Treasurer
1994
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022
2026
Controller
1994
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022
Insurance commissioner
1994
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022
Superintendent
1994
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022
Board of equalization
2018
2022
Legislature Senate
1988
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2010
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2024
Special
Assembly
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2010
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2014
2016
2018
2020
2021 (79th sp)
2022 (17th sp)
2024
Special
Judiciary Court of appeals
1994
1998
2002
2006
Elections by year
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2005
2006
2008
Feb
Jun
Nov
2009
2010
Jun
Nov
2012
Jun
Nov
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024 :
State propositions1910–1919
1911
4
7
8
1960–1969
1964
14
1970–1979
1978
6
8
13
1980–1989
1982
8
1986
64
65
1988
98
99
1990–1999
1994
187
1996
196
209
215
218
1998
6
10
227
2000–2009
2000
21
22
36
39
2003
53
54
2004
1A
55
56
57
58
59
60
60A
61
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71
2005
73
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2006
81
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2008
91
92
93
94, 95, 96, and 97
98 and 99
1A
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
2009
1A
1B
1C
1D
1E
1F
2010–2019
2010
13
14
15
16
17
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
2012
29
30
32
34
37
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39
2014
1
2
41
42
45
46
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48
2016
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
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60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
2018
68
69
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72
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
2020–2029
2020
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
2022
1
26
27
28
29
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31
2024
1
2
3
4
5
6
32
33
34
35
36
Full list :
Los Angeles CountyLos Angeles County Board of supervisors
1980
1996
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024
Ballot measures
1980
A
2008
R
2012
B
J
2016
M
Elections
2020
2022
2024
Los Angeles Mayor
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1898
1900
1902
1904
1906
1909 (sp)
1909
1911
1913
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1917
1919
1921
1923
1925
1929
1933
1937
1938
1941
1945
1949
1953
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1961
1965
1969
1973
1977
1981
1985
1989
1993
1997
2001
2005
2009
2013
2017
2022
2026
City attorney
2009
Ballot measures
1986
U
2017
S
Elections
2009
2011
2013
2015
2017
2019 (sp)
2020
2022
2023 (sp)
2024
Long Beach Mayor
1994
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022 :
Orange CountyOrange County Board of supervisors
2018
2020
2022
2024
District attorney
2018
Anaheim Mayor
2002
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022
Irvine Mayor
1988
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024
Costa Mesa Municipal
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2024 :
SacramentoMayor
2000
2004
2008
2012
2016
2020
2024 :
San Diego CountySan Diego County Board of supervisors
2020
San Diego Mayor
1887
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1911
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2005 (sp)
2008
2012
2013–14 (sp)
2016
2020
2024
2028
City attorney
2004
2008
2012
2016
2020
City council
2002
2004
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2008
2010
2012
2014
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2024
Special :
San FranciscoMayor
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1903
1905
1907
1909
1911
1931
1935
1939
1943
1947
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1967
1971
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1983 (recall)
1983
1987
1991
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1999
2003
2007
2011
2015
2018 (sp)
2019
2024
District attorney
2019
2022 (recall)
2022 (sp)
2024
Board of supervisors
1977
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024
Board of education
2018
2022 (recall)
Ballot measures
2024
G
Elections
2004
Mar
Nov
2005
2006
Jun
Nov
2007
2008
Feb
Jun
Nov
2009
2010
Jun
Nov
2011
2012
Jun
Nov
2013
2022
Feb :
San JoseMayor
1974
1978
1982
1986
1990
1994
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022
2024 :
Other localities
Bakersfield
Mayoral elections:
2004
2008
2012
2016
2020
2024
Fresno
Mayoral elections:
1996
2000
2004
2008
2012
2016
2020
2024
Oakland
Mayoral elections:
1994
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022
2024
2025
Riverside
Mayoral elections:
1997
2001
2005
2009
2012
2016
2020
2024
San Bernardino
Mayoral elections:
2005
2009
2014
2018
2022
Stockton
Mayoral elections:
2008
2012
2016
2020
2024 :
vte :
The 2018 United States Senate election in California took place on November 6, 2018, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent California, concurrently with other elections to the United States Senate, elections to the United States House of Representatives, and various state and local elections.
Under California's non-partisan blanket primary law, all candidates appear on the same ballot, regardless of party. In the primary, voters may vote for any candidate, regardless of their party affiliation. In the California system, the top two finishers — regardless of party — advance to the general election in November, even if a candidate receives a majority of the votes cast in the primary election. Washington and Louisiana have similar "jungle primary" style processes for U.S. Senate elections, as does Mississippi for U.S. Senate special elections.
The candidate filing deadline was March 8, 2018, and the primary election was held on June 5, 2018.
Democratic incumbent Dianne Feinstein won re-election in 2012 with 63% of the vote, taking the record for the most popular votes in any U.S. Senate election in history, with 7.86 million votes. Feinstein, at the time, was the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. She turned 85 years old in 2018, leading some to speculate that she would retire in January 2019, as her long-time colleague Barbara Boxer did in January 2017. However, Feinstein ran for re-election to her fifth full term, winning 44.2% of the vote in the top-two primary; she faced Democratic challenger Kevin de León in the general election, who won 12.1% of the primary vote. For the second time since direct elections to the Senate began after the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, no Republican appeared on the general election ballot for the U.S. Senate in California. The highest Republican finisher in the primary won only 8.3 percent of the vote, and the 10 Republicans only won 31.2 percent of the vote among them. Briefly, during the early stages of the primary, Patrick Little, a Neo-Nazi running as a Republican polled at 18% which at the time put him in second place and the likely runoff candidate against Feinstein, however, his campaign collapsed after the media reported on his views.
In the general election, Feinstein defeated de León by an eight-point margin, 54% to 46%. This was Feinstein's closest election since 1994, as well as her last run for elected office, as she died in office in September 2023.

## Candidates
### Democratic Party
#### Advanced to general

* Kevin de León, President pro tempore of the California State Senate
* Dianne Feinstein, incumbent U.S. Senator

#### Eliminated in primary

* Adrienne Nicole Edwards, Vice Chairwoman on the HDT Community Development Foundation board
* Pat Harris, attorney
* Alison Hartson, national director of Wolf PAC
* David Hildebrand, legislative analyst
* Herbert G. Peters, retired aerospace engineer and candidate for U.S. Senate in California in 2016
* Douglas Howard Pierce
* Gerald Plummer
* Donnie O. Turner, Air Force veteran

#### Withdrawn

* Topher Brennan
* John Melendez, television writer and radio personality
* Steve Stokes, candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2016

#### Declined

* Ana Kasparian, co-host of The Young Turks
* Joe Sanberg, entrepreneur and investor
* Tom Steyer, hedge fund manager
* Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks

### Republican Party
#### Declared

* Arun K. Bhumitra, businessman
* James P. Bradley, businessman
* Jack Crew, bus driver
* Erin Cruz, published author
* Rocky De La Fuente, entrepreneur and perennial candidate
* Jerry Joseph Laws, candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2016
* Patrick Little, neo-Nazi and Holocaust denier (denounced by California Republican Party)
* Kevin Mottus, candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2016
* Mario Nabliba, scientist
* Tom Palzer, activist, retired city planner and candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2016
* Paul Allen Taylor, businessman

#### Withdrawn

* Donald R. Adams, businessman
* Gary Coson
* John Estrada
* Timothy Charles Kalemkarian, perennial candidate
* Ernie Konnyu, former U.S. Representative
* Caren Lancona, businesswoman
* Jazmina Saavedra, businesswoman and activist
* Stephen James Schrader, veteran

#### Declined

* Kevin Faulconer, mayor of San Diego
* Caitlyn Jenner, 1976 Olympic gold medalist and television personality
* Arnold Schwarzenegger, actor and former Governor of California
* Ashley Swearengin, former mayor of Fresno

### Libertarian Party
#### Declared

* Derrick Michael Reid, retired attorney and engineer and candidate for president in 2016

### Green Party
#### Declared

* Michael V. Ziesing (write-in)

### Peace and Freedom Party
#### Declared

* John Thompson Parker

### No party preference
#### Declared

* Colleen Shea Fernald, perennial candidate
* Rash Bihari Ghosh
* Tim Gildersleeve, businessman and researcher
* Michael Fahmy Girgis
* Don J. Grundmann, California Constitution Party chairman and perennial candidate (Constitution Party)
* Jason M. Hanania
* David Moore (Socialist Equality Party)
* Lee W. Olson
* Ursula M. Schilling (write-in)
* Ling Ling Shi, evangelist

#### Withdrawn

* Jerry Leon Carroll
* Michael Eisen, biologist
* Charles Junior Hodge
* Richard Thomas Mead
* Clifton Roberts (Humane Party)