Democrat Josh Newman was ahead of Republican state Sen. Ling Ling Chang, according to Election Day ballot counts from the Orange County, Los Angeles County and San Bernardino County registrars of voters.
Live election results thanks to a partnership with the Reynolds Journalism Institute. CLICK HERE to view live results for every Orange County race.
Chang is aiming to audit nursing homes for their handling of the pandemic, expand paid family leave, provide childcare for essential workers and retrain unemployed workers, according to her campaign website.
Newman wants to address homelessness, youth violence, college affordability and increase veteran services, according to his campaign website.
In the March primary, Chang got around 48 percent of the vote, while Newman won about 35 percent of the vote, beating out Democrat and businessman Joseph Cho who won about 17 percent of the vote.
Roughly 39 percent of the district’s registered voters are Democrats, nearly 31 percent are Republicans and about 25 percent are no party preference voters, according to state data.
Local election experts have told Voice of OC the no party preference voters could be the determining factor in many races, like they were in 2018.