Incumbent Tri Ta has a lead over challenger Jimmy Pham in the primary election for Assembly District 70, early results Tuesday night showed, but both will advance together to the November general election.”
Ta, a Republican, is serving his first term in the Assembly and was previously the mayor of Westminster for a decade.
“While it is still early and a lot of votes remain to be counted, the results so far look very promising, and I am thankful to the voters for putting their trust in me,” Ta said in a statement.
Pham, a Democrat, is an immigration attorney vying for his first elected office.
“I am grateful for the support our campaign has received thus far, and I look forward to meeting and discussing California’s future with more voters as we turn our focus to November’s General Election,” Pham said in a statement.
Both men live in Westminster.
Ta has indicated the state needs to do a better job of setting the budget during boom and bust times, as California in the upcoming fiscal year faces a $73 billion deficit. He said he will vote to end the state’s high-speed rail project, prioritize spending money on education in classrooms and fight back state mandates.
Pham has said the state was too late in recognizing the upcoming budget shortfall, and there needs to be more accountability for spending on homelessness and social programs. Pham said funding education is a priority for him.
See the latest election results.
Pham was previously running in California’s 45th congressional district race, but dropped out in October to instead run for the Assembly.
The 70th Assembly District covers the cities of Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Los Alamitos, Midway City, Rossmoor, Stanton and Westminster. Ta won his seat in the 2022 general election with 53% of the vote.
Results will be updated every weekday at 5 p.m. until all ballots are counted.
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