With all four counties in Assembly District 30 having released their final results for the June primary election, Anna Caballero’s camp is calling her victory a “landslide” and saying that “the starting lines for the upcoming November runoff election against runner-up Karina Cervantez Alejo have become clearer.” Caballero won each of the four counties in the district by substantial margins; winning every city in the district.
Here is a press release from Caballero’s campaign, assessing the election results:
The final results show Anna Caballero with 46.1 percent of the vote, Karina Cervantez Alejo with 26 percent of the vote, Republican Georgia Acosta with 15.6 percent of the vote, and Republican John M. Neville with 12.2 percent of the vote. It is reasonable to assume that had there only been a single Republican candidate in this heavily Democratic district, Alejo would have placed third.
Alejo entered the race favored to win, with the advantage of running a joint campaign with her husband Assembly Member Luis Alejo, who has represented the 30th Assembly District for the last six years and is currently running for Monterey County Supervisor in Salinas, the largest city in the 30th AD. Caballero entered the race late, after the Alejo’s had secured large numbers of big name endorsements for Karina, including the endorsement of the Democratic Party and Sacramento legislators. Additionally, Karina had a $230,000 advantage over Caballero. Despite this, from the time that she entered the race, Caballero significantly outperformed Alejo in garnering support from local elected officials and in fundraising.
In the Santa Cruz County portion of the district, which is composed predominately of the city of Watsonville, Caballero won a stunning 49.9 percent of the vote to Alejo’s 32.4 percent. This was a major upset victory for Caballero, considering that Watsonville is the hometown of Luis and Karina Alejo – both former Mayors and former or sitting City Councilmembers.
In San Benito County, with 15.7 percent of the total District ballots, Caballero won with 47.3 percent, Republican Georgia Acosta came in second with 21.3 percent, and Alejo trailed far behind at 17.8 percent.
Monterey County is the largest single chunk of voters in the District, with 41.7 percent of ballots cast in June. It is anchored by Salinas, the largest city in the District, where Luis Alejo was running in Monterey County Supervisory District 1, and was doing a joint ground operation with his wife. Former Salinas Mayor Caballero soundly defeated Alejo in Monterey County by over 25 points: 52.4 percent to 25.5 percent.
Alejo came closest to Caballero in Santa Clara County, which cast 29.4% of the ballots cast in the primary, but even there she trailed by more than 6 percentage points, and results showed her beating Caballero in only 9 of 77 precincts. In Santa Clara County the two Republican candidates had the highest combined percentage with 36.8 percent, but it appears unlikely that her husband Luis Alejo’s name will help Karina Cervantes Alejo pick up those Republican votes.
On election night Caballero vowed to continue to run a positive campaign about the issues that matter most to the voters heading into the November General Election. “Everyone, from Morgan Hill and Gilroy all the way south to King City and San Ardo, will continue to have a voice in my campaign,” Caballero pledged.
Looking forward to November, Caballero said, “I am eager to represent this District again. I know that the ultimate endorsement that counts is that of the voters and I will be talking to as many of them as possible between now and November. Our community deserves to have a strong voice in Sacramento fighting for them and I’m ready to get to work and deliver results.”