UPDATE: AP 38% Still Uncounted in SD-24. Marshall and Goldsmith Still Lead, Erickson Holding On

Update – Wednesday June 3rd — 6:00 p.m.

The LA County Registrar released a new ballot count Wednesday afternoon. Erickson gained ground in the latest tally, climbing to 16.8% with 33,069 votes. Goldsmith held second at 18.7% with 36,768 votes. Marshall remained in first at 20.0% with 39,337 votes. The gap between Erickson and Goldsmith narrowed slightly to 3,699 votes. Meanwhile Republican Kristina Irwin also gained ground, moving to 15.9% with 31,298 votes — now trailing Erickson by fewer than 1,800 votes. The AP revised its estimate to 62% of votes counted. We’ll keep you updated. 

Earlier story published – Wednesday June 3rd – 5 a.m

In a bit of a stunner, a Republican is leading the California State Senate District 24 race, topping a ten-candidate field in a district that has trended heavily Democratic for years and setting up what appears to be a Democrat versus Republican November matchup for the second time in four years. Many had expected the runoff to be a contest between two Democrats.

Torrance Republican G. Rick Marshall and Beverly Hills Democrat Brian Goldsmith look likely to advance to the November runoff in the race for California State Senate District 24, according to early returns. Results were partial and uncertified as of early Wednesday. We’ll continue to update results throughout. 

According to the California Secretary of State, 60% of the estimated vote has been counted as of 12:30p Wednesday. Marshall led with 20.46% and 37,902 votes. Goldsmith was in second at 18.48% with 34,242 votes. West Hollywood City Councilmember John Erickson, who entered the race with the backing of the full California labor movement, was in third at 16.38% with 30,340 votes — trailing Marshall by more than 7,500. Vote center ballots, cast in person on Election Day, accounted for nearly 30% of all ballots counted — and they seemed to have broken heavily for Marshall, whose South Bay base turned out in force. The race will not be officially certified until July 10.

Goldsmith posted a video to Instagram late Tuesday night. “The early returns are in, and they are encouraging,” Goldsmith said. “We are cautiously optimistic. We seem to be in one of the top two positions, which is the key. Very grateful for all the support from folks across the 24th District. We are gonna keep on monitoring this in the hours and days to come, and we will keep you updated.” WEHOonline reached out to his campaign for further comment.

If the results hold, Erickson’s campaign would mark one of the most heavily labor-backed efforts in the district’s recent history to fall short. His coalition included the full Los Angeles County Federation of Labor AFL-CIO, UNITE HERE Local 11, SEIU California, the California Teachers Association, the California Nurses Association, six AFSCME locals, IBEW Local 18, the Iron Workers, the Carpenters, the Laborers, and the United Auto Workers. Four of the five Los Angeles County supervisors also endorsed him.

November would instead pit a Democrat against a Republican in a district that has trended heavily Democratic for years and sent only Democrats to Sacramento for more than a decade. Many political observers had expected the runoff to be between two Democrats. SD-24 includes West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Malibu, Venice, Brentwood, Bel Air, Hollywood, Miracle Mile, Torrance, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Palos Verdes Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Estates, and unincorporated Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Marshall, a clinical informatics specialist at UC Irvine Health, is a longtime Torrance resident who has run for office before — including two bids for the California State Board of Equalization in 2018. His campaign centered on taxes, state spending, homelessness, and what he called pay-to-play politics in Sacramento. He had no major institutional endorsements and raised a fraction of what the leading Democrats spent in the race.

Goldsmith raised more than $2 million — more than any other candidate in the race. His endorsers included Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, his Harvard classmate. Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman, an independent who previously ran as a Republican, also backed him. So did West Hollywood Councilmember Lauren Meister, who passed over her colleague Erickson to do it.

The primary wasn’t kind to Erickson on other fronts either. At the California Democratic Party’s endorsing convention in February, he received 8% of delegate votes in his own senate district — eight votes out of 92. Malibu-based cardiologist Sion Roy won the endorsement with 67%. The West Hollywood Beverly Hills Democratic Club, headquartered in Erickson’s own city, failed to endorse anyone after Erickson got 56% of the membership vote and fell short of the 60% threshold. Goldsmith got 59%. Neither cleared the bar.

West Hollywood Councilmember Lauren Meister spoke against the committee’s recommendation of Erickson before that vote. “We can do better,” Meister said. That was all she said.

The campaign was a rough one. A WEHOonline op-ed called out Erickson for scrubbing any reference to his gay identity and to West Hollywood from his campaign website — a pattern that extended to his official ballot candidate statement, which contained zero mention of the city he has represented since 2020. Former West Hollywood Mayor Steve Martin wrote that a pro-Erickson mailer featuring drag donkeys looked more like a hit piece than a campaign ad, and raised questions about the political judgment behind it. Attack ads targeting Erickson cited his city-funded trip to Rome to meet Pope Francis and his taxpayer-funded trip to Paris for the Olympics Pride House torch handoff. Erickson responded with a mailer and a social media video calling those attacks homophobic. Many in the district questioned that framing.

WEHOonline covered the SD-24 race more extensively than any other local outlet. That coverage became fodder for attack mailers and ads targeting Erickson — several of which cited WEHOonline stories. Obviously, WEHOonline and its staff had no involvement in any campaign advertising or independent expenditure activity. Any such involvement would constitute a serious breach of journalistic ethics and a potential violation of the California Political Reform Act, enforced by the Fair Political Practices Commission. The stories were public, findable by anyone with a Wi-Fi connection and a Google search, and the campaigns that used them made their own choices about what to do with them. In a race where more than 90% of voters began with no opinion of any candidate, the repeated use of Erickson’s name in paid advertising is at minimum a data point worth noting.

Goldsmith, a former political journalist and media consultant, said during the campaign he never planned to run for office. Two things changed his mind, he told WEHOonline last week at the Helen Albert Farmers Market in Plummer Park: the 2024 election, and the January fires.

“Not just the outcome, but the way that the critique of our party was that we were the party of homelessness and disorder and crime,” Goldsmith said. “And there is some truth to that critique, and we’ve got to clean that up.”

The general election is November 3.