A three-way race in the 28th State Assembly district had candidates swapping places throughout election night, with Gail Pellerin rising as more precincts reported in.
While Los Gatos Mayor Rob Rennie had been in second place in early results, with Republican Liz Lawler leading the pack, Pellerin—a former Santa Cruz County clerk—jumped into first, helped in part by her overwhelming lead on the Pacific side of the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Santa Cruz County election results showed Pellerin racking up 7,254 votes, ahead of Lawler’s 2,793, Rennie’s 2,392 and UC Santa Cruz student Joe Thompson’s 1,281, there, by 2:48am Wednesday.
That was in contrast with the Santa Clara County results, which had Lawler in first with 13,399 votes, by the end of election night. The other candidates—all Democrats—split the remainder. Rennie was in second with 11,021, Pellerin in third with 10,829 and Thompson at just under 10% of the tally with 3,875 votes.
This led to combined results, by 3:16am, where Pellerin was ahead with 18,083 votes (34.2%), Lawler in second with 16,192 (30.6%), Rennie in third with 13,413 (25.4%), and Thompson with 5,156 (9.8%).
The results will be certified July 15, 2022, and the top two candidates will head to a run-off in November.
