Measure P, the one-cent sales tax increase for Ceres coffers, has held onto a healthy lead for passage in the latest vote count at 57.49 percent.

Gary M. Condit and Rosalinda Vierra have prevailed as winners of two open seats on the Ceres City Council.

Votes continue to be counted at the Stanislaus County Elections Division. As of Monday evening, 124,344 ballots have now been counted with lots more remaining to be counted. They include approximately 33,192 remaining vote-by-mail ballots from Election Day and received timely by mail with a postmark of no later than Nov. 10; 113 provisional ballots, 1,662 conditionally voted ballots and 505 miscellaneous ballots.

The latest Monday vote tally shows Measure P with 4,929 votes (57.49 percent) and 3,645 “no” votes, or 42.51 percent. The measure needed a 50 percent plus one vote majority for passage. Measure P will give Ceres the highest sales tax rate in the county at 9.375 percent to infuse approximately $9.4 million per year into the city’s General Fund.

In the District 1 Ceres City Council race, Condit has handily defeated Dorie Perez. Condit led with 1,344 votes (64.9 percent) to Perez’s 727 votes (35.1 percent). Both serve on the Ceres Planning Commission. Condit has resigned from the commission to assume office in December.

Condit will replace James Casey who is retiring from the council.

Incumbent Councilwoman Rosalinda Vierra appeared to be safe in her re-election bid to represent District 2. The Elections Division reported Vierra ahead with 798 votes (43 percent), surpassing Jorge Guerrero at 641 votes (34.59 percent) and Galen Guzman who collected 416 votes (22.41 percent).

In the city of Hughson, scandal plagued Mayor George Carr has faced an upset with Geoff Powers claiming the win as of latest vote counts. Powers had 677 votes (45.1 percent), followed by Sam Rush at 434 votes (28.91 percent). Carr, who has been accused by several women of inappropriate touching, was trailing in last place with 390 votes (25.98 percent).

In the Hughson City Council races, two candidates for two slots mean the election of Julie Ann Strain and Brian Evans. Strain’s vote count was 939 (58.65 percent) while Evans had 662 votes, or 41.35 percent.

As part of a nation sweep against Republicans, Democrat Adam Gray has outdistanced Republican challenger Kevin Lincoln in the 13th Congressional District. As of Wednesday morning the California Secretary of State Elections website gave Gray 74,564 votes (62.2 percent) over Lincoln’s 45,363 votes (37.8 percent).

Gray, a leader in the Blue Dog coalition, defeated incumbent John Duarte in 2024 by just 187 votes, two years after losing to Duarte by 564 votes. On Monday, he led former Stockton mayor Kevin Lincoln by 29,201 votes.

“Tonight, Americans voted for a change in direction,” said Gray, who celebrated with supporters at The Tarmac in Atwater. “They want a government that takes their concerns seriously, lowers the cost of living, protests their economic security, and puts the country’s interests ahead of partisan politics.”

With Republicans struggling to overcome President Donald Trump’s low standing, Democrats rode a “blue wave” to take control of the House and Senate in a resounding midterm triumph.

Congressman Tom McClintock, who represents Hughson and a large part of Modesto, held onto a wide lead over Democrat challenger Michael Masuda in the 5th Congressional District. Republican McClintock had 123,467 votes (56.4 percent) as of Monday evening while Masuda had 95,308 votes (43.6 percent).

“I think it’s a wake-up call for Republicans to return to their Constitutional moorings,” said McClintock, who greeted constituents at the Ten Pin Fun Center in Turlock on Election night. “People are extremely upset over war in Iran and its effect on the economy, and tariffs and their effect on the economy – and they expressed it very clearly across the country tonight.”

In the State Senate District 4 race, Alexandra Duarte remained ahead of Democrat Jaron Brandon as of Monday. Duarte collected 159,493 voters (52.1 percent) with Brandon trailing with 140,703 votes (46.9 percent).

Unopposed for his 22nd district seat, state Assemblyman Juan Alanis collected 51,784 votes as of Monday.

In the governor’s race, U.S. Senator Xavier Becerra will succeed Gavin Newsom, having trounced Republican businessman Steve Hilton. Becerra had 7,288,687 votes (65.8 percent) compared to Hilton’s 3,790,365 votes (34.2 percent) as of Wednesday.

Democrats swept all statewide offices. Fiona Ma defeated Gloria Romero in the lieutenant governor’s race. Incumbent Secretary of State Shirley Weber handily defeated Republican Donald P. Wagner. The state Controller race went to Malia Cohen over Herb W. Morgan. Democrat Eleni Kounalakis defeated Jennifer Hawks. Attorney General Rob Bonta defeated Republican Michael E. Gates.

Two Democrats competed for the Insurance Commissioner office. Jane Kim was ahead of Ben Allen as of Monday in a 5,109,062 to 4,405,624 vote outcome.

Richard Barrera will be the next Superintendent of Public Instruction after handily defeating Sonja Shaw.

California voters defeated a voter ID initiative in Prop. 39 and the so-called Billionaire’s Tax in Prop. 40. They passed Prop. 42 which prohibits new state personal property taxes and certain retroactive state taxes.