Can’t see the video? Click here. Scroll down to read the transcript.

The first results from the California primary are here, and with them comes the anticipation of who out of 61 gubernatorial candidates will be moving on to the general election.

In this special episode of “Reporter’s Roundtable,” find out what’s going on with the ongoing count of ballots throughout California, as well as the top three candidates who could potentially be moving on to the general election this fall — Steve Hilton, Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer.

City Times reporters Tresean Osgood and Rosemary Archer touch on the issues that matter most to City College students according to the City College Community Agenda, which identifies issues and elicits questions that City Times Media reporters use to engage political candidates and focus their election reporting.

Osgood and Archer discuss how much those issues mean to the candidates on your ballot.

Can’t access the audio? Click here. Scroll down to read a transcript.

As of 9 p.m. on Tuesday, June 2:

State-wide, according to the Associated Press: 

• Steve Hilton 26.6%
• Xavier Becerra 25.9%
• Tom Steyer 19.7%

In San Diego, according to the San Diego County Registrar of Voters:

• Hilton 32.6%
• Becerra 25%
• Steyer 18.1%

Results tonight included mail ballots received before Election Day and vote center ballots from early voting between May 23-June 1.

This typically includes votes for qualified write-in candidates, according to the San Diego County Registrar of Voters.

Ballots cast at voting centers on June 2 will be transported to the Registrar of Voters after 8 p.m. tonight.

These ballots will then be counted, and results will be updated in intervals until all of the ballots have been accounted for. 

According to the County News Center of San Diego, the final unofficial update for June 2 election votes will take place by midnight or later on June 3. 

Additional unofficial result updates by the Registrar of Voters will be shared on June 4, 5, and 8 by 6 p.m each day.

All results are unofficial until completion of the official canvass and certification of the election, which is expected to take place on or before July 2, according to the San Diego County Registrar of Voters.

The top two candidates, regardless of party, advance to the General Election in November.

Transcript:

Tresean Osgood 0:00
Hello, and welcome to Reporters Roundtable Election Edition, produced by City Times Media. I’m your host, Tresean Osgood, and I’m joined here by my co-host, Rosemary Archer. And tonight we are looking at, we’re looking at the two candidates for governor who will finish ahead of the other 61 hopeful candidates in the California primary.

Rosemary Archer 0:31
And it’s not just the governor’s primary that’s going to be happening. That’s one of 47 different contests in San Diego County alone this election day, and we’re just getting started by counting a potentially record-breaking number of ballots cast by more than 2 million registered voters.

Tresean Osgood 0:49
The results, as of 9 p.m. statewide, have Steve Hilton leading with 26.6% followed by Javier Becerra in second with 25.9% and Tom Steyer in third with 19.7%

Rosemary Archer 0:49
And here in San Diego, Steve Hilton is leading again with 32.6% Becerra in second with 25 even, and Steyer in third place with 18.1

Tresean Osgood 1:16
And these results are subject to change as we are only counting those who are in-person voting right now, and mail-in ballots will be counted later, so the results will kind of trickle down as the days follow, and then the results will be finally finalized in July. So, Rosemary, I know you’ve been following Hilton since the start of our coverage of the election, and I just want to know your thoughts on him as a candidate, and do you think he would be a nice fit for California as governor?

Speaker 2 1:54
I don’t think so. There’s there’s a lot that you have to think about, and it’s really bold, especially for a Republican candidate, especially Steve Hilton, to accept an endorsement from Donald Trump. And I think that’s the thing on everyone’s minds right now, is that not only did Donald Trump and JD Vance today endorse him, he actually doubled down on it, and said that he was honored to have the endorsement, and in California, where Donald Trump is extremely low in the approval ratings in the state, it, you would think that it would hurt his chance at making it to the general, and right now it’s anybody’s game, but that again, as of as of 9 p.m. he does seem to be leading the race, so it, the only thing that I can really do, or anybody can do, is just wait.

Tresean Osgood 2:53
Definitely, we’re all on the edge of our seats, and I’ve been following Thurmond, but he’s obviously not in our top three, so it’s no point in talking about him. But as of right now, Becerra, who has been here on our House of Representatives from 1993 to 2017 as well as being a part of the Biden administration as US Secretary of Health and Human Services, he seems like he has a nice head on his shoulders, very open to helping out students with his free college affordability that he’s kind of been pushing, and I just want to know, what do you think about Becerra? He’s definitely got some interesting topics, and I want to know your thoughts on that.

Speaker 3 3:39
Oh yeah, Becerra, if, if in the event that both of them, Becerra and Hilton, make it to the general, I feel like Becerra would be a slightly better choice, especially with the, the main issues that our college has chosen as a priority, he wants to freeze utility prices, homeowners insurance, and he wants to stabilize rent prices and also create affordable child care, which is, which are glaring issues in the city, especially with rising costs in pretty much everything. After the Iran war began, we all see, we all saw prices on various things skyrocket, especially on gas. So, I think the, I think the, the freezing of the utility prices and the stabilizing of rent would definitely make a really big dent in the mounting costs that people have to face in the city.

Tresean Osgood 4:43
Definitely, I’ve definitely been feeling that gas price raise, and it’s been hurting how I can travel, how much I’ve been able to manage my time, and how I can get my stuff done from classes and my work schedule, and those three agenda items. We are talking about from our community agenda from City Times is housing and cost of living, which 68% of voters were feeling that that was a big topic that they wanted answers on homelessness and basic needs was followed with 56% and is tied with college access and affordability at 56% as well, and we’re definitely kind of seeing how that is taking hold in the election race, and seeing how everyone’s been trying to deal with it, especially with Becerra, you said his goal of freezing utilities might sound appealing to students of our nature who are here at community college. We don’t have a lot of money, we’re trying to manage the best we can. And I just want to know your thoughts on Steyer. We definitely know he’s a billionaire, he’s been funding his campaign out of his own pocket, and how do you think that either boosts his chances or affects his chances with the Californians in the polls.

Speaker 4 6:10
Sorry, I um, I’m kind of, well, Steyer, in particular, I can understand why people might be hesitant to vote for him, because I feel like we all have, we’re all a little weary about, you know, electing billionaires into office, because we all remember the last time we did that, and it was not a very good idea, and then we did it again, so I can understand why people, you know, might not have Steyer as his first choice, because there has been, especially in recent years, just an overall mistrust of billionaires. I think that’s, I think that Steyer, though, specifically, I don’t, I wouldn’t call him a, I wouldn’t call him a one of the good ones specifically, but he does, I can see that he has good intentions, but if he, if he makes it into the general, and if he becomes governor, I don’t know. Nobody knows how well he’s going to follow through with his intentions or follow through with anything he says. It’s, it’s, it’s very.. again, like, all we can do is wait. I keep saying that, but it’s.. it’s an unfortunate truth.

Tresean Osgood 7:17
Yeah, that’s all we can do right now. I definitely do feel what you’ve been saying about billionaires, and can we trust them? Like, they don’t really relate to us as students who are struggling. We have a lot of different demographics at City College, from single parents to older generation who are trying to get their college and higher education completed to those who are foster youth, and it’s kind of hard to see that correlation of do these billionaires genuinely care about us if they get elected into office, and is it just more kind of just kind of like stat padding and just more just fancy fluff around their name, but do you have any other questions and topics that we should be looking into as of the California primary?

Speaker 5 8:08
I don’t.. it’s not necessarily.. I think I want to talk about college just a little more, if that’s okay with you, because, because you know, we’re a college paper, we write for college students. A thing that I noticed, especially with Steve Hilton, especially, is that he makes it a point to freeze, I think it was to freeze tuition, or to make tuition affordable for CSU students, prioritize California residents as transfer students, however, he also, he says this, but also he supported a, I think it was a proposition that did make it significantly harder for margin California residents of marginalized groups to get into CSU schools. I’m had something to do with, with, with affirmative action, I believe, but those two things together, the fact that they contradict themselves, it does add an extra layer of mistrust, especially for young, the younger generation, and the new wave of voters that are coming in.

Tresean Osgood 9:19
Yeah, we are very concerned about what’s going to happen with college affordability. We have the Becerra saying that he wants to get free tuition, but we haven’t heard a lot about how he’s going to tackle the rise in tuition, and these are all very interesting things to note, but that is going to be the wrap up of our time here, but you can check out our other primary election coverage at our SDcitytimes.com We’ll also be covering the general election later in the fall when we come back from our break. So, thank you so much for joining us tonight. This has been City Times Media, and thank you.