The 2024 United States presidential election in California took place on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, as part of the 2024 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. California voters chose electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote. California has 54 electoral votes in the Electoral College, the most in the country.
The most populous state in the union, California is considered a strongly blue state, having voted Democratic in every presidential election since 1992. In these contests, it has supported Democratic candidates by double digits in each of them except for 2004, when John Kerry won it by 9.95 percentage points. California is the home state of incumbent Vice President Kamala Harris, it was widely expected that California voters would maintain this trend, particularly with Harris as the Democratic nominee. Harris, a native of California, served as the state's attorney general from 2011 to 2017 and later represented California in the U.S. Senate from 2017 to 2021 before assuming the vice presidency. She is the first Californian to lead a major party presidential ticket since Ronald Reagan in 1984 and the first Democrat from the Western United States.
Although Kamala Harris won in California by a margin of 20 percentage points, it represented a significant decrease compared to Joe Biden's 29-point victory in the state in 2020. This trend of diminished Democratic voter turnout was also evident in other traditionally Democratic strongholds, including Massachusetts, New York and Illinois. Harris's performance in California was the worst for a Democratic candidate since 2004, failing to receive at least 60% of the vote in the state for the first time since then.
Republicans have not won a presidential election in California since 1988.
Primary elections
Democratic primary
The California Democratic primary was held on Super Tuesday, March 5, 2024. President Biden won all 424 pledged delegates with nearly 90% of the vote, the largest share of delegates awarded by any contest in the 2024 primaries.
The electors of the Democratic Party are chosen by the candidates who received the most votes in the primary election in their respective congressional district.
Republican primary
The California Republican primary was held on Super Tuesday, March 5, 2024. Former president Donald Trump was challenged by Nikki Haley, the only other major candidate remaining in the Republican primaries. Trump won the state in a landslide, defeating Haley by 60 points and earning all 169 delegates.
The state was the site of the second Republican primary debate, held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on September 27, 2023.
The electors of the Republican Party are their nominees for the main offices of the State of California and for senator at the last two elections, as well as their leaders in the state legislature and party committee.
Libertarian primary
Charles Ballay was the only candidate to qualify for the Libertarian Party primary ballot. Chase Oliver later qualified as a write-in candidate.
The electors for the Libertarian Party were elected by the state party convention.
Green primary
Jill Stein, the Green Party's nominee for president in 2012 and 2016, was the only candidate on the California primary ballot, although she was followed by three write-in candidates. Stein won the primary and earned all 59 of the state's delegates.
Peace and Freedom primary
Three candidates successfully achieved ballot access in the Peace and Freedom Party non-binding presidential primary: Claudia de la Cruz, the nominee for the Party for Socialism and Liberation; Cornel West, who ran an independent campaign after withdrawing from the Green nomination; and Jasmine Sherman. The party's presidential nominee was chosen by the state central committee in August.
American Independent Party
The sole candidate of the American Independent Party primary was James Bradley, who was simultaneously running for the U.S. Senate as a Republican in the blanket primary held on the same day. Andrew George Rummel also qualified as an official write-in candidate.
General election
Candidates
In California, six political parties have qualified for ballot access in the 2024 election. On August 29, 2024, California secretary of state Shirley Weber published the certified list of candidates for the general election:
- Kamala Harris / Tim Walz — Democratic
- Donald Trump / JD Vance — Republican
- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. / Nicole Shanahan — American Independent
- Jill Stein / Butch Ware — Green
- Chase Oliver / Mike ter Maat — Libertarian
- Claudia De la Cruz / Karina Garcia — Peace and Freedom
Weber's office published the list of write-in candidates on October 25, in which Peter Sonski was the only certified candidate listed, alongside his running mate Lauren Onak.
Polling
Kamala Harris vs. Donald Trump
Kamala Harris vs. Donald Trump vs. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. vs. Cornel West vs. Jill Stein vs. Chase Oliver
Results
By county
- Butte (largest municipality: Chico)
- Fresno (largest municipality: Fresno)
- Imperial (largest municipality: El Centro)
- Inyo (largest municipality: Bishop)
- Lake (largest municipality: Clearlake)
- Merced (largest municipality: Merced)
- Riverside (largest municipality: Riverside)
- San Bernardino (largest municipality: San Bernardino)
- San Joaquin (largest municipality: Stockton)
- Stanislaus (largest municipality: Modesto)
By congressional district
Harris won 41 of 52 congressional districts. Trump won 11 congressional districts, including two that elected Democrats.
Analysis
California remained strongly blue, voting to the left of all states except Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Vermont, and the District of Columbia. However, the state had one of the largest rightward shifts in the country, shifting 9% to the right, compared to the national swing of about 6% in this election. Other highly populous blue states also swung significantly rightward in 2024, including New York (by 11%), New Jersey (by 10%), Massachusetts (by 8%), and Illinois (by 6%).
Trump flipped 10 counties that were won by Biden in 2020: Butte, Fresno, Imperial, Inyo, Lake, Merced, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Joaquin, and Stanislaus. Of these 10, all except Butte and Inyo were also won by Hillary Clinton in 2016. Trump's wins in Fresno, Merced, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Joaquin, and Stanislaus marked the first time they voted for a Republican since George W. Bush in 2004, although all are fairly consistently Republican at the state level.
Despite these results, Harris was able to hold onto historically Republican Orange County by a narrow plurality, making it the third election in a row since 1936 that the county has voted Democrat. As a result, Harris also became the first Democrat ever to win Orange County without winning the national popular vote. Orange is one of the highest-income counties, supporting exit polls showing that Harris gained among high-income voters. Harris also won every coastal county except for Del Norte County. She is also the first Democrat since John Kerry to win California despite carrying a minority of counties, winning 25 out of 58.
County swings
57 of California's 58 counties swung right, the only exception being Alpine County, which has an extremely low population and thus frequently swings wildly. Trump's win in Imperial (which is over 80% Hispanic) marked the first time it voted Republican since George H. W. Bush in 1988. Imperial is the most Hispanic county in California, mostly Mexican American, and shifted rightward by 25.23 percentage points. Imperial is home to Calexico, across the border from Mexicali, the capital of Baja California in Mexico. Trump received 40% of the vote in Calexico, the highest percentage since 1972.
Imperial County had the third-largest swing to Trump of any county in the country, behind Maverick County, Texas (27.95%) and Webb County, Texas (25.43%), two other majority-Hispanic counties along the Mexico–United States border.
Trump's win in Lake marked the first time it voted Republican since Ronald Reagan in 1984. Trump was also the first Republican since George W. Bush in 2004 to win at least 30% in Los Angeles County. Trump managed to flip four congressional districts, two of which split tickets and elected Democrats. Trump's gains with Hispanics allowed him to cross 40% in Southern California, becoming the first Republican to do so since 2004, as the region trended to the right of the state as a whole. Trump's gains among Hispanics in California also helped improve his margins in the state, also allowing him to carry 9 of the state's 11 Hispanic majority counties. In contrast to the number of counties that switched from Democratic to Republican in this cycle, none flipped in the opposite direction.
Trump also gained ground with Asian American voters in California, with Asian Americans being almost entirely responsible for the rightward shift in areas lacking significant Hispanic populations, such as San Francisco. Some of the most heavily Asian American counties in the country, including Alameda County (32% Asian), Santa Clara County (39% Asian), San Mateo County (30% Asian), and the city of San Francisco (34% Asian), all swung significantly rightward.
In majority-Chinese Arcadia and Temple City, both communities in the San Gabriel Valley, Harris's margin dropped by 10% and 13% respectively. Trump also gained in mostly Filipino Daly City by 15%. Trump became the first Republican since 2004 to win the Inland Empire, California's third largest metropolitan area and a blue collar majority-Hispanic region that had been economically struggling.
Trump achieved significant gains in Los Angeles, receiving 27% of the vote, the highest for a Republican candidate in the city since 1988. This was a marked improvement from 2020, when Trump garnered only 21%, and 2016, when he received just 16% of the vote in the city. According to the New York Times 2024 precinct map, Trump's substantial gains in Los Angeles were largely attributed to increased support in Hispanic and Asian neighborhoods, although he made gains in nearly every single precinct in the city regardless. These communities, which have traditionally leaned Democratic, showed growing support for Trump, especially in areas where economic concerns, cultural values, and opposition to some policies of the Democratic Party resonated with voters. Trump also saw an increase in Latino support in California, garnering 38% of the Latino vote, compared to 29% in the 2020 election, according to Fox News voter analysis. Trump won 42% of Latino men compared to Harris's 54%, and won 34% of Latina women compared to Harris's 63%—both major improvements from 2020.
Statewide trends
Harris underperformed Biden's 2020 total by nearly 2 million, losing over 600,000 votes in Los Angeles County alone. By contrast, Trump narrowly surpassed his vote total from 2020, solidifying his base of support in the state at just over 6 million votes; this marked his third-highest vote total from any state in the country in 2024, only behind 6.4 million in Texas and 6.1 million in Florida.
The swing in the presidential contest was part of a broad rightward swing in California. This included a broad rejection of progressive ballot measures and a near-universal swing against progressive local candidates, including several successful recall elections. Republican U.S. Senate candidate Steve Garvey was one of the few Republican U.S. Senate candidates that outran Donald Trump, receiving over 230,000 more votes than Trump in the concurrent 2024 United States Senate elections in California, while Democrat Adam Schiff received about 240,000 fewer votes than Harris. This trend was attributed to Garvey's name recognition, especially among Hispanics, due to his former status as a celebrity baseball player.