Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman and Republican Larry Thompson are headed to November’s runoff in the race to represent California’s 32nd Congressional District, ending the possibility of a Democrat-versus-Democrat generational battle that had been a major storyline throughout the primary election.
More votes will be tabulated in the coming days. But already, The Associated Press has called the race for Sherman and Thompson, setting up a rematch between the two. In 2024, Sherman defeated Thompson in a landslide victory, capturing 66% of the vote that year.
Sherman, who is completing his 15th term in Congress, and Thompson, an attorney and talent manager, remained in the top two spots in this nine-person contest on Thursday, June 4, with Sherman receiving 36.7% of the votes that had been counted so far and Thompson receiving 36.1%, according to the California secretary of state’s office.
Democrat Jake Levine, a climate and energy expert who worked for the Obama and Biden administrations and had campaigned on the idea that it was time for a new generation of Democrats to lead, was in third place with 13.5%.
When reached Thursday, he said he was waiting for more ballots to be counted to see how the numbers ultimately would shake out.
The six other candidates in the race each has received less than 6% of the votes counted so far.
By his own admission, Sherman said, although he expects to win in November, he’s not so sure it will be by a landslide this time.
As a result of the midcycle redistricting that California voters approved last year, the 32nd Congressional District — which represents parts of western San Fernando Valley, Pacific Palisades and a portion of Ventura County — picked up conservative-leaning Simi Valley.
While it’s still considered a heavily Democratic district, the number of registered Democrats versus Republicans here narrowed by roughly eight percentage points after redistricting.
During the 2024 general election, 50.95% of registered voters in the district were Democrats and 20.32% were Republicans, while another 22.13% had no party preference.
Now, the district is 46.46% Democratic and 23.9% Republican. No-party voters make up another 22.59%.
Sherman believes he’ll ultimately prevail in November and said he’s more focused on ensuring Democrats regain control of the House than on how wide a margin he wins by.
“I do think I will win in November,” he said. “I look forward to talking to voters. What matters to me most is whether Democrats take back the House.”
Thompson, meanwhile, also expressed optimism about his chances of winning in November, despite running as a Republican in a district where Democrats still enjoy a more than 22-point voter registration advantage.
Besides the fact that CA-32 now includes the more conservative Simi Valley, he said that with Republicans Steve Hilton and Spencer Pratt performing well in the races for governor and Los Angeles mayor, respectively, he senses a “sort of conservative movement taking place here.”
That said, Thompson considers himself a “centrist Republican.”
“My campaign is more about common sense. I’m not so much running against Democrats, but I’m running for Californians,” he said.
Several of the other candidates in this race had criticized Sherman, who is completing his third decade in office, for being too entrenched in the establishment and out of touch with constituents.
One of those candidates who campaigned on the idea that it was time to elect a new, younger generation of Democratic leaders was Levine, who was competitive with Sherman in terms of fundraising.
He said Thursday that he was waiting to see how the race ultimately will shake out, but that he was proud of the effort by his campaign. He said he believed his message resonated with voters, including a new generation of voters, on issues of affordable housing and the economy.
“I don’t know what the final numbers will be, but it looks like we will have more than 20,000 people who said this message resonated with them,” Levine said, referencing the number of people he projects voted for him.
“Taking on a 30-year incumbent is a tall order, and change is hard, and change takes time. … We were still able to move tens of thousands of people into this movement,” he continued, adding that he believed the groundwork had been laid for future change in the district.
Sherman, 71, is nearly 30 years Levine’s senior.
He dismissed suggestions that he should step aside because of his age, noting that, based on the ballot count so far, the majority of voters had voted for either him or Thompson, who is 81.
“Voters are not voting on the basis of age. They’re voting on who’s going to do the best job,” Sherman said. “Sometimes that’s a 25-year-old. Sometimes the best job is done by somebody who’s been there a while.
“If the voters in the district thought somebody else could do a better job,” he said, “then they could’ve voted for that person.”