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CNN's Continuing Coverage of the 2026 Local Primary Races. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired June 03, 2026 - 03:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Hey everybody, welcome to a special edition of "CNN Newsroom." I'm Polo Sandoval, live in New York, midnight in California, and that is where it is still, election night.

And results are coming in at this hour, and this after Americans in six states voted in key primary elections. New Jersey, South Dakota, Montana, New Mexico, Iowa, and of course, California. They all held their votes -- they all held their votes ahead of the November midterms for key gubernatorial, Senate and House seats.

[03:05:08]

The voting, that is the vote counting itself, that is still underway right now in California, where all eyes are on both the state governor's race and the race for L.A. mayor. The very latest projections right now, they show a crowded ballot of 61 names in the governor's primary, narrowing down to just a few candidates at the head of the pack.

Trump-backed Republican and former Fox News host Steve Hilton, Democrat Xavier Becerra, who actually has four as California's attorney general and as a member of the Biden cabinet. And then there's billionaire Tom Steyer, also a Democrat.

Earlier, while speaking to crowds of supporters, the two leading candidates, they shared their perspective visions for the state's future. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

XAVIER BERCERRA (D), CALIFORNIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: California is America on fast forward. It's gleaming spotlights on the better angels of a perfect union. A preview of an America, not just for the privileged or the partisans, but for all the people, by the people. An economic engine so powerful, so diverse, with more jobs, more

capital, more R&D, GDP. We lift up the entire nation. We are America's center tent pole.

STEVE HILTON (R), CALIFORNIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: It's time for positive, practical things. I'm fighting for working people in California so that you can keep more of what you earn. The best way to put money in people's pockets is to take less out of it in the first place.

And that's what I'll do as your governor. Your first hundred grand tax free, simple, practical things to make life less of a struggle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: And votes are still being counted in the Los Angeles mayoral race and CNN projecting incumbent Karen Bass will be advancing to the general election come November. She has secured at least 36 and a half percent of the votes, putting her in the top spot so far.

Her opponent not yet confirmed, but early results are showing that ex- reality T.V. star Spencer Pratt is just behind her. And he's also going to be competing with city council member Nithya Raman, who's currently in third. Mayor Karen Bass and Spencer Pratt already addressed some of their supporters earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR KAREN BASS (D), LOS ANGELES: I don't care where you're from, when you got here or why you're here. You are an Angeleno and we are going to fight for you and we are going to protect you.

We want a city where you can go out and walk at night because the street lights are on and we got 60,000 of those street lights that are being turned on right now and sidewalks that are going to be because we're going to fix our infrastructure.

SPENCER PRATT (R), LOS ANGELES MAYORAL CANDIDATE: The list of failures across the city. There's people that just want the potholes fixed. Mayor Bass has allowed the city to be covered in potholes.

We don't have sidewalks. We don't have lights. So on the basic level, there's people that care about that.

Then there's the moms who want to be able to go to the parks and not see anybody shooting up fentanyl with their pants off. I was in the valley yesterday, a beautiful Persian restaurant and the lovely owner said, Spencer, they have naked drug addicts in front of the kids when we're trying to have food at the restaurant. This is across the city.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: All right, let's go live to the man who needs no caffeine to work this late hour. Just the ability to track a couple of high stakes elections. Harry Enten joining us, our Chief Data Analyst. Harry, I wonder if we could start with the L.A. Mayor's race. At this

point, obviously you've shown us some of the numbers right now. It's still too soon for Spencer Pratt to claim a victory.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yes, I think that's exactly right. We obviously have already projected that Karen Bass, the current mayor, will advance to the November election. The question is, who does she face off? Yes, it's nonpartisan, but Spencer Pratt, of course, backed by Republicans.

Nithya Raman is a Democrat, along with Karen Bass. You say to yourself, wait a minute, Karen Bass has got about 37 percent of the vote, 36.8 percent. Spencer Pratt, 29.2 percent of the vote. And then you say, Nithya Raman is way back here at 21.4 percent. She can't catch Spencer Pratt, but there's only 51 percent of the vote in.

And what we know is that based upon the partisan registration and historical trends as well, those late ballots tend to lean more Democratic. Therefore, that's the reason why we can't yet project who's going to be in that second spot. And I will also note that in the latest batch that I was looking at, Raman has actually been catching up to Pratt.

So there is still a long way to go. And I will note that Karen Bass, if you look at the general election polling, if she in fact faces Pratt, stands a much better chance of winning against him than against Nithya Raman. So maybe she's hoping that Pratt holds on.

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Now, of course, there's also the gubernatorial race. And this tells you everything you need to know. Right now, it's the top two advance. We don't know who it's going to be. We got Steve Hilton at 27.6, Xavier Becerra at 25.5. Hilton a Republican, Becerra a Democrat.

The question is, can Tom Steyer, who's right now at 19.6 percent of the vote, catch either Becerra or Hilton? Again, the trends we spoke about in Los Angeles, those late ballots, historically speaking, they're Democratic.

Can in fact Steyer could catch Becerra, but more likely what I would expect is Hilton's number will start to drop, Steyer's number will go up. But for right now, the thing that you really have to like, if you're Xavier Becerra, is the San Francisco Bay Area, right around here. That's where Tom Steyer is from, Polo, that is where Tom Steyer is from.

But look at all this navy blue. There's not very much of it at all. In fact, it's Columbia blue for Xavier Becerra. So at this point, what we're looking at is we're looking at a gubernatorial race that at this point is still too early to call. But right now, if there's anyone I really like to be, it's Xavier Becerra.

We'll have to wait and see, because again, what are we talking about? Only 54 percent of the vote in, and you know that these votes can go on and on and on. And historically speaking, who's leading on election night doesn't actually end up necessarily in the top two, Polo.

SANDOVAL: We very well may see a Steyer surprise into the night, or as you point out, in the coming days.

ENTEN: I like that.

SANDOVAL: So happy that you're with us, Harry Enten, to dive through all those numbers. We'll check back with you again in a bit. We want to go now to Melanie Mason, she's the California Bureau Chief for Politico. She joins me live from Sacramento. Melanie, it's also great to have you with us.

MELANIE MASON, CALIFORNIA BUREAU CHIEF, POLITICO: Thanks for having me.

SANDOVAL: I wonder if we could start with the L.A. mayor's race and that possible scenario that Harry just laid out. For Karen Bass, would that be a worst case scenario if she were to end up eventually running against her fellow Democrat?

MASON: Yes, I think there would be some real whiplash for the mayor in that she's probably quite pleased with where she's finished tonight.

But I do think that she's looking at Nithya Raman perhaps being able to overtake Spencer Pratt. I mean, she still has a ways to go. But as Harry pointed out, the trend is what Nithya would like to be seen.

And then that's going to be a very tough head-to-head matchup for Mayor Bass in November, because in a Democratic city like Los Angeles, liberal voters probably, if they're unhappy with Karen Bass, they could go over to Councilmember Raman. They are less likely to go over to Spencer Pratt.

And so I think that that is why Mayor Bass probably would rather run against Spencer Pratt. She would like to see people kick into their partisan polarization. And with Raman, it's a little bit more of a wild card.

SANDOVAL: Yes, I mean, the differences couldn't be any more starker. You have a Trump-supported Republican, or does she face a fellow Democrat as a progressive?

We'll certainly be watching that. Melanie, let's shift gears now. Let's look at the state.

What does the first night of a voter data tell you when it comes to the California governor's race?

MASON: Well, I think that it is a fair conclusion to say that this is a good night for Xavier Becerra. I mean, he started off strong, and I think that he is likely to sort of remain in that position. And even if the vote share for Steve Hilton does go down, I think it is pretty difficult for Steyer to be able to catch up.

He will really need to see an overwhelming shift in these late mail votes. So look, I think if you're Xavier Becerra, much like Karen Bass in Los Angeles, you want to run against a Republican in November. You want Democratic voters to coalesce behind you.

And I think that he probably feels like if he ends up emerging with Steve Hilton, that he probably doesn't have to have a particularly stressful summer or fall.

SANDOVAL: Let's discuss one more possible scenario here, which appears to be a likely one if Republican Stephen Hilton advances to the general. In your view, what does he need to do in order to stand a chance? I mean, you're talking about a blue state dominated by registered Democrats.

MASON: Look, Steve Hilton's message is pretty compelling, right? I mean, he is telling Californians that after 16 years of Democratic dominance, maybe it is time for a change.

And we know from polling that Californians are not happy with the direction that the state is going. And I mean, it is definitely underwater when it comes to how favorable they see the direction of the state.

But at the same time, it is a very Democratic state. What we're going to see in November is a very nationalized election. There's going to be all this talk about who has control of the House, who has control of the Senate.

And I think when everybody sees politics in these national terms, as opposed to where the state is, that's going to make it very difficult for Hilton.

SANDOVAL: And for Becerra himself, I mean, how does he present himself to voters moving forward as well, especially to tap into some of those concerns about public safety, perhaps certainly about affordability right now?

MASON: Yes, I mean, the tricky needle that Becerra has tried to thread, and he will have to continue to do so, is to say, you know, look, I know that people are dissatisfied and that he wants to be able to bring some change, but not too much change because he doesn't want to distance himself from the incumbent governor, Gavin Newsom. And that's because Newsom himself still remains popular in this state.

[03:15:00]

So we've seen him kind of do this dance where he'll acknowledge that people are frustrated about affordability or about homelessness, but he won't say anything about what he would do that's too different from what Governor Newsom would do, with a few exceptions. And so I think he's going to kind of continue to hug Newsom fairly closely, because again, when you're looking at this Democratic state, most of the Democratic voters in the state are pretty happy with Governor Newsom right now.

SANDOVAL: And I'm also curious about the lessons of tonight thus far. Again, those numbers are still coming in, votes are still being counted. For Democrats, when they see the performance of Republicans in California tonight, I mean, is this sort of a warning shot across the bow?

MASON: Look, I think that Democrats absolutely need to be doing some soul searching about this election cycle. I think in particular, the fact that this governor's race was as unsettled as it was, and as unclear for so long.

But at the same time, I wouldn't over index on the stronger numbers that we're seeing from Republicans tonight. That's something that we expected, we knew that early votes coming in, we're going to lean more Republican. And primary voters do tend to be more conservative than general.

But yes, I think Democrats probably if they're going to take a step back, look at the candidate quality that they're fielding for some of these races. I think that maybe there's some soul searching to do, but I think maybe they'll be so happy with the idea of a D versus R matchup that maybe they'll just overlook it.

SANDOVAL: Melanie Mason is always grateful for your reporting, and we'll continue to look out for that reporting in the hours and perhaps even days or weeks ahead, as these votes are counted. Thanks, Melanie. Have a good rest of your night.

MASON: Thank you.

SANDOVAL: Meanwhile, we are also following some key primary races across the country. CNN is now projecting the U.S. Congresswoman Ashley Hinson, she will win the Republican nomination for Iowa Senate seat currently held by outgoing Senator Joni Ernst. Hinson cruised to victory thanks in part to endorsements from President Donald Trump and Ernst herself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ASHLEY HINSON (R-IA), PROJECTED IOWA SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: My fabulous friend, Senator Ernst, she is leaving behind some pretty big combat boots to fill. But like I've told her and Iowans across the state, she has spent the last 12 years sending Washington's fattest hogs running for the hills.

And when I pick up this baton in November, you all have my word. The squealing is not going to stop. It's only going to get louder.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: And Hinson will be advancing to the general election in November and face Democrat Josh Turek. CNN is now projecting that he will defeat Zach Walls to win the Democratic nomination, and also a chance to flip one of Iowa's Senate seats. CNN's Jeff Zeleny has the very latest from Des Moines.

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JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: The field is now set for another key U.S. Senate contest with Democrat Josh Turek easily defeating State Senator Zach Walls. Now, Iowa is going to be one of the places that is going to be key in this midterm election battle playing out over the next five months.

The race is now on to fill the seat of retiring Senator Joni Ernst. Now, it has been a very long time since Iowa has sent a Democrat to the U.S. Senate. In fact, not since 2008, when Senator Tom Harkin won re-election.

But Tom Harkin endorsed Josh Turek, a Paralympian, a two-time gold medal winning athlete on the men's wheelchair basketball team, a state representative as well. Josh Turek used the power of his disability to turn into a political strength. And he said that's what he will fight for, for all Iowans.

JOSH TUREK (D), PROJECTED IOWA SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: We have enough millionaires in D.C. looking out for billionaires. We need real people in Washington who have felt the consequences of a broken system. Because when you have gone through real struggle, you will have a different level of empathy and a different level of fight.

And this is what we need in D.C., fighters for the people. And that is what I will be in the United States Senate.

ZELENY: Now, Turek will be facing Ashley Hinson, a Republican member of Congress from northeast Iowa. This is going to be one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country. Democrats, of course, need to pick up four seats and hold all of their existing ones if they hope to succeed in the uphill battle to win control of the Senate.

But Republicans are already concerned about the economic headwinds that they are facing here in Iowa and have committed to spend about $30 million for Hinson. This race will be certainly viewed in a different light come Wednesday morning, when more of a focus is on it. But there is no doubt, Josh Turek, through the power of his story, is going to be a key rising star, at least for now.

The question, can Iowa still send a Democrat to Washington? Of course, it's a state that President Trump won three times, but Barack Obama also won this state twice. So there is no doubt all eyes will be on Iowa between now and November. Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Des Moines.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SADOVAL: And CNN election night coverage continues in a moment. Don't go anywhere.

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SANDOVAL: Welcome back.

Six states, they held election primaries on Tuesday night, including New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota, and of course, the crucial state of Iowa. CNN's chief data analyst, Harry Enten, been monitoring those election

results as well. Harry's with me again, joining me from the magic wall.

ENTEN: Where else would I be? Where else would I be, Polo?

SANDOVAL: Of course. Where else would somebody be at 3.30 in the morning?

ENTEN: Yes.

SANDOVAL; But following the election results behind you, what do they show?

ENTEN: Yes. Okay.

You know, we were talking about California at the top of the hour. Now we're going to the center of the country, Iowa.

Of course, that's where any Presidential contest begins, right? The Iowa caucus is at least on the Republican side.

And that, of course, is where Donald Trump's journey to being President of the United States began all the way back in 2016. He lost the Iowa caucuses. It was a little bit of a waterloo for him.

And tonight, or I should say last night in Iowa, it was a bit of a waterloo again. Why do I say that?

Because Zack Lahn, who is our projected winner in the great state of Iowa, was in fact not endorsed by Donald Trump. Donald Trump endorsed Randy Feenstra, who in fact, if you can see it on your screen, lost. Donald Trump, who has basically been invisible in Republican primaries, went down a defeat. That is, his candidate went down a defeat.

And you can see it here. The margin is really quite small. It's only a little bit less than 2000 votes. Now, what's really interesting, Polo, is this. I went on the Iowa Secretary of State's website. And what's really interesting is Donald Trump made an endorsement late in this race. But did it impact and in fact help Feenstra?

Actually, what we see is that on Election Day, the voters who vote on Election Day, 73,000 of them or so went for Zack Lahn, that is the candidate that Trump did not endorse. The candidate that he did endorse, Randy Feenstra, got about 68,000.

[03:25:00]

Ergo, Feenstra did worse on Election Day after Trump had endorsed him. He'd actually won the absentee vote, but yet he lost on Election Day despite Trump's endorsement.

Now, this is one of the key nuggets that is taken out of Iowa, but it's not the only one. Because if we reset our screen here and we go to the Iowa Democratic Senate race, this is the other race that I was really interested in watching.

Why is that? Because more middle-of-the-road Democrats, those in Washington, D.C., really wanted Josh Turek to be the nominee against Zach Wahls, who in fact was much more progressive and went against Chuck Schumer, of course, the Democratic leader in the Senate.

But look at what happened here. Josh Turek actually won this race rather convincingly. I mean, he is Columbia Blue, and this entire map here basically is Columbia Blue. That is a 25-point win.

And why is that so important? It is so important for this reason.

If you look at rural areas, and there are a lot of them in Iowa, despite the fact that Iowa has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 2008, Donald Trump's approval rating, according to Fox News, has dropped by, guess this, 34 points among rural voters since March of 2025.

So maybe you're looking at these results where Democrats have actually gotten the candidate they want, at least Washington, D.C. Democrats, and you say, hey, Donald Trump is really struggling among rural voters. Maybe this will be the first time since 2000 in which Iowa elects a Democrat, and that would be very key on the road to getting back a Senate majority, Polo.

SANDOVAL: Harry Enten, really appreciate you laying all that out, my friend.

ENTEN: I try.

SANDOVAL: Let's move on now to the acting U.S. Attorney General. He says that the plan for a $1.8 billion so-called anti-weaponization fund at the Justice Department, that those plans are not moving forward.

Todd Blanche made that announcement while testifying before the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday. Now the fund was originally part of a settlement between the IRS and President Trump, members of the Trump family, as well as their businesses. And it faced bipartisan pushback as well as some criticism in recent weeks.

The second part of the settlement, it agreed, the actual settlement itself, at least the second part, that stands, which bars the IRS from bringing claims against the President and those included for past tax issues. But that remains a hot-button issue as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD BLANCHE, ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Part of the settlement included the second order that you just held up, and that is still, nothing has changed with that.

REP. ROSA DELAURO (D-CT): As part of the settlement, which you've said, which is this immunity for the President and his family and his business, et cetera, that stands. Thank you for that.

BLANCHE: It's not immunity, ma'am. It's a promise.

DELAURO: It's immunity.

BLANCHE: It's not immunity. Okay, so it's not immunity.

What it says is like any time the IRS settles with an individual taxpayer or another company, as part of the settlement, it's standard, it's typical to get rid of past ongoing audits. It's not a forward- looking document. It's nothing that gives any sort of immunity in the future to the President or his family or his organizations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: And Democrats, as well as Republicans alike, they are blasting President Trump's choice to name Bill Pulte as the acting director of national intelligence. Pulte will be replacing Tulsi Gabbard last month that she would resign. Now Pulte is widely seen as a Trump loyalist, with a record of going after many of the President's perceived political enemies.

But Trump's new intelligence chief does not have any demonstrated experience with national security or in the intelligence community. And this is a red flag for some lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Pulte's experience in the housing agencies was only to weaponize them and politicize them.

SEN. PETER WELCH (D-VT): You're putting in a person whose qualification is that he's blindly loyal to Trump.

UNKNOWN: I don't know of any national security experience he has.

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): I see no evidence of any qualifications for that job.

SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA): Mr. Pulte has absolutely no intelligence background. He has no national security background. The law was written to prevent this kind of appointment.

Our intelligence work has always been bipartisan. Are we going to finally hit the gag reflex? I hope.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: Joining us now from Los Angeles, is Georgia Kernell. She's a political science professor at UCLA. Georgia, it's great. Thank you so much for joining us.

GEORGIA KERNELL, ASSOCIATE PROF. OF COMMUNICATION AND POLITICAL SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES: Hi, nice to be here.

SANDOVAL: Let's keep, let's actually stay on that last topic right now and President Trump's decision for the director of national intelligence. I mean, you know, and you've seen the President's current approval numbers, they continue to plummet.

Given the criticism that we just heard from both sides of the aisle, wouldn't this selection from the President likely to do more harm than good?

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KERNELL: It's hard to say. I mean, most of his selections have had unanimous support among Republicans, and we've always seen just the opposite among Democrats. So we're really going to have to see, does this pan out? Are Republicans going to stay divided?

I'm not sure if Republicans are responding to the increasing coverage of his dwindling polls, or if they're actually changing their opinion. But I'm not sure at this point what we'll see.

SANDOVAL: Yes, no, that's it. There's a big question on what we may see now in terms of what we did see on Tuesday, and the head of the DOJ announcing that they were essentially abandoning those efforts for this so-called anti-weaponization fund. I'm curious what you make of the President's retreat on that effort, and do you think we've seen the last of it?

KERNELL: I'm not sure if this will be the last of it. I mean, at this point, I think he's trying to shut down any media coverage whatsoever of that. And so as much as he can change the discussion to anything else, I think that's what he's trying to do.

SANDOVAL: I'm wondering if we could perhaps shift gears also to see some of the elections and some of the numbers that you've seen coming in as well, perhaps in California, other parts of the country as well. I'm just curious what you make of some of the early numbers that have come in.

KERNELL: Yes, so in California, there's the big gubernatorial and then the big L.A. mayor race right now. And so in both those cases, we've got one Republican and two Democrats that really are vying for those top two positions.

So California has a top two primary, which is really different than what we have in most other states. Alaska has a top four, but for the most part, we see Democrats competing against Republicans.

And here we could see two Democrats facing off. At one point, we thought there was a chance we might even see two Republicans facing off. That's clearly not going to be the case.

In the mayoral election, I saw that the "L.A. Times" has now said that Karen Bass has indeed made it to the November 3rd election, assuming she does not get 50 percent. And who she'll be facing off against is still remains to be seen. And in the gubernatorial race, I think it's too soon to know who those top two candidates will be.

SANDOVAL: Georgia, I'm also just fascinated by how the Republican candidates may campaign forward should they move on into November. I mean, these are candidates that for the most part, or at least many of them, have been supported by President Trump. And they're running in jurisdictions and districts and states that may be fairly-with many independents, fairly many swing districts as well.

So just how do candidates like, for example, Spencer Pratt at the local level or Steve Hilton when it comes to the state gubernatorial race sort of distance themselves from a President with plummeting approval numbers?

KERNELL: Yes, I mean, there's some independents, but for the most part, California and L.A. is made up of Democrats. And so, barring really something devastating happening to the Democratic candidate, if Pratt and Hilton do advance, then they are very unlikely to win in November. That being said, their aspirations might not just be to win that election, but also to increase their name recognition for other races and also to get issues on the ballot.

So let's say that it is Pratt versus Bass, and that will change what the discussion is, what the dynamic is in the race and the campaign leading up to the mayoral election, be very different than if Raman makes it in the mayoral race.

There will also just be less money spent because if in fact it is a Democrat versus a Republican in either the gubernatorial or the mayoral election, the Democrats are so favored to win that they won't have to spend as much money. But if it's a Democrat versus a Democrat, we'll actually see a lot more money spent.

And so I think many Democratic voters really wanted to vote for the Democrat that would -- they didn't want to see two Democrats go on because they knew that would increase so much spending and perhaps they see that as wasteful spending.

SANDOVAL: And that's still very much a possibility until you see those final numbers, especially in the Golden State.

KERNELL: I would say it's most likely.

SANDOVAL: Okay. Now in terms of just how you would characterize the election in California, obviously much of it had been seen as sort of an election of change. What do you think that the electorate will be looking forward to in the coming months leading up to the actual midterms?

[03:35:01]

KERNELL: Yes, I mean, it's interesting. We saw high turnout today, or I guess now yesterday.

Higher turnout than we've had, especially in these midterm primary elections than we've seen in a while. So I think that that means that both Republicans and Democrats are ready to go to the polls. And I expect that will pan out and also be the case in November.

In November, there won't be these tight elections, though, probably, if indeed we do have one Republican and one Democrat going on in the gubernatorial and the mayoral elections. We won't have such a tight race, most likely there, but we will, of course, have a lot of tight races in other midterms.

And so I think that probably one of the things I've noticed the most today is just this high turnout may suggest that people are really paying attention.

SANDOVAL: Not just there, but really all across the country with six high. Georgia Kernell, thank you so much for letting us tap into your expertise tonight. And thank you so much for staying up late for us.

KERNELL: Sure.

SANDOVAL: And our coverage continues in a moment. Don't go anywhere.

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SANDOVAL: And welcome back.

We do want to take a quick moment to check in on the results for California's key primary elections so far. A reminder, there are still plenty of votes that are left to count in the race for governor, but the very latest data now showing the two candidates seem to be emerging.

You have Republican Steve Hilton coming with a little under 28 percent of the vote, Xavier Becerra already celebrating, though still Tom Steyer potentially within striking distance as well. Which one of these three men will advance to the midterms? Of course, there's a big question there.

And votes are also still being counted in Los Angeles' mayoral election, and CNN is now projecting that incumbent Karen Bass will in fact advance to the general election in November.

[03:40:04]

Her opponent, not yet confirmed, but early results are showing that ex-reality T.V. star Spencer Pratt is just behind her, with City Council member Nithya Raman is currently in third.

And we are back with CNN's special coverage of Election Night in America. Six states held their primaries, including California, we just mentioned, New Jersey, and then of course Iowa.

Let's go back to CNN's chief data analyst, Harry Enten, who's been closely watching all of those results behind you. It looks like we want to start in Los Angeles this time, Harry.

ENTEN: Yes, we want to start in Los Angeles, you know. I like to go out to the West Coast. It's the East Coast here, but it's the West Coast out there. And why do I want to start in Los Angeles, Polo?

The reason I want to start in Los Angeles is because I've been following this, and every single time we get a little bit more vote, well not surprisingly the result changes, but more than that, the result gets tighter for that final spot to face Karen Bass in the fall. Now what are we talking about here? Now we got 53 percent of the vote

in. Karen Bass, as we said, has already advanced.

Now Spencer Pratt, this is a nonpartisan primary, but he was backed primarily by Republicans, right? He's at 29.1 percent of the vote.

Then you got Nithya Raman, who's another Democrat, who's at 21.6 percent. Now the gap between them, if I'm doing my math correctly at this hour, at 3.40 in the East, it's now 7.5 points.

Now why is that notable? Because when we started off -- when I started off at least a little bit a few hours ago, the margin between Pratt and Rahman was not 7.5 points, it was 10 points.

In other words, the margin is shrinking. And this is what we would have expected based upon historical trends and also based upon who seemed to be returning the ballots later on and therefore the votes getting counted later on.

That is, they tend to lean more Democratic. So despite the fact that right now Pratt is second behind Bass, we are seeing Raman close the gap between herself and Pratt. And it honestly would not surprise me that when all the votes are counted, and we've still got 47 percent of the vote to still count with 53 percent of the vote in, it would not surprise me if in fact Raman overtook Pratt.

And that might be bad news for Karen Bass, because looking ahead to the general election polls, Bass has done considerably better against Pratt than Raman. A Raman-Bass race might be a very tight one.

But that is not the only race that I'm watching out in California. Look, obviously we've been talking about the gubernatorial matchup and the top two advance there. And right now it's Hilton and Becerra with Steyer back at 19.6 percent.

Now we've been getting 50 percent of the vote in, and now what? We are up to 55 percent of the vote in. But again, the same trends that we saw, that we've been seeing in the L.A. mayor, would not surprise me if we see in the California gubernatorial race as well.

The later ballots have tended to be, historically speaking, more Democratic leaning. That means that probably Xavier Becerra, right now in your Columbia blue at 25.5 percent, is in pretty good position.

I think the question is, can Tom Steyer close with more Democratic ballots later on? We're just going to have to wait and see.

But right now it's Hilton and Becerra 1-2, Steyer, the odd man out. But hey, we've still got 45 percent of the vote still to count, Polo. So we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

SANDOVAL: Yes, how narrow can that gap actually get, as you point out? Harry Enten, thank you so much. We'll keep checking back with you, my

friend.

Let's go now to Sara Sadhwani, who is a political science professor at Pomona College, and also a Democracy Fellow at Harvard University Kennedy School. She joins me live from Los Angeles. It is wonderful to have you with us.

SARA SADHWANI, POLITICAL SCIENCE PROF., POMONA COLLEGE, AND DEMOCRACY FELLOW, HARVARD UNIVERSITY KENNEDY SCHOOL: Thank you so much for having me.

SANDOVAL: Sara, you just heard some of the latest numbers right now from Harry Enten, not just at the governor's race, but also when it comes to the city of Los Angeles. I'm just curious what your takeaway is right now as Karen Bass, certainly watching very closely who her opponent will end up being in just a few months' time.

SADHWANI: Karen Bass definitely looked happy tonight, claiming what seemed to be a victory because she's going to make it to the runoff. But I think we need to also put this into some context. It's quite rare for a sitting incumbent to not be able to win at this stage.

These local elections in Los Angeles can be won at the primary stage if a candidate can achieve 50 plus 1 percent of the vote tally. For an incumbent to not be able to do that is also really problematic. Karen Bass has suffered from a lack of confidence of voters across Los Angeles.

And I think what's notable for Spencer Pratt, you noted that he is largely associated with the Republican Party, but there's only 300,000 registered Republicans in the city of Los Angeles. So he is clearly picking up Democrats and independents as a part of his support as well.

[03:44:58]

I think you're absolutely right. Much will be seen what happens in the coming hours and days. It's highly likely that those ballots still coming in are going to be coming from not just Democrats, but even from the left of Democrats, which likely could be Mitt Romney supporters.

SANDOVAL: And if in the event that we do see a Bass-Pratt election or runoff, I should say, in a few months' time, how would Pratt even be able to continue to stay on the same message that he has been really trying to focus on leading up to Tuesday's election?

SADHWANI: Spencer Pratt has been incredibly successful at running a campaign that's really outing the establishment, which includes both Karen Bass and Nithya Raman, sitting members of the city council and the mayor, and really outing the problems that the city of Los Angeles has. So to the extent that he can continue to do that, to name in plain terms the real problems that the city faces around homelessness, around affordability, that would play very well for Spencer Pratt.

But he's going to have to also play to the center a little bit. He's been somewhat Trumpian in his approach with the bombastic kind of language that A.I.-generated ads that have caught a whole lot of attention. But if he actually wants to win, he's going to have to show voters that he can do more than just run a flashy campaign, but that they can trust him to actually govern. Because at the end of the day, what California voters and Los Angeles voters in particular want to see are results.

SANDOVAL: I'm wondering if in the last minute I have with you, Sara, what are your thoughts on the state's race for governor? What will you be looking at specifically in the coming hours and days?

SADHWANI: Much like the mayor's race, it's a big question whether or not Tom Steyer can close that gap as more ballots come in and get counted.

Let's not forget here in California, we have a system that allows people to vote on election day by mail. So if you put your ballot in the mail today, it gets postmarked today. It has several days before it arrives at the vote center and actually gets opened and counted.

So a lot can change over the course of the next several days and even week. And we've definitely seen that happen previously.

It would be quite a coup for Democrats if they're able to get two Democrats past this primary election, because previously there was a lot of talk about maybe two Republicans advancing after the primary. And that would be a worst case scenario for a very blue state like California.

SANDOVAL: That's Sara Sadhwani joining us live from Los Angeles where the counting continues. Sara, thank you so much for your time.

SADHWANI: Thanks for having me.

SANDOVAL: Of course.

There's also a new Supreme Court ruling that will be allowing Alabama to use a congressional map that will benefit Republicans in this year's midterm elections. The ruling on Tuesday allows the state to cut one of two House districts represented by a black member of Congress who is also a Democrat.

The high court decision comes despite the fact that Alabama has already held congressional primaries. The Alabama case, it is the latest emergency order tied to the Supreme Court's April decision that gutted the Voting Rights Act.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELIE HONIG, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: So heading into tonight, Alabama had a map where of the seven congressional districts in Alabama, two of those had been drawn to be majority black Democrat-leaning districts. However, now as a result of this decision, that's going to go down to one. And this is all based off of the Louisiana Supreme Court opinion that came down in late April.

In that opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court said the states can essentially draw congressional lines for whatever political reasons they want. They cannot, however, consider race either way in drawing those lines. So the state of Alabama took that opinion and said, okay, we now want to undraw one of those majority black districts and go from two down to one.

And in tonight's opinion, the Supreme Court in a 6-3 split, the six conservatives in the majority, the three liberals in the dissent said, it's okay, Alabama, you can go ahead and do that. So the net out of the end of this is that Alabama will go from two majority black Democratic-leaning districts down to one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: That's CNN Legal Analyst Elie Honig with that analysis. And we'll be back in a moment.

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[03:50:00]

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SANDOVAL: Returning now to California's primaries where the crowded race for governor is starting to narrow down. That state, it runs a so-called jungle primary where the top two vote getters out of fields of 61 people on the ballot, where the top two get to advance to the November general election regardless of their party. And with over half of the votes already counted, two candidates appear to be rising to the top.

You see former Fox News host and Trump-backed Republican Steve Hilton, of course, followed by a former Biden cabinet administration member and also California's former Attorney General Xavier Becerra as well. Not too late, though, for Tom Steyer. The key question, can Tom Steyer narrow that gap? And the Los Angeles mayor race also has at least one decision.

CNN projecting that Mayor Karen Bass will be advancing to the general election in November, and it's still too early to know who she'll be facing. So far, Spencer Pratt, a former reality show star and outspoken critic of the mayor, is second. City Councilwoman Nithya Raman is in third.

Mayor Karen Bass and Spencer Pratt address their supporters separately.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASS: I don't care where you're from, when you got here or why you're here. You are an Angeleno and we are going to fight for you and we are going to protect you.

We want a city where you can go out and walk at night because the street lights are on and we got 60,000 of those street lights that are being turned on right now and sidewalks that are going to be because we're going to fix our infrastructure. [03:55:00]

PRATT: The list of failures across the city. There's people that just want the potholes fixed. Mayor Bass has allowed the city to be covered in potholes.

We don't have sidewalks. We don't have lights. So on the basic level, there's people that care about that.

Then there's the moms who want to be able to go to the parks and not see anybody shooting up fentanyl with their pants off. I was in the valley yesterday, a beautiful Persian restaurant and the lovely owner said, Spencer, they have naked drug addicts in front of the kids when we're trying to have food at the restaurant. This is across the city.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: And in other news, CBS News has fired veteran "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley. CNN's Brian Stelter with more on that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Yes, this is like an underwater earthquake at CBS News. It's not going to be visible on T.V. right away, but this is bound to have many ripple effects and maybe a legal battle.

Scott Pelley has been a "60 Minutes" correspondent for more than two decades. He was fired by CBS News management one day after he erupted at a staff meeting and said that his current bosses are not qualified for their jobs. Pelley said that CBS News editor-in-chief Barry Weiss is, quote, "murdering '60 Minutes' by firing veteran staffers and hiring a former tech reporter named Nick Bilton to run the show."

Pelley was called in for a meeting with Bilton and Weiss. It's unclear what happened in the meeting, but a few hours later, Pelley received a termination letter, and here's part of what it says. This letter from Bilton says, quote, "you hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt."

Bilton says he tried to find a way forward, but "You made clear you're not interested in such a path." The letter says Pelley has been terminated for cause, which means there will probably be a legal battle. Pelley might lawyer up and try to sue CBS. We'll see what happens.

This is incredibly unusual to see a blowup like this at a major network, with Pelley leaving and concerns about political clouds hovering over CBS News. Barry Weiss and her allies, they say they're trying to move "60 Minutes" into the digital age, trying to reinvent the show that's been an institution on television. But Pelley and others are not going quietly.

(END VIDEOTAPE) SANDOVAL: We want to thank you so much for watching our special coverage. I'm Polo Sandoval, in New York, I'll join you again in a few moments here on "CNN Newsroom."

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