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Six States Count Votes From Tuesday's Primary Elections; California Governor Primary Too Early To Call; L.A Mayor Karen Bass Advances To Runoff. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired June 03, 2026 - 05:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:34:30]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN's special coverage of election night in America.

We are tracking California where votes are still being counted and the primary race for governor is too close to call. The latest projections show Republican Steven Hilton and Democrat Xavier Becerra in the top two positions with billionaire Tom Steyer in third. The top two advance to the general election in November.

[05:35:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE HILTON, (R) CANDIDATE FOR CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR: As long as we can make it into the top two, Californians will be able to change the trajectory of our state away from policies that have given us the highest poverty rate, the highest unemployment rate in the country, the highest cost of living -- all the problems that we know about. But we can turn them around with common-sense practical ideas such as the ones I'm running on to make our state, in my word, "Califordable."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So in the L.A. mayor's race, incumbent Democrat Karen Bass will advance in the November runoff. Republican reality star Spencer Pratt appears likely to advance with her.

In Iowa, that Republican primary for governor, a notable end to the president's winning streak. Trump-backed Randy Feenstra conceding to businessman Zach Lahn in the Republican primary.

And in New Mexico, former interior secretary Deb Haaland won the Democratic nomination for governor with more than 70 percent of that vote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEB HAALAND, (D) FORMER INTERIOR SECRETARY: We've never had a Native American governor in New Mexico. We're a multicultural state. I think it's important. I think representation matters, especially in a political era such as this one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: We're going to bring in CNN's chief data analyst Harry Enten. Harry, you're back. Tell us how close these ballots are in the governor's race for California and also what's happening on the Republican side.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yeah. I mean, look, here's the situation in California. There are a couple of key nuggets to keep I mind.

First off, I just want to point out we got 57 percent of the estimated vote in, and this is just an estimate, right. We know historically speaking that California takes days and weeks to count its ballots. And what we see right now and what I think is so important is you see Steve Hilton at 27.8 percent; Xavier Becerra, 25.4 percent.

The key question is the third man in this race, Tom Steyer, who is at 19.6 percent. Historically speaking, the late ballots have tended to shift the overall vote to be more Democratic. Can Tom Steyer use those late ballots that come in to actually close the gap not just between him and Becerra but him and Hilton? And Hilton, of course, right now at 27.8 percent.

Now you mentioned, of course, what about that other Republican? Well, there was all this talk earlier on in the campaign. Hey, maybe Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton -- they would combine and they would be the top two spots and lock out the Democrats. It ain't happening, Audie. It ain't happening. Bianco is way back.

At this point the real question is will Steve Hilton make the second round and actually make it to the general election? At this point he is in the lead, but we've still got a lot of votes to be counter. And Steyer is close enough whereby we can't say for sure who is going to actually make the November general election.

CORNISH: Because we're still waiting on that then, do you mind if we go over to Iowa because they also --

ENTEN: Yes.

CORNISH: -- are talking about the governor's race. There was an Iowa Republican primary there between two interesting candidates -- an incumbent who had the backing of Trump last minute, and that's not the person it looks like is coming out on top. Tell me about Lahn.

ENTEN: Yeah, OK. So what are we talking about? Zach Lahn ends up winning this race.

And what's so interesting, right, Randy Feenstra, who in fact is the incumbent in Iowa's 4th congressional district -- Trump came in with the late endorsement. And what we've seen historically speaking is when Trump endorses you in a Republican primary -- hey, you go on and win. But that did not happen here. And more interesting than that, I brought out my sheet of paper here.

This is really high-tech math right here. OK, I'm going to draw for you on the screen because what is so interesting to me is there were absentee votes and there were Election Day votes. And what happened in the Election Day vote, after Trump made that endorsement guess who came ahead by 5,000 votes -- 5K votes? It was Zach Lahn who won that Election Day vote by 5,000 votes.

And what's so interesting is look at the margin. The overall margin is only 1,652. That means that Lahn won this election with an Election Day push of votes even after Trump made the endorsement.

I think back to the fact that Trump -- the first time he ran he lost the Iowa caucuses, and it turns out he lost in Iowa yet again here in the Republican primary or caucus.

CORNISH: Um, I want to ask you about just kind of a quirky race, which is New Jersey's 7th district. Stay with me. And that's because you have a congressperson who has been kind of missing in action the last couple of months. He's only given on interview in that time. This is Tom Kean Jr.

I'm sure he kind of sailed to victory here but did we see anything interesting in the way of turnout?

ENTEN: Yeah. I mean, here's the thing that I think is so interesting is the Democrats got who they wanted to run in that district in Rebecca Bennett. And what is so important to note here is while Kean ran unopposed, this is a district that only voted for Donald Trump I believe by about one point -- one point in that district. And it was a district that Joe Biden, in fact, won by I believe four points.

[05:40:10]

And so what we're dealing with now is an absentee congressman who has not been seen for a very long period of time. Democrats got the candidate they wanted. You can remember last year in New Jersey, in that gubernatorial race, the Democrat easily, easily, easily won. Blew the water out of it.

And the question is if New Jersey is as blue this time around and given that this is a swing district, can Tom Kean actually survive this general election come November? I think it's awfully difficult if, you know, nobody's actually seeing him.

CORNISH: OK, Harry. Thank you so much.

ENTEN: Thank you.

CORNISH: I hope you get some rest one day soon.

ENTEN: I'm going to try. My voice -- my voice is a little dulling, but I've got some water here. I'm going to take a drink.

CORNISH: All right. You guys, I want to have this conversation with you about the

California's governor -- California governor's race. You heard Harry there. It basically became a kind of free-for-all after Congressman Eric Swalwell withdrew over allegations of misconduct.

So who took advantage? Who missed out?

Sabrina, can I start with you? You've got someone like Delores Huerta crediting Latinos basically for the rise of this era. Let me play that for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DELORES HUERTA, LABOR RIGHTS ACTIVIST, BECERRA VOTER: I think it's kind of retribution because we know that the Latino community has been under such a vicious attack from the Trump administration not only in California but through the United States of America. And so I think this will demonstrate to the world that number one, that we are very competent individuals and that we do have the leadership within our community that can govern.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Let me play for you another pundit. Same argument, different tone. Jesse Watters, Fox News.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JESSE WATERS, FOX NEWS HOST: He's up against a guy whose biggest qualification is the sound of his name in a state that's half Hispanic, Xavier Becerra.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Hearing the pronunciation there he really --

MIKE LEON, HOST, "CAN WE PLEASE TALK": It's Becerra.

CORNISH: -- leaned in. Really leaned in.

SABRINA RODRIGUEZ, POLITICS REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: I think Latinos will be part of the story, no question about it, when we talk about Becerra's rise in the last few weeks of this race and when we talk about heading to the general election. There's going to be plenty of stories about where are Latino voters heading as had to --

CORNISH: But in California isn't there a particular politics there? You've had a Black community there. Bass kind of -- Karen Bass represents that kind of candidate. The person who is establishment. Black political figure.

And then you've a rising political Latino infrastructure that at times has felt as though they were pushed aside and that they were pushed aside by Democrats.

RODRIGUEZ: No question. And I think Steyer tried to take advantage of that. I mean, we saw him deploy, for example, Carlos Manuel Espina, one of like the biggest Latino influencers in the country, on the campaign trail and definitely tried to tailor and target part of his campaign toward Latino voters recognizing, obviously, what a sizeable population it is in California.

But I think that at the end of the day, like, this race will end up being when you look at the Democrats that ascended and how Becerra sort of benefited from Swalwell's fall and from the allegations and him having to pull out of the race, part of it is because of just the experience, the resume.

LEON: Yeah.

CORNISH: But what did Swalwell stand for -- I mean, putting aside, like, the misconduct, right, because that's the issue that took him down? Was it just name recognition or was there a particular lane he occupied?

ZACHARY WOLF, CNN SENIOR POLITICS WRITER, AUTHOR, "WHAT MATTERS" NEWSLETTER: He was very loud in the anti-Trump --

CORNISH: OK.

WOLF: -- space.

CORNISH: Yeah.

WOLF: Online, on X, Twitter. Like, that's where he was.

And, you know, not to dignify Jesse Waters too much here but, you know, going back and just to fact-check him, Becerra was the former state attorney general. He was a former member of Congress for a long time.

LEON: (INAUDIBLE).

WOLF: Yeah. He was the HHS secretary. He had the single-best government leadership resume. And so maybe it was kind of confounding that because of that he wasn't better earlier in the race. And I think that surprised a lot of people.

LEON: Can I piggyback on that? One thing that Harry didn't show there in the numbers -- scroll down a little bit more. Katie Porter --

CORNISH: Yeah.

LEON: I -- we -- two years ago --

CORNISH: Who went in the star -- yeah, yeah, yeah.

LEON: Two years ago the conversation around --

CORNISH: You -- let me let you preach on this for a minute --

LEON: Oh, two years ago --

CORNISH: -- because every -- all the progressives --

LEON: Yeah.

CORNISH: Once they saw her PowerPoints they were like this -- we're into this.

LEON: Exactly. The Trump boards of whatever.

CORNISH: Yeah.

LEON: And then all of a sudden one little video of her yelling at an assistant and some other things that came out around her.

And to see 4.6 percent, I think it was on that map. I mean, I'm not Harry Enten, the data guy, but I can be for that time. And it's incredible to see the meteoric rise of her and the fall of her, especially after Swalwell and what you mentioned --

CORNISH: Yeah.

LEON: -- since dropping out --

CORNISH: So now you're saying that's two stars falling.

WOLF: Well, and -- or take it -- go the progressive route if you look at Raman in the L.A. mayor's race. If you look at, you know, in Iowa in the Senate race. The more establishment guy won the Democratic primary there. You know, it was not a great night for that sort of progressive wing.

[05:45:05]

CORNISH: Yeah. I'm glad you're bringing it up and we're going to talk about this more in the show because there was going into tonight a narrative of how will the progressive wing of the Democratic Party do? How will Trump-endorsed candidates do? And we're starting to get a little bit of a picture of that.

And a third thing I'm interested in is how did vets do? There's a whole world of veterans who have entered politics and I'm intrigued.

But very -- before we leave California, I want to talk about Steve Hilton. Earlier when we played that clip of him what I found interesting is it wasn't just his name over and over behind him. Do you know what I mean?

LEON: Califordable?

CORNISH: Yeah, Califordable. It was like $3.00 gas.

LEON: Yes.

CORNISH: This with the housing, right? It really spoke to the issues of California.

Is he close, right? Are we looking at somebody who is truly competitive this fall?

LEON: Well, I think from a messaging standpoint he's doing a great job. I mean, if you just look -- look at the three things that -- you and I both looked at that very quickly.

CORNISH: Yeah, but it wasn't -- it wasn't like these are Trump's policies and this is what I'm backing.

LEON: Exactly.

CORNISH: It was like I know you're thinking of X, Y, and Z.

LEON: The other thing with Hilton is obviously being on TV gets you this polished sense of being able to talk to people in front of a camera. He's also worked for Super PACs as well. So he has a little bit of that background.

What you said earlier, Zach, about like the Spencer Pratt race, once we start to drill into policies and once we get to the general, we've got to figure out how do you make California affordable? Because it is one of the biggest economies, right --

CORNISH: Yeah.

LEON: -- on its own. I don't know how you make California affordable.

We were talking off air about some industries that have left. Production and --

CORNISH: Yeah.

LEON: How do you change that around? What's his plan for that? I don't know it.

CORNISH: OK.

I want to turn to another state where people are dealing with affordability issues -- farm country, right, in Iowa. The primary season trend of President Trump's preferred candidate winning isn't so clearcut yet. CNN projects that Trump-backed candidate Randy Feenstra will lose the GOP gubernatorial primary there to Zach Lahn. And Lahn is a farmer and a businessman who has never held office.

So he did have the support from influencers with the so-called "Make America Healthy Again" movement. He campaigned, however, with an outsider message, calling out the Iowa Republican establishment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZACH LAHN, (R) IOWA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: I don't have to tell you this, but nobody thought this could be done. We were outspent, opposed by the establishment. Told to wait our turn. Well, tonight the people of Iowa had something to say about that -- that we're not going to wait anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CORNISH: Um, this was a fascinating race to me because a) we were outspent. But I'm also not surprised that a farmer would have an outside voice in this election given what they have been through with tariffs, with even let's say immigration labor concerns.

Um, Sabrina, you have been watching Iowa. What's interesting for you?

RODRIGUEZ: And I think what's interesting here is sort of to see the distinction. Like, going into last night so much of the conversation has been, like, everyone that Trump endorses ultimately wins. And sort of, we've seen it in race after race where he's supported someone in a primary and they come out of it. He gets to say look at how my endorsement helps. This is a case where -- this is a rare case for him, but this is a case where that didn't play out.

One of the things that interested --

CORNISH: Wait. Was it just because it was too little too late? I mean, he did it, like, just a few days ago.

RODRIGUEZ: I mean, he did it for Paxton in Texas as well and gets to have the win and gets to have the, like, I endorsed the winner.

CORNISH: OK.

RODRIGUEZ: So this one is like he put his -- like he guessed or bet that he was going to win -- that Feenstra was going to win and ultimately it didn't play out that way.

But I think that -- in this one I think what I find really interesting is sort of that distinction between there was the Trump-endorsed candidate and there was the MAHA-endorsed candidate. And there's been so much conflation of, like, Trump with Make America Healthy Again --

CORNISH: Yeah.

RODRIGUEZ: -- and how they supported him in 2024. And this sort of shows this coalition of voters and support that exists outside of Trump.

CORNISH: Yeah, and I'm going to wonder where TPUSA put its money in those races as well given some sort of slivers of that coalition that are extremely anti-war. And yeah --

WOLF: And the war -- specifically, that is a policy that has affected farmers in Iowa.

CORNISH: Right, yeah.

WOLF: The diesel prices. You know, fertilizer prices. Those are things that we keep seeing stories about and they will filter down into the politics.

CORNISH: Can I turn to Democrats for a second? I've been fascinated at the spending being done by Vote Vet. They are a group that started back in 2006 in the anti-war time then and they're sort of back with a vengeance now in this anti-forever wars moment. They spent $9.7 million on ads for Josh Turek who is the Democrat -- one of the Democrats who was running for Senate.

And what do you think about their rise in this moment?

LEON: Well, I think back to Zach's overall point. The war is something that has unified a lot of different coalitions --

CORNISH: Yes.

LEON: -- because Trump ran on no new wars and then he started a war. Well, first it was a military operation, then it became a war. So you've got different factions not only within MAGA that are upset about that; you have people that are maybe libertarian or a little bit center-left that are upset about that.

[05:50:03]

And the fact that this group has pumped in money around veterans, saying we don't -- a) we don't take care of our veterans when they come back. B) We're putting them into another conflict, and we've already lost 13 U.S. soldier lives.

So I think there's a lot of ammunition to use on this intent --

CORNISH: Yeah. I notice in Montana, I think Alani Bankhead, another candidate who is running -- she has a huge security background. Again, running as kind of like I'm a vet. I know the Pentagon. I know how this spending should be done and I think it should be different.

Um, I want to play for you Josh Turek on Tuesday kind of giving one of his messages. It'll give you a sense of how he had been talking on the campaign trail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH TUREK, (D) IOWA STATE REP. SENATE CANDIDATE: If you are tired of this rigged system only looking out for billionaires and leaving the rest of us behind, then join us. Whether you are Republican, an Independent or Democrat, there is room here for you in our campaign. Together we can win this race.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Is this going to be competitive -- Iowa?

WOLF: Uh, I mean, if you talk to the handicappers, I don't think it's -- it's maybe the top level state for them. Democrats do need to win multiple states that Trump won by a lot in order to make --

LEON: Right.

WOLF: -- the Senate competitive.

CORNISH: But they're trying. There's no places where --

WOLF: Oh, yeah.

CORNISH: -- people are like giving up. It's a little bit like the Republican spending in Texas. And you're like should you need to spend this amount of money in Texas?

WOLF: Yeah. And, you know, forcing the spending is part of the game too for, you know, the money people in the parties. So --

RODRIGUEZ: It's interesting that we're talking about Iowa though, right? I mean, it's been -- like if I look at my email inbox, I am consistently getting emails about these races in Iowa and Democrats.

CORNISH: See, (INAUDIBLE). Yes, that's right.

RODRIGUEZ: And Democrats really pushing a point.

LEON: Yeah.

RODRIGUEZ: And it is interesting because it is a state that Trump won by double digits. I mean, it is like considered reliably a Republican state. And you kind of look at it as this place where I remember, you know, going into the 2024, like, Iowa caucuses and like trying to see, like, OK, vibe check on like is Trump going to move forward? Where are we at and where are we at in the Republican Party today?

So it's interesting to see it become a place that's being talked about as competitive. I think when you look at --

CORNISH: Yeah.

RODRIGUEZ: -- like one of the top five races, ultimately Iowa will not be one of them. But you can't discount it. And I think you have to --

LEON: It all depends on where we are with respect to issues. The war, et cetera.

CORNISH: OK.

You guys, next we're going to be talking about the votes that are still being counted in California this morning. And we will have the latest on the top races in the state.

Later on CNN, after a reported sexting scandal, the Senate candidate Graham Platner in Maine facing more backlash, this time from a fellow Democrat.

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:56:55]

CORNISH: The primary race for governor in California too close to call. Republican Steve Hilton and Democrat Xavier Becerra hold the top two spots. Billionaire Tom Steyer is third.

In the Los Angeles mayor's race CNN projects incumbent Democrat Karen Bass will advance to the November runoff. Republican reality star Spencer Pratt is running second and appears likely to be her opponent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No more TV stars, please. No more reality stars, TV stars. We don't need that anymore.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So it's hard to vote for a billionaire but at the end of the day he is the one that I think is saying the most things that align with my personal values. And we're going to hold his feet to the fire and make sure he does those things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: We're going to bring in now Sarah McGregor, managing editor of the National Team at Bloomberg News. Good morning. I know you've had a long night. Were there any surprises that kept you up?

SARAH MCGREGORY, MANAGING EDITOR OF THE NATIONAL TEAM, BLOOMBERG NEWS (via Webex by Cisco): I think the most surprising thing is just how close the race was at the end of the day between the governor -- we're still waiting for the final results, but for the governor's spot between Hilton and Becerra.

I think there was a lot of questions coming up to this whether Tom Steyer, who spent more than $200 million of his own wealth -- whether he would be a really tight contender. And it looks like he's trailing and has been all night pretty far behind the top two vote-getters.

And I think what it really says is that Democrats can't be complacent. If you can't sort of, you know, blow through to the win in a state like California -- a deep blue state -- then you -- it really should be a warning sign I think for Democrats going into the midterms to really pay attention.

CORNISH: Can we take a beat and talk about Tom Steyer for a moment given how much money he spent, his performance? We had someone here earlier mentioning how much he spent, for instance, trying to reach the Latino community in particular.

But do you get the sense that this was anti-billionaire kind of thing or did just the other candidates sort of overtake him?

MCGREGOR: I think he always had a tough hill to climb. Just name recognition, you know, and he doesn't have that political experience like someone like Becerra and the state has. So he always had sort of a tough -- a tough climb that -- in that respect and he really did poll well. I think better than people expected from the beginning. He had a lot of ads out, a lot of mailers. You know, everywhere you looked around you did see Tom Steyer. He had that name recognition.

But I think there's only so much that money can buy you in terms of really getting out the vote. And so even though -- even though he had the money behind him I think it shows that you really do need the political establishment and some of the Democratic machinery to really -- to really, you know, get across the finish line. CORNISH: Um, we just have about a minute left here. What are you going to be watching for in the L.A. mayor's race? What's the margin that you want to see?

MCGREGOR: Again, another one as we're looking at results coming in. That's another one that's I think closer than people expected. I think some thought that Nithya Raman would give Mayor Bass also a run for her money.

So I do think we'll be looking at what Spencer Pratt's solutions are if he does make it to the general election. Who can convince voters they actually have a plan. Spencer Pratt tapped into anger about a lot of issues that Angelinos have about affordability and quality of life issues. But now can he convince voters that he's the right person to act.

CORNISH: OK.