Steve Padilla is projected to win re-election to the California State Senate, holding onto a seat that stretches across nearly 1 million constituents in San Diego, Imperial, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Early returns showed the Chula Vista Democrat building a large lead over Republican challenger Art Hodges in the Senate District 18 race, though the count remains unofficial as counties work through the canvass process.
The projection comes from FOX 5 San Diego and KUSI News, which called the race for Padilla. The Ballot Brief also covered candidate background and campaign priorities.
Other local coverage backed up the early trend toward Padilla. The Desert Sun reported that the incumbent senator took a large early lead over Hodges, a Republican bishop, in the first results posted for the race. Times of San Diego likewise listed the contest as Democratic incumbent Steve Padilla versus Republican Art Hodges, with results tracked through the California Secretary of State, and noted that all results remain unofficial until the completion of the official canvass on or before December 3.
Padilla's Election-Night Message
Padilla released an election-night statement Tuesday thanking Senate District 18 voters for their support. He said he was deeply grateful to families across the district for trusting him with another four years, and pledged to keep working on the issues affecting regional families, adding that more work remains.
The senator framed the night as bigger than his own race, describing voters nationwide as broadly rejecting President Donald Trump's agenda. He criticized the Trump administration's approach to the war in Iran as well as its immigration enforcement operations in communities nationwide, and said he plans to work with California's incoming governor and an expanded Democratic majority in the Legislature and Congress to protect working families.
Housing, Groceries and the Tijuana River Crisis
Padilla has centered his campaign on lowering the cost of housing and groceries and addressing the ongoing Tijuana River sewage crisis. According to KPBS, his campaign priorities also included opposing federal ICE operations. KPBS noted Padilla authored bills for stricter air standards and funding to permanently clean up the Tijuana River Valley, an issue the outlet described as an ongoing cross-border sewage crisis affecting tens of thousands of San Diegans.
On the campaign trail, the two candidates offered different fixes for housing costs. The Desert Sun reported that Hodges said he aimed to reduce regulations to open up the housing market, while Padilla said he hoped to tackle the issue through lowering energy costs and establishing a living wage. Padilla highlighted updating California's hydrogen sulfide air quality standard for the first time since 1969, and he also touted securing $10 million for Lithium Valley businesses in Senate District 18.
A Senator Rooted in Chula Vista
Padilla lives in his native Chula Vista and was seeking a second term in the state Senate, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune. KPBS listed his past positions as chairman of California's Coastal Commission, police detective, and mayor of Chula Vista. The fundraising gap between the two campaigns was wide: as of early September, Padilla's campaign had raised more than $1.3 million compared with just over $40,000 for Hodges, per KPBS.
Padilla's showing in the primary also pointed toward a comfortable advantage heading into the general election. The Desert Sun reported he earned 63.8% of the primary vote compared with Hodges' 36.2%.
Padilla's Race Fits a Broader Statewide Pattern
Padilla's projected win landed amid a statewide election night that saw all 80 California Assembly seats and all 20 Senate seats up for reelection, according to NBC 7 San Diego. The station also projected Democrat Xavier Becerra as the winner of California's governorship over Republican Steve Hilton, and projected that Democrats would take back control of both the House and the Senate in Congress. In another closely watched San Diego-area contest, NBC 7 reported that early results in the U.S. House District 48 race showed Democrat Marni von Wilpert with a heavy lead over Republican Jim Desmond.
As with the Senate District 18 race, those statewide calls remain subject to the same unofficial-count caveats that applied to Padilla's projected win. County canvasses are due December 3, and California will not certify the full general election until December 11.
