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United States · Election results history · 1986 Senate · California
Election 1986 Results

Each election opens in its own mode: the forecast before the votes are counted, the live count while races are still too close to call, and the results once every race is decided.

1986 US Senate election in California

Alan Cranston (Democrat) beat Ed Zschau (Republican) in California in 1986, 49.3% to 47.9%, a margin of 1.4 points and 104,868 votes.

The Democratic hold continued from 1980, when Alan Cranston also won.

Republicans led in 42 of the 58 counties as they stood then and Democrats in 16. The largest, Los Angeles, cast 2,039,232 votes and went to the Democrat by 11.5 points. The closest was Alpine, where 28 votes separated the two parties.

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Early projection, based on early and incomplete polling: the likely matchups, each weighted by the betting markets' odds of both nominations, not a result. Each county is its 2024 presidential margin moved by its state's projected swing; set a national vote and every state, district and county moves by the same amount from our projection. Colours run in 100 steps from a safe Republican to a safe Democratic margin. Boundaries: US Census Bureau.

Senate

CandidatePartyVotesShare
Alan Cranston won Democratic 3,646,672 49.3%
Ed Zschau Republican 3,541,804 47.9%
All other candidates 209,986 2.8%
Total7,398,462

Every county

CountyDemocratRepublicanOthersTotalMargin
Los Angeles 1,110,614 54.5% 876,250 43.0% 52,368 2,039,232 D+11.5
Orange 223,911 34.6% 399,963 61.9% 22,682 646,556 R+27.2
San Diego 245,282 42.1% 317,349 54.5% 19,502 582,133 R+12.4
Santa Clara 193,585 51.1% 174,960 46.2% 10,259 378,804 D+4.9
Alameda 235,338 64.6% 121,941 33.4% 7,273 364,552 D+31.1
Sacramento 151,830 49.9% 143,286 47.1% 8,950 304,066 D+2.8
San Bernardino 110,132 42.5% 138,786 53.5% 10,354 259,272 R+11.1
Contra Costa 126,673 50.5% 118,940 47.4% 5,075 250,688 D+3.1
Riverside 99,788 42.1% 129,312 54.6% 7,708 236,808 R+12.5
San Francisco 168,327 74.2% 54,675 24.1% 3,708 226,710 D+50.1
San Mateo 104,485 53.7% 86,518 44.4% 3,715 194,718 D+9.2
Ventura 70,847 40.4% 99,223 56.5% 5,412 175,482 R+16.2
Fresno 67,841 46.6% 72,420 49.8% 5,193 145,454 R+3.1
Kern 48,108 38.2% 74,195 58.8% 3,791 126,094 R+20.7
Sonoma 67,721 54.0% 54,254 43.3% 3,393 125,368 D+10.7
Santa Barbara 48,989 45.7% 55,495 51.7% 2,778 107,262 R+6.1
San Joaquin 45,770 43.2% 57,572 54.3% 2,640 105,982 R+11.1
Marin 52,906 57.8% 37,053 40.5% 1,577 91,536 D+17.3
Stanislaus 33,301 44.4% 39,696 52.9% 2,075 75,072 R+8.5
Solano 38,356 51.6% 33,734 45.4% 2,227 74,317 D+6.2
Santa Cruz 43,820 59.2% 28,349 38.3% 1,900 74,069 D+20.9
Monterey 35,861 49.2% 35,242 48.4% 1,715 72,818 D+0.9
San Luis Obispo 24,755 40.0% 35,063 56.6% 2,097 61,915 R+16.6
Tulare 23,393 38.0% 36,230 58.8% 1,982 61,605 R+20.8
Butte 22,864 40.1% 32,424 56.9% 1,684 56,972 R+16.8
Placer 20,797 41.0% 27,991 55.2% 1,926 50,714 R+14.2
Yolo 23,995 55.9% 17,724 41.3% 1,175 42,894 D+14.6
Shasta 18,604 45.2% 21,097 51.2% 1,487 41,188 R+6.1
Humboldt 22,741 55.5% 16,692 40.7% 1,564 40,997 D+14.8
Napa 18,417 47.6% 19,320 50.0% 932 38,669 R+2.3
El Dorado 13,983 39.6% 19,890 56.4% 1,413 35,286 R+16.7
Merced 12,873 43.3% 15,743 53.0% 1,104 29,720 R+9.7
Nevada 10,837 38.8% 16,084 57.6% 1,023 27,944 R+18.8
Mendocino 12,830 52.5% 10,828 44.3% 790 24,448 D+8.2
Imperial 8,355 44.6% 9,630 51.4% 750 18,735 R+6.8
Kings 7,786 44.1% 9,304 52.7% 573 17,663 R+8.6
Madera 6,895 39.5% 9,777 56.0% 777 17,449 R+16.5
Lake 7,755 47.9% 7,930 49.0% 493 16,178 R+1.1
Tuolumne 6,701 43.4% 8,339 54.0% 395 15,435 R+10.6
Sutter 5,099 33.2% 9,658 62.8% 615 15,372 R+29.7
Siskiyou 7,328 47.8% 7,369 48.0% 649 15,346 R+0.3
Tehama 6,316 42.9% 7,857 53.4% 534 14,707 R+10.5
Yuba 4,864 41.2% 6,477 54.9% 452 11,793 R+13.7
Calaveras 4,375 40.0% 6,249 57.1% 313 10,937 R+17.1
Amador 4,131 42.0% 5,356 54.4% 350 9,837 R+12.5
San Benito 3,184 42.2% 3,986 52.8% 374 7,544 R+10.6
Lassen 3,660 49.2% 3,414 45.9% 360 7,434 D+3.3
Glenn 2,375 33.4% 4,495 63.3% 231 7,101 R+29.9
Plumas 3,084 45.2% 3,426 50.3% 307 6,817 R+5.0
Inyo 2,169 32.1% 4,363 64.6% 218 6,750 R+32.5
Del Norte 2,858 45.0% 3,225 50.7% 272 6,355 R+5.8
Trinity 2,591 46.7% 2,669 48.1% 287 5,547 R+1.4
Mariposa 2,292 42.1% 2,940 54.0% 216 5,448 R+11.9
Colusa 1,873 40.2% 2,691 57.8% 93 4,657 R+17.6
Modoc 1,514 43.2% 1,827 52.2% 162 3,503 R+8.9
Mono 995 38.5% 1,521 58.9% 67 2,583 R+20.4
Sierra 712 45.6% 788 50.5% 61 1,561 R+4.9
Alpine 186 43.8% 214 50.4% 25 425 R+6.6

Counties as they stood in 1986; some have since been split, merged or renamed. Margin: the Democrat's share of all votes minus the Republican's. Sources and how the results were checked.

California Senate elections we hold

YearWinnerMargin
2024 Adam B. Schiff (D) D+17.7
2022 Alex Padilla (D) D+22.1
2018 Dianne Feinstein (D) D+54.2
2016 Kamala Harris (D) D+61.6
2012 Dianne Feinstein (D) D+25.0
2010 Barbara Boxer (D) D+10.0
2006 Dianne Feinstein (D) D+24.4
2004 Barbara Boxer (D) D+19.9
2000 Dianne Feinstein (D) D+19.3
1998 Barbara Boxer (D) D+10.0
1994 Dianne Feinstein (D) D+1.9
1992 Barbara Boxer (D) D+4.9
1988 Pete Wilson (R) R+8.8
1986 Alan Cranston (D) D+1.4
1982 Pete Wilson (R) R+6.8
1980 Alan Cranston (D) D+19.4
1976 S. I. Hayakawa (R) R+3.3
1974 Alan Cranston (D) D+24.3
1970 John V. Tunney (D) D+9.5
1968 Alan Cranston (D) D+4.9
1964 George Murphy (R) R+3.1
1962 Thomas Kuchel (R) R+12.9
1958 Clair Engle (D) D+14.1
1956 Thomas Kuchel (R) R+8.3
1952 William Knowland (R) R+87.8
1950 Richard M. Nixon (R) R+18.5
1946 William F. Knowland (R) R+9.9
1944 Sheridan Downey (D) D+4.6
1940 Hiram W. Johnson (R) R+82.5
1938 Sheridan Downey (D) D+9.8
1934 Hiram Johnson (R) R+94.5
1932 William Gibbs McAdoo (D) D+12.6
1928 Hiram W. Johnson (R) R+55.9
1926 Samuel M. Shortridge (R) R+26.2
1922 Hiram W. Johnson (R) R+38.4
1920 Samuel M. Shortridge (R) R+8.3
1916 Hiram W. Johnson (R) R+31.6
1914 James D. Phelan (D) D+2.9