Since our June 4 coverage of the California billionaire tax fallout and the midterm map taking shape, the state's primary election results have remained unresolved — and the noise around vote counting has gotten louder.

Where the Races Actually Stand

As of Thursday, June 4, with roughly 56% of ballots counted according to Breitbart News, Republican Steve Hilton leads the California governor's race with 27.6% of the vote. Former California Attorney General and HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra sits in second at 25.6%. Both would advance to a November runoff if those positions hold.

In the Los Angeles mayoral race, incumbent Mayor Karen Bass leads with 34.97%. Reality TV personality Spencer Pratt holds second at 29.91%. Nithya Raman trails in third at 22.81%. Pratt needs to stay ahead of Raman to force a runoff with Bass.

Why California Counts Slowly

California's slow count is standard practice, not unusual. The state has expansive vote-by-mail infrastructure, requires signature verification on every mail ballot, conducts post-election audits, and accepts ballots postmarked by Election Day that arrive days later. The Los Angeles Times noted this is standard — the same system used every California election cycle.

This is a policy choice California voters and legislators built deliberately. You can argue it's a bad policy. That's a legitimate debate. But slow counting under these rules is expected under the current system.

What Trump Is Claiming

President Trump posted on Truth Social accusing Democrats of trying to "STEAL THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA PRIMARY, AND THE MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES, PRIMARY, AWAY FROM TWO GREAT REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES," according to Breitbart News. He followed with a second post claiming "BIG cheating" and stating the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles had launched an investigation.

The second claim requires scrutiny. If the U.S. Attorney's Office has actually opened a formal investigation, that's significant. If Trump is describing a routine inquiry or overstating preliminary contact, that's a different story entirely. As of publication, no independent confirmation of a formal DOJ or U.S. Attorney investigation has been reported by AP News, the Los Angeles Times, or any outlet outside Trump's own statement.

Trump endorsed Hilton in April. He has a direct political stake in this outcome. His claims require independent verification before they can be treated as established fact.

What the Right-Leaning Coverage Is Getting Wrong

Breitbart and the Daily Wire are running with Trump's fraud framing without providing independent evidence that anything irregular has occurred. Citing Trump's Truth Social posts as evidence of cheating amounts to circular reasoning. The slow count has a documented, legal, publicly known explanation.

California's mail-in ballot system does create a multi-week window of uncertainty that corrodes public confidence — regardless of whether fraud exists. That's a legitimate critique of policy. But "corrosive to confidence" is not the same as "stolen."

What the Left-Leaning Coverage Is Getting Wrong

AP News dismissed Trump's claims as merely providing "fodder for election fraud claims" — framing the story entirely around countering Trump rather than investigating his specific allegation about the U.S. Attorney's Office. If there is a federal inquiry underway, even a preliminary one, it deserves straight reporting.

The Spencer Pratt Factor

Spencer Pratt — a former MTV reality star from The Hills — is in second place in a Los Angeles mayoral primary. Bill Maher publicly endorsed him, according to Breitbart News. Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow noted on his show that Los Angeles hasn't had a Republican mayor in decades, and that Bass has "all the unions lined behind her" despite the city burning down under her watch during the January 2026 wildfires.

Pratt advancing to a runoff against Bass would be one of the most politically bizarre storylines of the 2026 cycle. Whether that reflects genuine voter anger at Democratic mismanagement of Los Angeles — or celebrity novelty — won't be clear until the count finishes.

Sorting the Claims

If Hilton and Pratt both advance to November runoffs, California will have competitive statewide and mayoral races for the first time in years.

The fraud allegations are a separate track. Trump needs to produce evidence — not Truth Social posts. The U.S. Attorney's Office needs to confirm or deny whether an investigation exists. Until then, "under investigation" remains an unverified claim made by a candidate's endorser.

Voters deserve the real count and the real facts. Both sides are currently prioritizing the narrative over the numbers.

The ballots will finish counting. Then we'll know what actually happened.