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Carrillo and Lopez advance to runoff election for SoCal Assembly seat
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, left, congratulates Jimmy Gomez, right, after Gomez announced his victory in the 34th Congressional District race at his campaign headquarters on June 6, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. Wendy Carrillo and Luis Lopez are running to replace Gomez in the California Assembly.
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Democrats Wendy Carrillo and Luis Lopez, who are running to replace former Los Angeles Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez, will move on to the general election runoff on Dec. 5.
Just over 10 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in the special election on Oct. 3, which is among the lowest turnouts this year for a county-run election.
Carrillo received 22 percent of the vote and Lopez received close to 19 percent, according to the County Clerk's office. A single candidate would have had to receive at least 50 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff election.
The L.A. County Board of Supervisors is will declare the results official on Oct. 17, according to the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder.
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Gomez resigned from his position in the California state assembly after being elected to Congress to represent California's 34th District in a special runoff election in June. The seat became available when Xavier Becerra was appointed California's attorney general.
Carrillo and Lopez ran against 11 other candidates in the primary election to represent the 51st Assembly District, which covers parts of northeast and east Los Angeles. The AP reported that the district is solidly Democratic, has one of the largest Latino populations in the state and has a large LGBT community.
Carrillo was endorsed by organizations such as the legislative Women's Caucus, the state Democratic party and Emily's List, and Lopez was backed by groups such as Equality California, Planned Parenthood and the Sierra Club.
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