US primary voters choose midterm candidates as Democrats look to flip key seats

Key points

• The key race for California governor remained deadlocked as vote counting continued across the US on Wednesday morning following primary elections to decide who would run in several critical districts in the US House and Senate in November, in a midterm year expected to favor Democrats.
• In California, it was the Republican Steve Hilton, a former UK political operative and Fox News host, who had the most votes, with roughly half of the ballots counted for governor.
• For the Democrats it was Xavier Becerra, the former health secretary, who led the field after a tumultuous campaign.
• The California system is such that the two candidates who receive the most votes then face off in the general election, no matter which party they are from.
• Other results across the US, stretching from California to New Jersey, underlined many of the forces shaping the 2026 midterms: Democrats’ desire for change in the...