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As officials inch closer to certifying primary election results in the race for California's next governor as well as the mayor of its largest city, frontrunners appeared to continue to emerge in two of the state's key races.Californians hit the polls a week ago, casting ballots in the primaries for the upcoming November general election in the Golden State.Gubernatorial candidates are vying to replace term-limited Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump.In Los Angeles, Democratic incumbent Karen Bass is running for a second term, after facing challengers from the left and right.Known as "jungle primaries," the state's non-partisan races pit all candidates against each other, regardless of their party. Then, the top two vote-getters advance to the fall election.Here's what to know about the state's top two races and where the candidates stood as of Tuesday, June 9.Who's winning the Los Angeles mayoral primary race?In the Los Angeles mayoral primary, Bass led the field and has received enough votes to move forward to the November general election.Democratic Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nithya Raman was in second place and has also secured enough votes to advance to the fall election, according to projections by NBC News and the Associated Press.Raman edged out former reality TV star and Republican Spencer Pratt, who had been in second after early returns but fell behind as more ballots were counted.As of the morning of June 9, Los Angeles County online election results showed Bass has garnered more than 275,000 votes, while Raman had received over 229,00 votes.Pratt, a Republican, remained in third place with just over 207,000 votes.Officials are scheduled to certify the election results on June 26.Who is winning California governor primary race?As of June 9, the primary race for California's governorship was still too close to call. But that's not an abnormality – Californian election officials are working through a deluge of mail-in ballots, a major slice of the vote in the state.Former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, has already received the votes necessary to move forward to the general election.Republican Steve Hilton remained in second place to reach the November race.Democrat Tom Steyer remained in third place as votes continued to be tallied.As of the morning of June 9, the California Secretary of State's office reported Becerra had received more than 2.17 million votes and Hilton had garnered over 1.97 million votes, while Steyer had more than 1.75 million votes.Trump alleges without evidence that California elections are 'rigged'Over the weekend, Trump abruptly ended an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" after he was challenged for saying without evidence that California's elections are "rigged."The president cut the June 7 interview short after the topic turned to the state's slow counting of ballots.Trump said the "elections are rigged" by Democrats and accused California election officials of being "crooked," echoing the same baseless allegations he's made about his 2020 presidential election loss.California election officials have acknowledged that the vote-counting process regularly takes longer in the Golden State due to the prevalence of mail-in ballots.Contributing: Joey Garrison











