Angelique Ashby takes early lead over Dave Jones in hard-fought Sacramento Senate race

Angelique Ashby entered Wednesday with a slight lead over Dave Jones, as the contest to represent Sacramento in the state Senate remained close.

Early unofficial results for California Senate District 8 show Sacramento City Councilwoman Ashby with 52% of the vote, and former insurance commissioner Jones with 48% as of midnight, according to the Sacramento County Registrar of Voters Office.

The Associated Press estimated about 25% of the votes have been counted.

Jones and Ashby are competing to replace Democratic Sen. Richard Pan, who is term-limited after representing the Sacramento region since 2014.

The two Democrats have been locked in one of the region’s most contentious and expensive races, which has attracted millions of dollars in special interest spending since the June primary.

Ashby, a moderate Democrat, has gotten support from political action committees backed by business groups and oil companies in the form of independent expenditures.

She has faced criticism for accepting money from a PAC funded by a variety of interests, including oil and energy. Late in the campaign, Ashby also took heat for gifting Golden 1 Center luxury suite concert tickets to supportive labor leaders.

Jones, who is seen as the more progressive candidate, is backed by environmental groups and unions that represent nurses and food and commercial workers.

He recently drew the ire of Ashby supporters for ads targeting Republican voters that played up her ties to a local feminist Democratic group and to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who endorsed her candidacy.

The final days of this race were dominated by a series of misleading PAC-funded mailers and digital ads claiming Jones wants to “take away Medicare” because of his support for single-payer health care in California.

This story was originally published November 8, 2022 at 8:15 PM.