how to understand the stakes of the california primary credithilary swift for the new york timesjune 5 2018update gavin newsom a democrat and jon cox a republican emerged from a crowded field in the governors race in california to advance to the general election according to the associated press as did senator dianne feinstein a democrat in the senate race in key house races democrats seemed poised to avoid being shut out of the november balloting under the states socalled toptwo primary system read more about the primary night in california and about races from new jersey to montanalos angeles the votes in a big election day in california have been cast and the country is eagerly awaiting the results key battles include seven republicanheld congressional seats democrats hope to flip in the fall and a race to succeed jerry brown as governorall of this has been complicated by californias unconventional election system the top two finishers in tuesdays nonpartisan open primary will face each other in november and that is causing headaches for both partiesheres how to get up to speed need a primer to understand the stakes of the california races start here and heres an explanation of how the states unusual primary system works seven republicanheld congressional districts voted for hillary clinton in 2016 democrats have so many candidates competing for a finite number of voters in three of them that republicans could end up capturing both top slots in each heres a collection of charts that explore the data behind those key districts in a potentially unnerving sign for democrats in one contested congressional district the los angeles county clerk revealed on tuesday that a printing error had improperly left about 119000 names off voting rosters in the area as a result some voters might have to cast provisional ballots and prolong the process of verifying and counting election resultsimagecreditjim wilsonthe new york times president trump has endorsed one of the republican candidates for governor john cox which could give mr cox enough votes to win the other slot he will make a big difference the president tweeted on tuesday given how overwhelmingly democratic the state is and mr coxs ties to mr trump that outcome would no doubt result in many people declaring mr newsom the presumptive next governor but if antonio villaraigosa a democrat and former mayor of los angeles wins that second spot look out for a competitive classic northsouth battle how will latino voting power count in the primary heres what we know will younger asianamericans help turn orange county blue our reporter went home to find outvideotranscripttranscriptcould latinos in california help flip house seatslatinos make up 18 percent of californias likely voting population but they could play a key role in the midterm elections democrats running for office are hoping that reaching out to latino voters will help them winthey keep coming two million illegal immigrants in california it was 1994 when californias republican governor pete wilson ran these ads during