List of special elections to the California State Senate

Special elections to the California State Senate are called by the Governor of California when a vacancy arises within the State Senate. Special elections are conducted in two rounds. The first round is an open primary. The second round is cancelled if one of the candidates receives more than 50% of the vote in the first round. Prior to 2012, the top vote getter from each party in the first round would advance to the second round. Since the passage of [2010 California Proposition 14|Proposition California's 14th State Senate district|14 in 2010], the top two vote getters in the first round, regardless of party, advance to the second round.
Recall elections, the process by which voters petition for the removal of an elected official, are also included.

List of special elections

The dates listed indicate the time of the final election, either a runoff election or the open primary round if no second round was held.

District	Date	Predecessor	Winner
[California's 33rd California State Senate\|State Senate district\|33]	October 3, 1961	James McBride	Robert Lagomarsino
31	February 13, 1962	John Hollister	Alvin Weingand
5	March 16, 1965	Edwin Regan	Fred W. Marler Jr.
9	August 15, 1967	J. Eugene McAteer	Milton Marks
7	March 25, 1969	George Miller Jr.	John Nejedly
34	August 18, 1970	John Schmitz	Dennis Carpenter
27	July 20, 1971	George Danielson	David Roberti
36	June 6, 1972	Gordon Cologne	W. Craig Biddle
22	February 27, 1973	Tom Carrell	Alan Robbins
38	March 6, 1973	Clair Burgener	John Stull
20	January 15, 1974	William Coombs	Ruben Ayala
24	July 2, 1974	Robert Lagomarsino	Omer Rains
29	April 1, 1975	Mervyn Dymally	Bill Greene
6	June 8, 1976	George Moscone	John Francis Foran
22	March 8, 1977	Anthony Beilenson	Alan Sieroty
31	April 17, 1979	George Deukmejian	Ollie Speraw
14	June 9, 1979	George N. Zenovich	Kenneth Maddy
12	June 5, 1980	Jerry Smith	Dan O'Keefe
35	April 13, 1982	John Briggs	John Seymour
33	May 12, 1987	Paul B. Carpenter	Cecil Green
39	December 5, 1989	Lawrence W. Stirling	Lucy Killea
31	April 10, 1990	William Campbell	Frank Hill
26	April 10, 1990	Joseph B. Montoya	Charles Calderon
5	January 8, 1991	John Garamendi	Patrick Johnston
1	May 14, 1991	John Doolittle	Tim Leslie
35	May 14, 1991	John Seymour	John Lewis
20	June 2, 1992	Alan Robbins	David Roberti
32	March 2, 1993	Ed Royce	Rob Hurtt
2	April 27, 1993	Barry Keene	Mike Thompson
16	April 27, 1993	Don Rogers	Phil Wyman
4	November 2, 1993	Mike Thompson	Maurice Johannessen
11	November 2, 1993	Becky Morgan	Tom Campbell
40	December 28, 1993	Wadie P. Deddeh	Steve Peace
29	November 8, 1994	Frank Hill	Dick Mountjoy
35	May 9, 1995	Marian Bergeson	Ross Johnson
11	March 26, 1996	Tom Campbell	Byron Sher
9	September 1, 1998	Barbara Lee	Don Perata
32	March 7, 2000	Joe Baca	Nell Soto
24	March 6, 2001	Hilda Solis	Gloria Romero
35	June 6, 2006	John Campbell	Tom Harman
26	May 19, 2009	Mark Ridley-Thomas	Curren Price
37	June 8, 2010	John Benoit	Bill Emmerson
15	August 17, 2010	Abel Maldonado	Sam Blakeslee
1	January 4, 2011	Dave Cox	Ted Gaines
17	February 15, 2011	George Runner	Sharon Runner
28	February 15, 2011	Jenny Oropeza	Ted Lieu
4	January 8, 2013	Doug LaMalfa	Jim Nielsen
40	March 2, 2013	Juan Vargas	Ben Hueso
32	May 14, 2013	Gloria Negrete McLeod	Norma Torres
16	July 23, 2013	Michael Rubio	Andy Vidak
26	September 17, 2013	Curren Price	Holly Mitchell
23	March 25, 2014	Bill Emmerson	Mike Morrell
35	December 9, 2014	Rod Wright	Isadore Hall, III
21	March 17, 2015	Steve Knight	Sharon Runner
37	March 17, 2015	Mimi Walters	John Moorlach
7	May 19, 2015	Mark DeSaulnier	Steve Glazer
32	August 7, 2018	Tony Mendoza	Vanessa Delgado
1	June 4, 2019	Ted Gaines	Brian Dahle
33	June 4, 2019	Ricardo Lara	Lena Gonzalez
28	May 12, 2020	Jeff Stone	Melissa Melendez
30	March 2, 2021	Holly Mitchell	Sydney Kamlager
36	February 25, 2025	Janet Nguyen	Tony Strickland

List of recall elections

A replacement state senator is only listed in cases in which the recall was successful.

District	Date	Recall target	Replacement
20	April 12, 1994	David Roberti	Not applicable, recall failed
12	June 3, 2008	Jeff Denham	Not applicable, recall failed
29	June 5, 2018	Josh Newman	Ling Ling Chang

Results

2013 4th district special election

2015 21st district special election

2018 32nd district special election

The first round of the special election was consolidated with the regularly scheduled primary election. Although most of the candidates in the two contests were the same, the results were very different. Rita Topalian finished first in both races, but different candidates finished in second place. Vanessa Delgado finished in 2nd place in the special election, but 3rd place in the regularly scheduled primary election. She received a similar number of votes in both races, but candidate Bob Archuleta received about 54% more votes in the regularly scheduled election than he did in the special election. The different results have been attributed to the different order in which the candidates were listed on the ballot.

2025 36th district special election

Incumbent Republican Janet Nguyen resigned after winning a seat for the Orange County Board of Supervisors. A special election was held on February 25, 2025 to fill the vacancy.