STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
For the first time ever, California elected a Latino governor last night, Xavier Becerra. The state has had only one other Latino governor who was briefly appointed back in 1875. California also voted for 52 members of the House of Representatives. That's a big chunk of the whole House. So where do those races stand? Marisa Lagos is with us to tell us what we know so far. She's politics correspondent at our member station KQED in San Francisco. Marisa, good morning.
MARISA LAGOS, BYLINE: Good morning.
INSKEEP: Where do things stand?
LAGOS: Well, things are looking very good for Democrats here as they are across the nation. You know, after redistricting last year, there really was only a couple of swing seats left here in California. In all three seats - they haven't been called yet - but in two of them, the Democrat has already claimed victory. In the other one, he's leading by 22,000 votes after only winning by 187 two years ago. So I think it's fair to say that it looks good here.
And then, honestly, the redistricting measure pushed by Governor Gavin Newsom may not have even been necessary. These margins are so big that it really seems like Democrats would've won no matter what. We're going to only be left with four Republican members of Congress after this election...
INSKEEP: Wow.
LAGOS: ...If all of these results hold.
INSKEEP: Four out of 52. Amazing. Such a fascinating election in California. I want to ask about some other items. There was a billionaire tax on the ballot last night. What happened?
LAGOS: Well, the no side is leading by double digits. It hasn't been officially called, but I think this is going to be a death knell for backers of this tax. You know, billionaires put over $380 million into defeating this. But they were also buoyed by support from some surprising folks like Governor Gavin Newsom, Governor-elect Xavier Becerra, Planned Parenthood, the Teachers Union, who all said that this was just poorly written. They argued that, you know, billionaires should be taxed more, but this was not the way to do it, that it was going to hurt California's budget overall by pushing folks out of state. And it looks like they kind of cast enough doubt in enough Democratic voter minds to get the no side over the finish line.
INSKEEP: We can talk some other time about the idea that billionaires spent so much money to avoid having to pay money. But there's also this voter ID referendum requiring voter ID. What happened with that?
LAGOS: That went down big. This was backed by Republicans in the state legislature, and I think it was being really closely watched as a sort of litmus test for voter ID. Like, if it could pass here in California, would that be a model for other states for Republicans to take it there? Democratic voters clearly tied this to the president and his attacks on elections, and it went down in flames.
INSKEEP: This is really interesting that both the political left and the political right floated ballot measures that really played to some of their base constituencies, and both times, they failed.
LAGOS: Yeah. I think it speaks to the fact that ballot measures are really different for voters than candidates. And also just that money talks in some of these things. You know, in the spring, that voter ID measure was polling pretty well, but once it got tied to the president and the sort of climate more nationally, Democrats just rejected it. And on the billionaire tax, as I said, they just had this huge coalition against it. So definitely not the night that progressives had hoped for on that side of things, but a lot of wins otherwise for Democrats here.
INSKEEP: Marisa Lagos of KQED. Thanks so much.
LAGOS: My pleasure. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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