Jones, Bera Offer Different Assessments of Official Congressional Primary Results

July 1, 2016 |

Following yesterday's release of the Sacramento County Voters Registrar official results of the June primary that included the hotly contested race between Rep. Ami Bera and Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones, both camps offered different interpretations of the data.

Bera, the second term Democratic U.S. Congressman representing California Seventh District won the primary over Republican Jones by a 53.93 to 45.93-percent margin. In a press release, Bera's campaign noted this was his largest primary victory of all candidacies dating back to 2010.

This year's primary victory was the first time Bera reached over 50-percent of the vote. In 2014 Bera received 47-percent versus 51-percent received by three Republican challengers and in 2012 he won 41-percent to then Congressman Dan Lungren's 53-percent.

“I’m grateful, humbled, and thankful to continue to earn the trust of Sacramento County voters, and that they supported me at record levels," Bera said. “Thanks to the work my office has done serving the community, more than 93,500 voters supported me, giving my campaign its strongest win ever in a primary.”   

Although Bera received the most votes, Jones' campaign manager Kyle McDonald noted Democratic turnout was significantly higher because the Republican primary process ended a month earlier, and thus turnout was lower. 

"While the vote difference between Congressman Bera and Sheriff Jones was just 13,000, nearly 31,000 more Democratic ballots were cast, showing that thousands of Democrats rejected the Congressman and instead cast their vote for Sheriff Jones," McDonald said. 

McDonald also characterized the Districts voter base as fractured and said questions about Bera's possible efforts to skirt campaign finance laws; he added, "Congressman Bera is facing his toughest competition yet in Sheriff Scott Jones.”