Damon Connolly, a San Rafael Democrat, won the state Senate District 2 race on Tuesday, Nov. 3, defeating Republican Tief Gibbs by a wide margin, according to Ballotpedia’s election results.
Unofficial California Secretary of State results, updated at 9:23 a.m. Nov. 5, showed Connolly with 148,120 votes, or 74.8%, and Gibbs with 49,942 votes, or 25.2%. All 912 precincts were partially reporting, with additional ballots remaining to be counted.
Connolly led by 98,178 votes. The results remain unofficial pending canvassing and certification.
The victory moves Connolly from the state Assembly to the Senate. Connolly, a former deputy attorney general, served on the San Rafael City Council and the Marin County Board of Supervisors before winning a seat in the state Assembly in 2022, according to his campaign biography and Assembly office’s announcement.
He succeeds Sen. Mike McGuire, who reached the state Legislature’s 12-year service limit. McGuire won the race for the reshaped 1st Congressional District, according to AP results published by KQED.
Gibbs co-owns the Vintage Vehicles auto shop in Novato, according to her campaign website. She ran for Congress in 2024 but did not advance to the general election, the Marin Independent Journal reported. In the June Senate primary, she received 16.2% of the vote to Connolly’s 73.4%, according to the certified state results.
Senate District 2 stretches along much of Northern California’s coast, serving communities in Del Norte, Humboldt, Trinity, Mendocino, Lake, Marin and Sonoma counties, according to the district’s official website.
“I’m feeling really excited about the future for our region,” Connolly told the Press Democrat.
His campaign platform identifies rural health care access, wildfire prevention and affordability as priorities.
During the campaign, Connolly said measures like Senate Bill 79, which allows qualifying housing developments near specified transit stops, went too far and “eroded” local control. He instead advocated state financing for affordable housing development, the Marin Independent Journal reported in August.
