In Extraordinary Tie, Evan Low and Joe Simitian Both Advance in Race for Silicon Valley House Seat

After nearly a month of ballot counting, the primary election in a closely-watched Silicon Valley House seat has ended with an extraordinary result: Assemblymember Evan Low and Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian are tied for second place.

The rare deadlock means both Low and Simitian will likely advance to the November election to face fellow Democrat Sam Liccardo, the former San José mayor who finished first in the primary.

A three-way general election in the 16th Congressional District adds a new layer of uncertainty in the race to succeed outgoing Congressmember Anna Eshoo, who is not running for another term after 32 years in the House.

After weeks of see-sawing results with razor-thin margins, San Mateo County election officials posted their final update on Wednesday, adding a single vote to Simitian’s tally. The Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters’ office has also finished its count, according to a spokesperson, and both counties plan to certify their results on Thursday.

Liccardo finished with 21.1% of the primary vote, compared to 16.6% for both Simitian and Low.

Unlike some other states, election officials in California do not automatically recount ballots in close races. Any voter can request a recount of the results within five days after certification, but the Low and Simitian campaigns now appear to have little reason to take on a costly count. Santa Clara election officials estimated that the cost of a full manual recount in that county could cost as much as $320,000.

Both campaigns declined to comment on the result. On X, Low posted, “It’s a special “Tie” day!”  above a photo of him and Assemblymember Mike Gipson wearing ties.

General elections with multiple candidates have become rare since California adopted a top-two primary system for the 2012 election, in which the top two finishers, regardless of party, advance from the primary. But the result is not unprecedented: in a 2016 race for state Assembly in Los Angeles, write-in candidates Baron Bruno and Marco Antonio Leal both received 32 votes and advanced to face incumbent Assemblymember Autumn Burke.

Now, the trio of candidates will spend the next seven months courting voters from Pacifica to San José in what will likely be an expensive and bruising contest.

Eleven candidates ran in the primary to succeed Eshoo — and the House hopefuls combined to spend $5.6 million in the weeks leading up to the March 5 primary, with an additional $2.5 million coming from outside groups.

The race for cash will begin anew in a district known as a political piggy bank for Democratic candidates. On Wednesday, Liccardo announced he had raised more than $1 million from January through the end of March.

“We welcome any opportunity to continue to talk to voters about the issues facing our communities, including the high cost of living, utility rates and housing and Sam’s long record of fighting on behalf of residents,” a Liccardo spokesperson said in response to Wednesday’s results.