Kim had 51.9% of the vote, about 3.43 million ballots, to Allen's 48%, as of KQED's 2:55 a.m. update, which used AP estimates of about half the expected vote counted. ABC7 showed Kim at 52% with 3,464,276 votes and Allen at 48% with 3,198,600. The AP had not called the race in either source.
KQED framed the contest around a market in turmoil: wildfires and inflation have made property insurance hard to afford and harder to find, and enrollment in the FAIR Plan, the state's insurer of last resort, has swelled beyond what the plan was built to handle. Health and auto premiums have climbed too.Both candidates are Democrats who advanced from the June primary. The winner will oversee rate approvals and rules that insurers say determine whether they keep writing policies in high-risk areas.
With a roughly 265,000-vote gap and many ballots still uncounted, the race is one of the closer statewide contests to watch as counties update results.
All results are unofficial election-night and early-morning counts as of Wednesday, Nov. 4. Counties keep counting mail and provisional ballots for days, and certification comes later, so margins can shift, especially in close contests.