June Primary Results Update: 50-Year Judge Unseated, Runoff Race Set for North County Supervisorial Seat

Ten days after Santa Barbara County's June 2 primary and with roughly 45 percent of ballots counted, two results have solidified into something close to certainty: a sitting judge with half a century on the bench has been voted out, and a wide-open North County supervisorial race is headed to a November runoff. The Santa Barbara Independent reported Saturday that neither outcome is likely to change before the Santa Barbara County Elections Office certifies results, currently scheduled for July 2.

A 50-Year Judgeship Ends at the Ballot Box

The headline shock of the June 2 vote belongs to attorney Luis Esparza, who has defeated incumbent Judge Thomas Reagan Adams Jr. in a race that, just a week ago, looked like it could go either way. Early returns on election night showed Esparza with a razor-thin lead, but as additional ballots were counted, his margin widened dramatically. With all 147 precincts reporting, Esparza received 32,170 votes — 50.03 percent — to Adams's 31,940 votes, or 49.67 percent, a gap that has since grown to more than 3,000 votes according to the Independent.

The outcome is exceptionally rare in Santa Barbara County. Most judges here reach the bench through gubernatorial appointment and run uncontested for re-election, making Adams's loss all the more striking. Adams has served on the Santa Barbara County Superior Court since 1983, making this a 50-year run that encompassed pioneering work on juvenile and family court programs.

The defeat, however, did not happen in a vacuum. In December 2024, the California Commission on Judicial Performance — the state's independent judicial oversight body — issued a public admonishment of Adams for his conduct during a 2023 arraignment hearing. According to the commission's findings, Adams became angry, raised his voice, threw off his glasses, pointed at counsel, and flung moving papers at a young deputy public defender. That attorney, Reem Yassin, had passed the bar only three months before the incident. The commission also found that Adams had made misleading statements about his retirement plans during a prior investigation, and that the 2024 action was aggravated by prior discipline — including a private admonishment as far back as 1993. Adams has disputed the characterization of the incident, saying he dropped the papers from his podium while mistakenly believing a table was beneath them.

An Unlikely Challenger Built a Broad Coalition

Esparza is not a conventional political figure. A private attorney who operates a one-person office, he is 47 years old and has campaigned on being both younger and more representative of the community at large. His prior electoral forays — two losing City Council bids and a stint on the Earl Warren Showgrounds board of directors — did little to foreshadow this result.

What proved decisive, the Independent reported, was an unusual cross-partisan coalition. Esparza secured endorsements from both the local Republican Party and Indivisible, the progressive organization behind the countywide No Kings rallies opposing the Trump administration. That breadth of support turned what might have been a quiet incumbent retention into a genuine referendum — and one that Adams ultimately lost.

A North County Supervisorial Race Heads to November

The second major story from June 2 is the three-way primary for the 5th Supervisorial District, which covers Santa Maria and Guadalupe. Supervisor Steve Lavagnino, first elected in 2010, is retiring after four terms and 16 years on the board — leaving the seat open for the first time since 2010.

Under California's top-two primary system, with no candidate approaching 50 percent in a three-way field, the top two finishers advance. Ricardo Valencia, a high school teacher at Santa Maria High School and a Santa Maria-Bonita School District board member, finished first with roughly 37.86 percent. Maribel Aguilera-Hernandez, an attorney and Santa Maria City Council member, came in second at about 33.27 percent. Cory Bantilan — who spent approximately 15 years as Lavagnino's chief of staff — finished third and is out of contention.

The margin between Valencia and Aguilera-Hernandez has grown as ballots were counted. The Independent reported that, as of Saturday, Valencia leads his closest rival by 874 votes — roughly 10 percentage points.

Two Children of Immigrants, Two Very Different Visions

The November matchup frames itself as a study in contrasts that is deeply personal for both candidates. Valencia, the child of undocumented immigrants, grew up in Guadalupe and later moved to Santa Maria. He is a Democrat and a self-described progressive; the Santa Barbara County Democratic Party endorsed him in the primary. Aguilera-Hernandez is registered as a declined-to-state voter but has drawn support from the local Republican Party and from agricultural and business interests — constituencies wary of Valencia's left-leaning platform. She has emphasized public safety, economic development, and government services. She is also a lawyer specializing in real estate law. Both candidates grew up in the district — Aguilera's parents came from Mexico and she picked strawberries as a child in Santa Maria.

What's at Stake Countywide

The winner will inherit oversight of a county overseeing 4,500 employees and a roughly $1.7 billion annual budget, at a moment when the county is trying to balance a fiscal year 2026-27 spending plan strained by declining state and federal support. The political implications are just as consequential. The 5th District seat's outcome will directly affect the ideological balance of the five-member Board of Supervisors. A Valencia win would strengthen the board's existing liberal majority; an Aguilera-Hernandez victory would create a far more evenly divided board, the Independent reported.

For Santa Barbara residents watching county governance from south of the Gaviota Pass, the results of both races signal something larger: that even races once considered safe — an entrenched judgeship, a supervisor's open seat assumed to favor continuity — are now contested terrain. Final certified results are expected by July 2.