It took a month, but San Joaquin County’s vote count is finally finished — and it certainly yielded some surprises.
The results show what makes the county stand apart.
Here are five takeaways from the county’s official certified results from the 2024 election:
A Republican pick for president
Former President Trump won in San Joaquin County by one of the closer margins in California. He received 48.92% of the vote compared to 48.03% for Vice President Kamala Harris.
To put it another way, only 2,349 votes separated the two candidates out of 263,709 ballots cast for president in the county.
By contrast, Harris won the state overall by a whopping 58.5% to Trump’s 38.3%. Trump won the national vote — which is yet to be certified — by a similar margin to San Joaquin County: 49.9% to 48.3%.
Also proving San Joaquin County as being more favorable to the GOP, U.S. Senate candidate Steve Garvey carried the vote here by a margin similar to Trump’s, though Democratic U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff easily won the contest statewide, claiming the seat long held by the late Dianne Feinstein.
County joins others making the Republican flip
San Joaquin County was among 10 of California 58 counties that flipped on the presidential vote.
Trump got about 6 percentage points more in San Joaquin County when comparing the 2024 results to those in the 2020 election.
And that wasn’t the biggest reverse. CalMatters reported that Imperial County saw its vote jump 11.6% in favor of Trump between the two presidential elections.
Did third-party candidates hurt Harris?
Could Harris have prevailed in the county if Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, had not been on the ballot and the vice president had picked up all of her votes?
Yes. Stein’s 2,583 votes would have maintained San Joaquin as a county that elects Democrats in presidential elections.
Nationwide, Democrats had feared that Stein could cost Harris the election had it been a close vote. But, of course, it wasn’t. Trump won handily.
Trump also could have padded his lead in San Joaquin County had Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who later dropped out and endorsed him, had not been on the ballot. Kennedy got 3,413 votes here.
San Joaquin County loves voting by mail
Some 81% of the votes in November’s election were cast by mail in the county. That’s down from 90% in the 2020 general election — but remember, balloting then occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic when in-person contact was limited.
Only 18.3% of San Joaquin County voters — fewer than 1 in 5 — went to the polls in person this year. As for early voting, fewer than 1%, or 1,921, availed themselves of the option despite all the attention paid to it around the country.
Another reversal, but favoring a Democrat
In another tight race, former legislator Adam Gray upended Republican U.S. Rep. John Duarte in District 13, which extends across the Central Valley from the south end of San Joaquin County into Fresno County.
Two other races also flipped to the Democrats in Southern California, but they weren’t enough to win control of the House.
It came down to the wire in the nation’s final outstanding congressional race, with Duarte prevailing by only 187 votes. It marked the reversal of a similarly close race two years ago, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Despite San Joaquin County turning to Trump and other GOP candidates, Democrat U.S. Rep. Josh Harder kept his District 9 seat, defeating Stockton Mayor Kevin Lincoln.