Eric Jones’s lead over Rep. Mike Thompson reaches 8,189 votes as the 4th District count continues, a possible win for Ro Khanna’s bet on new faces

Top image: Rep. Mike Thompson of St. Helena, a Democrat first elected to Congress in 1998, in his official 2021 portrait. Photo: U.S. House Office of Photography (public domain) via Wikimedia Commons

By Mei-Lin Ostrander, Campaigns & Elections Reporter

Democrat Eric Jones led Rep. Mike Thompson by 8,189 votes in California’s 4th Congressional District as of Wednesday evening, 105,129 to 96,940, or 52.0% to 48.0%, in the Secretary of State’s tally posted at 6:51 p.m. PT on Nov. 11. The Associated Press had not called the race, and the state certifies results Dec. 11, according to the Secretary of State’s calendar.

The trend has run one way since election night. Jones, a former venture capitalist making his first run for office, led by 4,219 votes early on Nov. 4 with an estimated 41% of ballots counted, the Davis Vanguard reported. By Wednesday afternoon the AP estimated about 75% of the vote was in, KQED’s AP-fed results page showed, and Jones’s margin had roughly doubled.

Where the votes are coming from

The redrawn district runs from Napa and Sonoma counties into Yolo County and the Sacramento Valley. Thompson has “strong advantages” in Sonoma, Napa and Yolo, the district’s three largest counties by voter population, while Jones has “significant leads” in the more conservative counties of Yuba, Sutter, Colusa and Placer, The Sacramento Bee reported Wednesday.

That map is why late ballots from Thompson’s base have not closed the gap. In the most recent update, a batch of 7,570 Sonoma County votes posted Wednesday afternoon split almost evenly, 3,848 for Thompson and 3,722 for Jones, according to The Ballot Book, which tracks county releases. In Sonoma County alone, Thompson led 53.5% to 46.5% as of that update. Thompson would need to win the remaining ballots by a far wider margin than he has so far to overtake Jones.

Thompson’s side

Thompson, a 14-term Democrat from St. Helena, has not conceded. On Nov. 6, his campaign declined to provide additional comment on the count, The Press Democrat reported. During the race he ran on seniority, his relationships in Congress and a record of bringing federal help to the district for agriculture, wildfire resilience and flood protection, according to the Davis Vanguard. He is a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee and a longtime leader of House Democrats’ Gun Violence Prevention Task Force.

He also pushed back on the attacks against him. When Jones accused him in an October debate of voting to give more money to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Thompson said the accusation was false, the Bee reported. A separate disputed ad involving allegations by a former Thompson staff member drew a rebuttal from seven former staffers, who called the claim unsubstantiated and demanded the ad be taken down, according to the Vanguard.

How Jones built the lead

Jones put about $14.8 million of his own money into the race, which Sonoma State University political scientist David McCuan called a California record for self-funding a congressional campaign, the Vanguard reported, citing KQED. Through Oct. 14, Jones’s campaign had spent about $16.5 million to Thompson’s $5.3 million.

He also campaigned across party lines. About 29% of the district’s registered voters are Republicans and 28% belong to no party or a third party, according to The Ballot Book’s registration breakdown. The Bee found his campaign and an allied super PAC hitting Thompson on immigration from opposite directions. Jones’s own ads criticized Thompson for funding federal immigration enforcement. The super PAC, New Leadership Now, which raised nearly $5.8 million and drew major donations from people tied to Dragoneer Investment Group, the San Francisco venture firm where Jones was a partner, accused Thompson of being soft on immigrants with criminal records. Jones denounced the PAC’s ad. “We need humane, comprehensive immigration reform,” he said in a statement to the Bee. Super PACs are barred from coordinating with campaigns.

“California counts every vote, and that is exactly what should happen,” Jones said in an election-night statement, adding that “we are confident the outstanding ballots will move in our direction and deliver the change this district has been waiting for.”

Khanna’s bet on a new generation

If the lead holds, it will be a marquee result for Rep. Ro Khanna of Silicon Valley, who endorsed Jones in the closing days as part of a slate of younger challengers to long-serving Democrats. Khanna, widely discussed as a likely 2028 Democratic presidential contender, has made generational change inside the party a central theme. Of the challengers he backed, Angela Gonzales-Torres won in the 34th District and Mai Vang trailed Rep. Doris Matsui, the Chronicle reported Nov. 8. A Jones win would give Khanna a second success and a new ally from the region.

What a Thompson loss would mean for the Bay Area

Thompson has represented Napa and Sonoma since his first election in 1998. His departure would take one of the Bay Area delegation’s most senior members, and a Ways and Means seat, off the board just as Democrats take the House majority in January, when seniority starts to translate into gavels. Jones would arrive as a freshman with an unusually large personal fortune, a cross-party coalition and no voting record. For the North Bay’s wine and farm economy, the question is whether a newcomer can rebuild the federal relationships Thompson spent nearly three decades on. For the delegation, it is a sign that long tenure is no longer the protection it used to be.

Sources

• California Secretary of State, U.S. House District 4 results (updated Nov. 11, 6:51 p.m.)
• KQED election results (AP data), Nov. 11, 2026
• The Ballot Book, District 4 county updates, Nov. 11, 2026
• watch.vote, CA-4 race page (certification date)
• The Sacramento Bee, Nov. 11, 2026
• Davis Vanguard, Nov. 4, 2026
• The Press Democrat, Nov. 6, 2026