Tim Grayson leading state Senate D9 race, Marisol Rubio trailing Tuesday night

Assemblymember Tim Grayson has pulled ahead in the race for Steve Glazer’s state Senate District 9 seat, according to early election results posted Tuesday night. San Ramon Councilmember Marisol Rubio was trailing by roughly a dozen percentage points.

The Democrat candidates are squaring off to take over for incumbent Steve Glazer, who did not run for reelection due to term limits. District 9 — which spans Martinez, Concord, Antioch, Brentwood and large swaths of unincorporated Contra Costa County — is home to more than a half-million residents.

Election officials had counted more than 188,000 ballots by 8 p.m. Tuesday.

These early tallies account for just a sliver of all the votes in the upcoming final results, as mail-in ballots and in-person election day votes continue to be counted over the next several days.

Grayson, 57, has spent the past seven years in California’s Assembly. As the son of a Teamster union member and public transit worker, he boasts about his past efforts to ease affordable housing construction near transit hubs, boost green energy job opportunities in Contra Costa County and challenge “big banks and pharmaceutical companies.”

Additionally, he has been critical of proposals to construct a water tunnel under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, as well as Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s efforts to ask voters to approve another tax increase in 2026.

Grayson was a general building contractor and small business owner before being elected to the Concord City Council in 2010 and 2014, including a stint as the appointed mayor.

First elected to the California Legislature in 2016, Grayson has since fielded criticism for his voting record while representing the Assembly’s 15th District, which spans Martinez, Brentwood and large swaths of unincorporated Contra Costa County.

The Christian pastor, police chaplain and former Concord councilmember opted not to weigh in on nearly a dozen significant bills during the California Legislature’s final week to pass laws in 2023 — legislation that almost exclusively revolved around environmental regulations, renter protections, reproductive health care, LGBTQ+ rights, public safety and tech oversight — citing health issues that don’t seem to match up to legislative records.

Rubio argues that while Grayson is seen as a business-friendly moderate Democrat, his history of missing votes and massive financial backing paint him as a puppet of large corporations that “paddles left and right” to please stakeholders on all sides of a policy.

She specifically points to Courage California, a progressive grassroots advocacy organization, which has ranked Grayson in its “Hall of Shame” since he was a freshman state legislator in 2017 — grades that the group says reflect how Grayson is “a frequent recipient of big oil money, sidestepped votes on significant fossil fuel and emissions bills this session.”

This is the second time Rubio, 51, has campaigned for this same Senate district, following an unsuccessful bid in the March 2020 primary.

Prior to being elected to the San Ramon City Council in November 2022, Rubio was elected to the Dublin San Ramon Services District, where she served as a director and vice president. She is also a board member at Sierra Club California and its San Francisco Bay chapter, as well as nonprofits dedicated to women’s reproductive rights and developmental disabilities.

Referencing her three decades of social justice work, neurobiology training and personal experience navigating medical challenges, the Latina elected official believes her unique perspective will help her draft legislation addressing issues involving healthcare, climate change, industry and housing in District 9.

In the March primary election between the two Democrats, fewer than 800 ballots separated Grayson and Rubio — who respectively earned 51% and 49% of the roughly 30,000 votes cast.