Incumbents Dominate Newport Beach City Council Race, Foley Keeps Edge Over Dixon: Real-Time Results

NEWPORT BEACH, CA — The race to determine who will serve on the Newport Beach City Council remained wide through Wednesday morning, with all four incumbents maintaining strong leads in the polls.

In District 1, incumbent Joe Stapleton clinched 70 percent of the vote — or 17,686 votes — against his opponent, Tina Babajanians, who received 29 percent of the vote.

Stapleton told The Orange County Register Tuesday night that he was confident the results would stick.

"I'm honored and humbled that the voters of Newport Beach have given me the chance to continue serving," he told the newspaper. "We broke the record in fundraising and knocked on a lot of doors and talked to the people. I think people enjoyed that."

In District 3, incumbent Erik Weigand maintained a strong lead with 59.13 percent of the vote — or 14,798 votes — while his opponents, Walter Stahr and Tim Stoaks, trailed him respectively.

District 4 incumbent Robyn Grant ran unopposed and received 100 percent of the vote.

District 6 incumbent Lauren Kleiman retained a modest lead over her opponent, Andrew Gerken. Kleiman received 56 percent of the vote — or 14,709 votes — while Gerken received 43 percent of the vote, or 11,106 votes.

In the 5th District Board of Supervisors race, incumbent Katrina Foley held her lead against Assemblymember Diane Dixon, R-Newport Beach.

Whoever is elected to the District 5 seat on the Board of Supervisors will have a prominent role in overseeing the Dana Point Harbor revitalization project, as well as efforts to protect the crumbling south Orange County coast.

It's a hotly-contested seat, with over $2 million spent by the candidates' campaigns and a flurry of special interest groups, Voice of OC reported.

Dixon, a Republican, is a former city council member and former mayor of Newport Beach. She currently represents District 72 in the State Assembly, a seat she has held since 2022.

According to Voice of OC, Dixon's support largely comes from the Lincoln Club, which is a large Orange County-based conservative donor group, and a committee funded by oil companies. Combined, the donors have spent almost $1 million on ads supporting Dixon and criticizing Foley.

Foley, a Democrat, is a former school board member and has also served as mayor of Costa Mesa. She currently serves as the vice-chair of the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

Foley's run for re-election has been supported by a coalition of labor unions, including the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs, OC Employees Association, and OC Firefighters Association.

According to Voice of OC, the donors have spent over $1.8 million on ads supporting Foley and criticizing Dixon.

The 5th District represents Newport Beach, Aliso Viejo, Costa Mesa, Laguna Beach, Laguna Niguel, San Clemente, parts of Irvine, Coto de Caza, Ladera Ranch and more.

In terms of local measures, Newport Beach residents widely voted against passing Measure H, which would limit state-required housing in Newport Beach in specific areas if approved.

The initiative proposes reducing the number of united the city includes in its state-mandated housing element by 65 percent.

A "yes" vote would limit planned housing capacity in five designated areas to 2,900 units.

The locations include:

• Dover/Westcliff
• Newport Center
• West Newport Mesa
• Airport Area
• Coyote Canyon