Pete Wilson won with 51.5% of the vote (4,022,565 votes), ahead of Jr. Edmund G. Brown with 44.8% (3,494,968 votes).
The margin between the first two candidates was 6.8 percentage points (527,597 votes). The party margin (Republican share minus Democratic share) was a Republican lead of 6.8 points.
Compared with the previous comparable race in the same area, the party margin moved 26.1 points toward Republicans. The winning party changed.
7,805,450 votes were counted in this race, for 5 candidates or options.
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