[Updated: Tue., June 9, 2026, 10:45am]
With 43,000 additional votes counted in last week’s June primary, judicial race challenger Luis Esparza has officially defeated incumbent Judge Thomas Adams, who has served on the bench for 50 years.
As of the most recent count, Esparza, a private attorney with a one-person office, is 2,891 votes ahead of Adams. Last Friday, Esparza was only 230 votes ahead. With only around 1,300 votes left to count now, a 2,891-vote advantage at this late stage — the election was held last Tuesday — would be statistically impossible for Adams to reverse.