1980Flipped from RepublicanFinal results
1980 election for California Senate District 17
California State Senate · California
Henry J. Mello (D) won with 48.5% of the vote, defeating Eric Seastrand (R) by 0.3 points, a seat Republicans won last time.
Henry J. MelloDemocrat · winner
48.5%117,769
Eric SeastrandRepublican
48.1%116,931
Tim KilburnLibertarian
3.4%8,347
243,047 votes
Source: Harvard Dataverse / Carl KlarnerUpdated Sep 30, 2026, 7:29 AM ET
The seat over time
D − R margin in this seat's races around 1980
Races before and after
Source: Harvard Dataverse / Carl KlarnerUpdated Sep 30, 2026, 7:29 AM ET