One of the most closely watched political races on the Central Coast—if not California— this primary season is not yet fully decided.
Nine candidates were headed into the primary election for the 24th Congressional District but only two will make it to the General Election.
One of those will be Democrat, Santa Barbara County Supervisor Salud Carbajal. He dominated Tuesday night's results, but who will fill the shoes of his challenger is not as clear.
With thousands of ballots left to count on Wednesday night in both San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties, the determination for whether Katcho Achadjian or Justin Fareed will eventually take second place was too close to call.
Assemblyman Achadjian (R-San Luis Obsipo) told KCBX on Wednesday that he's just in a wait-and-see mode.
"We're okay with the results, it is what it is that's why we have a democracy and we accept the numbers as they are and we definitely will change them and we'll wait until everything is final," Achadjian said.
Achadjian said in hindsight, he wouldn't change any of his campaigning tactics, but does believe his Assembly duties in Sacramento kept him from hitting the district as hard as he could have.
Fareed is familiar with this tight second-place situation, as he lost a close bid two years ago to Republican Chris Mitchum.
"I feel humbled and incredibly blessed to see how many people came out supporting me as their candidate moving forward. I'm very encouraged about the prospects moving ahead and having a very competitive general election," Fareed said.
Cal Poly Political Science Professor Michael Latner said, while the final tally isn't yet known, "I think the democrats are going to feel good going into this if Fareed is the nominee, Katcho was able to brand himself as more of a moderate I think he'd be a stronger November candidate but you know it remains to be seen, we'll see what happens."
While results for the 24th District will likely come before the weekend, the county election offices have until July 8, 2016 to submit their certified results to the California Secretary of State.