Democrats Are Surging In California's Gubernatorial Primary

A few months ago, Republicans hoped they could take both spots in California's gubernatorial primary, but it is looking certain that Democrats will be on the fall ballot and may take both spots.

There has been a great deal of stress among Democrats about the California gubernatorial primary. From the lack of big-name candidates after both former VP Kamala Harris and Sen. Alex Padilla passed on running to Eric Swalwell getting into the race, looking like the frontrunner, and then being revealed to be a predator, Democrats seemed to have everything imaginable go wrong.

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However, after Swalwell dropped out, former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra consolidated support and rose to the top spot in the polls, where he has remained for weeks.

The biggest problem that Democrats have faced is that race is loaded with too many candidates who are splitting the vote. Democratic leaders in the state called for low polling Democrats to drop out so that the field could solidify around one or two Democrats, but that didn’t happen, so the Democrats have muddled along with a bloated field, and it looked like Democrats being shut out of the general election was possible until Becerra rose to the top of the field.

Primary polling is always difficult, and California’s size and jungle primary, where all candidates from both parties appear on the same ballot and the top finishers advance to the general election, can make polling an even more complex challenge, but what we know is that two Democratic candidates are surging, and only three candidates total have a real chance to advance.