California will be electing a new Governor in 2026, as current Governor Gavin Newsom has reached his term limit. Under Proposition 14, California runs a Top Two Candidate Open Primary. This means that the two candidates with the most votes will be the two candidates on the ballot.
California has many potential candidates for the upcoming elections: Katie Porter, Former democratic congresswoman from Irvine; Xavier Becerra, Democrat, a former U.S. Health and Human Services secretary and former California Attorney General; Chad Bianco, Republican, Riverside County Sheriff; Steve Hilton, Republican, Fox News contributor, and former adviser to conservative British Prime Minister; Matt Mahan, Democrat, mayor of San Jose; Katie Porter, Democrat, former U.S. representative representing Orange County; Tom Steyer, Democrat, billionaire entrepreneur and former presidential candidate; Eric Swalwell, Democrat, U.S. representative from the Bay Area; Tony Thurmond, Democrat, state superintendent of public instruction; Antonio Villaraigosa, Democrat, former mayor of Los Angeles and former Assembly Speaker and Betty Yee, Democrat, former state Controller.
Despite its status as a reliably blue state, many Californians fear that due to the high number of democrats on the primary ballot, two republicans may end up campaigning against each other. This is because of the dilution of the democrat vote—there are more democrats in the running, meaning that their vote will be split many ways.
At the February Democratic convention, no candidate got enough votes to receive party endorsement, a preview of the fragmentation of the democratic vote.
When confronted with this potentially red reality, Gov. Newsom said, “I hadn’t really processed it because at this moment in history, with all the peril and promise that marks this moment for California, the most un-Trump state, to have a Republican running, there is no margin for error. This is a moment for real self-reflection. Is it about you or about me? Or is it about all of us? The stakes couldn’t be higher. All I’ll say is, choose wisely.”
Newsom was calling for some candidates to consider dropping out of the race in order to stop the dilution of the democratic vote.
The front-runner for the democrats is Eric Swalwell, followed closely by Katie Porter and Tom Steyer. All of whom ranked highly in the early polling.
Republican front-runners include Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco.
Eric Swalwell was raised in Dublin, California. He has worked as a prosecutor and as a U.S. Congressman since 2023.
As for his goals as governor, Swalwell says, “to keep the President, his troops, and his ICE agents out of our streets, out of our homes, out of our lives… and what I really want to do, lower the cost.”
As a former prosecutor, Swalwell believes that his skill set would be beneficial to protecting California. He cites his participation in every major investigation against President Donald Trump, including the Russia investigation, both impeachments and the January 6 effort.
His top priorities for his first year, if elected, would be increasing revenue to pay for healthcare and education obligations, meeting the housing need and going on offense against the current presidential administration to protect vulnerable Californians.
