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By Giulia Carbonaro
Senior Reporter
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The crowded race to succeed California’s Governor Gavin Newsom, which has no clear front-runner in the Democratic ranks, has likely just been made tougher by the party’s failure this weekend to endorse a candidate.
Hundreds of delegates and party members gathered for the California Democratic Party convention at the Moscone Center in San Francisco over the weekend, ahead of the crucial June 2 statewide primary election. Among them were nine eligible candidates hoping to run for the state’s governor this year with the backing of the party.
These included former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, former State Controller Betty Yee, Representative Eric Swalwell, former Representative Katie Porter, former Assemblyman Ian Calderon, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, and businessman Tom Steyer.
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A Scattered Vote for Newsom’s Successor
Newsom’s second term as California governor ends this year, and it is not yet clear whether the high-profile Democrat and Trump critic will run for the nation’s top job in the next presidential election. Last year, he told reporters that he would make this decision after the midterms.
But the midterms are shaping up to be a complicated affair in California as Newsom leaves the stage and the race to replace him continues, with no clear frontrunner.
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Traditionally, the San Francisco convention has served as an occasion for the party to decide who they will endorse ahead of the June primary election. But this year’s event has revealed how challenging it is proving for the party to pick a successor for Newsom.
A candidate has to obtain 60 percent of the votes from delegates at the convention to have the party’s endorsement. This threshold was not reached last weekend. The candidate for governor who obtained the most votes, at 24 percent, is Swalwell. He was followed by Yee with 17.3 percent and Becerra with 14 percent.
The rest of the delegates’ votes were scattered among the other candidates, though 8.5 percent cast their ballot for no endorsement or no preference. Three candidates, Thurmond, Villaraigosa and Calderon, received fewer votes than this 8.5 percent.
It is not only for the governor’s race that Democrats have chosen not to endorse any one candidate. The party said it would not endorse a candidate for any currently open statewide office.
Attorney General Rob Bonta, Secretary of State Shirley Weber, and State Controller Malia Cohen, who are all running for reelection, can count on the endorsement of their party.
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Where Does This Leave California Democrats?
The sheer number of gubernatorial hopefuls in the Democratic ranks is raising concern among some that the party’s vote will be split in the June primary, sending two Republicans to the runoff.
Based on California’s “jungle primary system,” the top two candidates in the primary go ahead to the November general election, regardless of their party.
Two Republican gubernatorial candidates have already consolidated their position within their party: Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and former Fox News pundit Steve Hilton.
The latest Emerson College Polling/Inside California Politics survey of the primary for the California governor found Hilton leading the field at 17 percent, followed by Swalwell at 14 percent, Sheriff Chad Bianco at 14 percent, Porter at 10 percent, and Tom Steyer at 9 percent. Twenty-one percent of voters were undecided.
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Bill James, the chair of the Santa Clara County Democratic Party, said that there was “some level of near-term anxiety about the number of candidates” at the convention, as reported by The Mercury News.
“I’m very worried about it,” Democratic Representative Dave Min, who has endorsed Porter in the race, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “If you don’t have a chance, if you’re not raising the money, you don’t have the profile, then maybe you need to take one for the team here.”
Others, however, are more optimistic.
“I think what I expect to see is there to be a lot of conversations and a lot of meetings with the candidates in the race, and I expect us to start to unite together around one common candidate in the next few weeks,” Democratic State Assemblymember Patrick Ahrens said, as reported by The Mercury News. Ahren has endorsed Swalwell.
It is not the first time that no gubernatorial candidate is endorsed at the Democratic Party’s convention either. In 2018, only 39 percent of delegates cast their vote for Newsom.
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