The 2026 primary election is about 20 months away, and the four top gubernatorial Democratic candidates were busy making their cases to be the state’s top public executive, writes CalMatters Capitol reporter Alexei Koseff.
On Sunday, former state Controller Betty Yee, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and state Sen. Toni Atkins of San Diego spoke at a forum hosted by National Union of Healthcare Workers and the Los Angeles Times. Former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is running again after an unsuccessful bid in 2018, was invited but was unavailable to attend, according to a spokesperson.
The candidates shared similar views on most issues. But when it came to this November’s Proposition 36, which would increase penalties for theft and drug trafficking, they began to differentiate themselves: Yee was the only candidate to say she’d vote against it. Atkins said she would likely not support it, while Thurmond and Kounalakis said they were undecided.
The health care union will not officially endorse a candidate until some time next year, but Thurmond notched an early political advantage by winning the non-binding straw poll after the event.
Read more about the forum in Alexei’s story.
As for that other election taking place roughly a month from now, Vice President Kamala Harris spent the weekend campaigning and raising money in Los Angeles and San Francisco, where on Saturday she called herself the underdog in the race, according to KQED.
The campaign said she raised a total of $55 million at the events.
Voter registration: California has a record 22.3 million registered voters, nearly 1.1 million more than four years ago.
The proportion who are no party preference voters has declined from 23.7% to 21.9% since 2020, while the percentages for Democrats (46.4% to 46.1%) have dipped slightly and for Republicans (24.2% to 24.8%) have ticked up a little, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.
