Defiant low-polling California Democrats are refusing to exit the crowded race for governor — even after party chair Rusty Hicks and Gavin Newsom himself told them to drop their longshot bids for the sake of avoiding a doomsday scenario of two Republicans advancing to the November general election.
Superintendent Tony Thurmond, ex-Attorney General Xavier Becerra, former Controller Betty Yee and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan — each polling at around 5% or less — issued defiant statements ahead of a Friday deadline to officially send their names to ballot.
“The California Democratic Party is essentially telling every candidate of color in the race for governor to drop out,” Thurmond, who was polling at 2% in a Public Policy Institute of California survey conducted in February, said in a social media video.
“Instead they want a billionaire, a person who doesn’t even bother showing up for work in Congress, and a person who tears into her staff and reporters on the regular, all white candidates, to stay in the race.”
California Democratic Party Chair Rusty Hicks issued an open letter Tuesday telling candidates without a viable path to end their campaigns to avoid an unlikely but “not impossible” situation of two MAGA Republicans, former Fox News Host Steve Hilton and ex-Riverside Sheriff Chad Bianco, competing head-to-head in the liberal-leaning state.
Hicks discussed the risk at the California Democratic Party Convention in San Francisco last month amid rising Dem panic about the possibility of being locked out of the governor’s race.
“I know who will probably get the blame if two Republicans are in the general election, they’ll come looking for the chair of the party. That’s usually how this works,” Hicks told reporters. “I think it’s also important for me to reiterate that I’m aware of — but not worried about — that dynamic.”
Hicks’ call to drop out didn’t move Yee, polling at 5%, who posted gleeful photos on X filing her official campaign paperwork.
Becerra likewise defied the call to drop out and posted a video collecting signatures to place his name on the ballot.
“Looking forward to being your governor!” said Becerra, who is polling at 5% according to PPIC.
Hilton and Bianco are near the top of recent polls while the Dem field is heavily splintered among nine notable Dems — including former Rep. Katie Porter, Rep. Eric Swalwell, billionaire activist Tom Steyer, and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Former assemblymember Ian Calderon is also in the race.
Villaraigosa and Becerra, who each have about 5% support, traded barbs on Tuesday with the former LA mayor suggesting that Becerra drop out and vice versa.
Mahan, who has received substantial backing from Silicon Valley but sits at 2% support in recent polling, insisted he will win and told Politico: “Thankfully, voters choose the next governor — not political gatekeepers.”
Even Calderon, who was polling at 1% in the PPIC’s poll, refused to drop out: “I thought we were Democrats and we believed in choice,” he told Politico.
After saying on Monday that he was checked out of the governor’s race, Newsom changed his tune Tuesday and said he agreed with Hicks’ message.
“I read it a few hours ago, and I confess I agree,” Newsom said at a book event in Los Angeles Tuesday. “At this moment in history, with all the peril and promise that marks this moment for California, the most un-Trump state in America, to have a Republican Trumper running, there is no margin for error.”
California State Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas echoed calls for lagging Dems to drop out.
“It’s important that candidates don’t file if they aren’t ready or able to go the distance. With respect, they know who they are,” Rivas said.
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