The California Democratic Party convention is underway in San Francisco, where delegates and party leaders from across the state are gathering to consider endorsements in major congressional and statewide races.<\/p>\n
Day one began with welcoming delegates at the Moscone Center, as party officials outlined priorities for the weekend \u2014 including the closely watched race to succeed Gavin Newsom.<\/p>\n
Party chair Rusty Hicks said the crowded field makes it difficult for any candidate to secure the party\u2019s endorsement ahead of the June primary. Eight candidates are competing this weekend for support, which requires at least 60% of delegates\u2019 votes. Matt Mahan entered the race too late to compete for the endorsement at the convention.<\/p>\n
Hicks acknowledged that no gubernatorial candidate may receive formal party backing before the primary. He also noted the possibility that California\u2019s open primary system \u2014 which advances the top two vote-getters regardless of party \u2014 could result in two Republicans moving on to the November election.<\/p>\n
Party leaders, Hicks said, are prepared to take whatever steps are necessary to ensure a strong Democratic candidate advances. He suggested the field could begin narrowing in late March or mid-April as leading contenders emerge.<\/p>\n
Beyond the governor\u2019s race, Hicks said Democrats are preparing for what he described as a challenging 2026 election cycle, including efforts to flip the U.S. House of Representatives.<\/p>\n
The convention continues through the weekend. On Saturday, candidates will deliver speeches along with special guest speakers including Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, Monique Lim\u00f3n and Robert Rivas. Delegates are scheduled to vote on endorsements Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The California Democratic Party convention is underway in San Francisco, where delegates and party leaders from across the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[5402,88116,15222,26686,9198,8447,51768,88115,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-187445","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-california-democratic-party","9":"tag-delegates","10":"tag-democratic-candidate","11":"tag-endorsement","12":"tag-endorsements","13":"tag-moscone-center","14":"tag-party-leaders","15":"tag-rusty-hicks","16":"tag-san-francisco","17":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","18":"tag-san-francisco-news","19":"tag-sf","20":"tag-sf-headlines","21":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}