{"id":187994,"date":"2026-02-21T22:59:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T22:59:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/187994\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T22:59:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T22:59:33","slug":"california-democratic-party-convention-in-san-francisco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/187994\/","title":{"rendered":"California Democratic Party convention in San Francisco"},"content":{"rendered":"

California Democrats are panicking as a crowded and uninspiring field of gubernatorial candidates<\/a> is raising the real possibility two Republicans to advance out of the June primary.<\/p>\n

The prospect of the \u201czombie campaigns\u201d leading to a Republican governor for the first time since Arnold Schwarzenegger left office in 2011 has created a\u00a0 \u201csh\u2014show,\u201d one Democratic state legislator told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never seen a big race like this before,\u201d the legislator said. \u201cAnd I am worried that we\u2019re going to have two really whacko Republicans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rusty Hicks, chair of the California Democratic Party, said he will not get involved in pressuring candidates to bow out. MediaNews Group via Getty Images<\/p>\n

As hundreds gathered this weekend for the California Democratic Party convention in San Francisco, another state legislator took aim at the rudderless leadership of the Democratic Party<\/a> under chair Rusty Hicks, who has said he has no intention of leaning on candidates to bow out. Only the top two candidates \u2014 regardless of party affiliation \u2014 will emerge out of what\u2019s called a jungle primary to run in the general election in November.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would think the party chair would be actively doing something to prevent a catastrophe,\u201d\u00a0 a second state legislator told The Post. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m not hearing anything,\u201d<\/p>\n

The latest polling<\/a> shows two Republicans \u2014 former Fox News host Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco \u2014 leading the crowded field with 17%\u00a0 and 14% support, respectively.<\/p>\n

Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host, leads in a new poll on the California governor\u2019s race by Emerson College. Jason Henry for California Post<\/p>\n

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican, finished tied for second in a new poll. Los Angeles Times via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, support for the top Democratic candidates is split fairly evenly between Rep. Eric Swalwell (14%), former Congresswoman Katie Porter (12%) and progressive billionaire Tom Steyer (9%).<\/p>\n

The flailing group of Dem candidates desperately seeking to gain traction also includes San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan<\/a>, former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, state Superintendent of Schools Tony Thurmond, former Secretary of Health Xavier Becerra and former state controller Betty Yee.<\/p>\n

A packed debate stage earlier this month in San Francisco featured just a fraction of the candidates running for California governor. AP<\/p>\n

Despite the rising anxiety among Democratic leaders, Hicks \u2014 a former Southern California labor boss who has served as Democrats\u2019 state party chair since 2019 \u2014 said he believes the field will \u201cnaturally winnow itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cCalifornia Democrats will do what\u2019s required to ensure we have a strong candidate coming out of the primary.\u201d<\/p>\n

A political consultant working on one of the Democratic campaigns for governor wasn\u2019t so sure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are only two people who can lean on people to get out of the race: [Gov.] Gavin Newsom and Nancy Pelosi,\u201d the source told The Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gavin Newsom has yet to weigh in on who should succeed him as California governor. REUTERS<\/p>\n

Rep. Eric Swalwell is the top polling Democrat, but his numbers suggest he is no lock to emerge out of the primary. AP<\/p>\n

However, Pelosi only briefly touched on electing a Democrat in a \u201cvery important\u201d governor\u2019s race during her convention speech.<\/p>\n

Villaraigosa, who was garnering just 3% support in a poll by Emerson College, told The Post that he has no intention of bowing out of the race as he attended a party Friday night at Tropisue\u00f1o, a Mexican restaurant and bar in the South of Market area.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, everybody has a right to run,\u201d Villaraigosa said. \u201cThe notion that two Republicans can win [the primary] is poppycock.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite low polling, former Los Angeles mayor and California speaker Antonio Villaraigosa said he will not drop out of the race for governor. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

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Asked if he seriously thinks he can win, Villaraigosa deadpanned: \u201cWithout question.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt Dorsey, a San Francisco supervisor who is supporting Mahan\u2019s candidacy for governor, wasn\u2019t quite so sure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m worried about two Republicans polling really well and Democrats \u2014 we\u2019re not coalescing around anybody,\u201d Dorsey said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad I\u2019m not the political consultant for anybody in this race, because it\u2019s gonna be a wild ride.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California Democrats are panicking as a crowded and uninspiring field of gubernatorial candidates is raising the real possibility…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[7,24115,457,943,4421,13,101,103,102,104,106,105,17382,25299,3586],"class_list":{"0":"post-187994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-eric-swalwell","10":"tag-gavin-newsom","11":"tag-governor","12":"tag-matt-mahan","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-san-francisco","15":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","16":"tag-san-francisco-news","17":"tag-sf","18":"tag-sf-headlines","19":"tag-sf-news","20":"tag-steve-hilton","21":"tag-tom-steyer","22":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187994","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=187994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}