That changed a bit on a sunny Saturday in San Francisco, the contest assuming a smidgen of campaign heat \u2014 chanting crowds, sign-waving supporters, call-and-response from the audience \u2014 as the state party held its annual convention in this bluest of cities. <\/p>\n
Delegates had the chance to officially endorse a party favorite, providing a major lift in a contest with the distinct lack of any obvious front-runner<\/a>. But with an overstuffed field of nine major Democratic contenders<\/a> \u2014 San Jos\u00e9 Mayor Matt Mahan was said to have entered the contest too late<\/a> for consideration \u2014 the vote proved to be a mere formality. <\/p>\n No candidate came remotely close to winning the required 60% support. <\/p>\n That left the contestants, sans Mahan, to offer their best distillation of the whys and wherefore of their campaigns, before one of the most important and influential audiences they will face between now and the June 2 primary.<\/p>\n There was, unsurprisingly, a great deal of Trump-bashing<\/a> and much talk of affordability<\/a>, or rather, the excruciating lack of it in this priciest of states.<\/p>\n The candidates vied to establish their relatability, that most valuable of campaign currencies, by describing their own hardscrabble experiences.<\/p>\n Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa<\/a> \u2014 the first speaker, as drawn by lot \u2014 spoke of his upbringing in a home riven by alcoholism and domestic violence. State Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond<\/a> described his childhood subsistence on food stamps, free school lunches and surplus government cheese. <\/p>\n Former state Controller Betty Yee<\/a> told how she shared a bedroom with four siblings. Katie Porter<\/a>, the single mom of three kids<\/a>, said she knows what it\u2019s like to push a grocery cart and fuel her minivan and watch helplessly as prices \u201cgo up and up\u201d while dollars don\u2019t stretch far enough.<\/p>\n Michele Reed of Los Angeles cheers at the state Democratic Party convention. <\/p>\n (Christina House\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n When it came to lambasting Trump, the competition was equally fierce.<\/p>\n \u201cHis attacks on our schools, our healthcare and his politics of fear and bullying has to stop now,\u201d Villaraigosa said.<\/p>\n Rep. Eric Swalwell<\/a> (D-Dublin) called him \u201cthe worst president ever\u201d and boasted of the anti-Trump battles he\u2019s fought in Congress and the courts. Xavier Becerra<\/a>, a former California attorney general, spoke of his success suing the Trump administration.<\/p>\n Porter may have outdone them all, at least in the use of profanity and props, by holding up one of her famous whiteboards<\/a> and urging the crowd to join her in a chant of its inscription: \u201cF\u2014- Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTogether,\u201d the former Orange County congresswoman <\/a>declared, \u201cwe\u2019re going to kick Trump\u2019s ass in November.\u201d<\/p>\n Porter was also the most extravagant in her promises, pledging to deliver universal healthcare to California \u2014 a years-old Democratic ambition \u2014 free childcare, zero tuition at the state\u2019s public universities and elimination of the state income tax for those earning less than $100,000.<\/p>\n Unstated was how, precisely, the cash-strapped state would pay for such a bounty.<\/p>\n Former Assemblyman Ian Calderon offered a more modest promise to provide free child care to families earning less than $100,000 annually and to break up PG&E, California\u2019s largest utility, \u201cand literally take California\u2019s power back.\u201d (Another improbability.)<\/p>\n Becerra, in short order, said he was \u201cnot running on inflated promises\u201d but rather his record as a congressman, former attorney general and health secretary in President Biden\u2019s cabinet<\/a>.<\/p>\n Rachel Pickering, right, vice chair of the San Luis Obispo County Democratic Party, stands with others wearing pins supporting Democratic causes at the party\u2019s state convention.<\/p>\n (Christina House\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n It was one of several jabs that could be heard if one listened closely enough. (No candidate called out any other by name.) \u201cYou\u2019re not going to vote for a Democrat who voted for the border wall, are you?\u201d Thurmond demanded, a jab at Porter who supported a major funding bill that included money for Trump\u2019s pet project.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re not going to vote for a Democrat who praises ICE, are you?\u201d Thurmond asked, a poke at Swalwell, who thanked the department for its work last year in a case of domestic terrorism.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re not going to vote for a Democrat who made money off ICE detention centers,\u201d Thurmond went on, targeting Tom Steyer<\/a> and his former investment firm, which had holdings in the private prison industry<\/a>.<\/p>\n Yee seemed to take aim at Mahan and his rich Silicon Valley backers<\/a>, suggesting grassroots Democrats \u201cwill not be pushed aside by the billionaire boys club that wants to rule California.\u201d<\/p>\n The barb was part of a full-on assault on the state\u2019s monied class, which includes Steyer, who made his fortune as a hedge fund manager<\/a>.<\/p>\n In a bit of billionaire jujitsu<\/a>, he sought to turn the attack around by saying his vast wealth \u2014 which has allowed him to richly fund his political endeavors<\/a> \u2014 made him immune to the blandishments of plutocrats and corporate interests.<\/p>\n \u201cHere\u2019s the thing about big donors,\u201d Steyer said. \u201cIf you take their money, you have to take their calls. And I don\u2019t owe them a thing. In a world where politicians serve special interests, I can\u2019t be bought.\u201d<\/p>\n There were no breakout moments Saturday. Nothing was said or done in the roughly 35 minutes the candidates devoted to themselves that seemed likely to change the dynamic or trajectory of a race that remains stubbornly ill-defined and, to an unprecedented degree in modern times, wide open. <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771759472_521_.jpeg\")
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