Polls have shown former Fox News commentator Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco leading the race, with the top Democrat \u2014 Bay Area Rep. Eric Swalwell \u2014 essentially tied.<\/p>\n
With such a wide-open field, Democrats at the party’s February convention<\/a> were unable to endorse a single candidate, meaning pressure is building on candidates with lower polling numbers and less ability to fundraise to drop out of the race.<\/p>\n The primary election is June 2. Here\u2019s a look at the field right now:<\/p>\n Matt Mahan<\/p>\n Mahan, the mayor of San Jose, is the latest Democrat to enter the race after saying in the fall he wasn\u2019t excited by the selection of candidates. Don\u2019t expect him to join the other candidates\u2019 jockeying to be the biggest opponent to president Donald Trump. A Silicon Valley moderate, he\u2019s criticized Newsom<\/a> for overly focusing on \u201cresisting\u201d Trump, especially on social media.<\/p>\n He says the state over-regulates businesses and fails to comprehensively address homelessness and crime. He broke with the party in 2024 to support Proposition 36, the ballot measure voters approved to increase penalties on some drug and theft charges. Mahan has honed in on reducing street homelessness<\/a> with hundreds of tiny homes as well as a policy to arrest unhoused people<\/a> who refuse repeated offers of shelter placements.<\/p>\n Xavier Becerra<\/p>\n If former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra was looking for attention for his campaign, he found it in the form of negative headlines<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last month, federal prosecutors indicted a Sacramento powerbroker in an alleged corruption scandal that rocked the state\u2019s Democratic establishment. At its center? A dormant campaign account held by Becerra, from which prosecutors allege Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s former chief of staff Dana Williamson conspired with other political consultants to steal $225,000. Williamson is charged with helping to divert the funds to the wife of Becerra\u2019s longtime aide, Sean McCluskie, who has pleaded guilty in the alleged scheme.<\/p>\n Becerra was California\u2019s first Latino attorney general before serving as a cabinet secretary for former President Joe Biden. He is running primarily on a platform of lowering health care costs.<\/p>\n He has not been accused of wrongdoing in the case and has said he was unaware of what was happening. But it\u2019s still possible the association \u2014 and the implication he wasn\u2019t paying attention \u2014 will taint his campaign, already polling at just 8% last fall.<\/p>\n The controversy is one of a few moments of intrigue in an otherwise quiet race.<\/p>\n Katie Porter<\/p>\n In October, former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter, a Democrat, was caught on camera trying to walk out of a TV interview with a reporter who pressed her on whether she needed Republican support in the race. A second video followed, showing Porter berating a staff member during a Zoom call. At the time considered the front-runner, she rode out the news cycle and later said she \u201ccould have done better\u201d about the behavior in the videos, but they appeared to have dropped her approval ratings<\/a>. She is essentially tied with the top Republican candidate.<\/p>\n Porter made a name for herself as one of a \u201cblue wave\u201d of female, Democratic lawmakers elected to Congress during the first Trump administration in 2018. A law professor at UC Irvine who ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate last year, she gained attention for her tough questioning of corporate executives using her signature whiteboard.<\/p>\n Tom Steyer<\/p>\n Joining a wide field of other Democrats, billionaire investor and climate activist Tom Steyer announced in November<\/a> he is jumping into the race.<\/p>\n Then-Democratic presidential primary candidate Tom Steyer addresses a crowd during a party in Columbia, South Carolina, on Feb. 29, 2020.<\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Sean Rayford<\/p>\n \/<\/p>\n Getty Images<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n Steyer, who made his fortune by founding a San Francisco hedge fund, has used his wealth to back liberal causes, including the environment. He\u2019s never held public office before, but ran a short-lived campaign for president in 2020. He has honed in on reining in Californians’ second-highest-in-the-nation electricity bills, though some experts are skeptical<\/a> of his proposals.<\/p>\n Chad Bianco<\/p>\n Pro-Trump Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco is neck-and-neck with Porter in the polls, though he is unlikely to last near the top of the pack in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly two-to-one and a GOP candidate hasn\u2019t won a statewide seat in nearly 20 years.<\/p>\n The cowboy-hat-toting Bianco has heavily criticized Democratic governance. He argues for loosening regulations on businesses and says he wants to overturn California\u2019s sanctuary law that restricts local police from cooperating with federal deportation officers.<\/p>\n Eric Swallwell<\/p>\n Other Democrats have focused on their biographies and experiences in government to try to distinguish themselves in a race where name recognition is low across the board. All have said they want to make California more affordable and push back on the Trump administration\u2019s impact on the state.<\/p>\n Rep. Eric Swalwell speaks during a press conference after a rally in support of Proposition 50 at IBEW Local 6 in San Francisco on Nov. 3, 2025.<\/p>\n Swalwell, a former prosecutor and Bay Area congressman<\/a>, will likely lean heavily on his anti-Trump bonafides. He was one of several members of Congress appointed by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to help lead the second Trump impeachment after the attempted Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection and is now the latest Democrat under attack by the Trump administration over his mortgage<\/a>.<\/p>\n Antonio Villaraigosa<\/p>\n Former Los Angeles mayor and former Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa is among the more moderate of the Democratic field. He boasts of his time running the state\u2019s largest city, during which he boosted the police force. He ran for governor unsuccessfully in 2018.<\/p>\n Betty Yee<\/p>\n Former state Controller Betty Yee emphasizes her experience with the state budget and the tax system, having been a top finance office in ex-Gov. Gray Davis\u2019 administration and having sat on the state Board of Equalization.<\/p>\n Tony Thurmond<\/p>\n State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, a Democrat, is the only candidate currently in a statewide seat. He emphasizes his background as a social worker who grew up on public assistance programs in a low-income family. He has stated an ambitious goal of building two million housing units on surplus state land.<\/p>\n Ian Calderon<\/p>\n Ian Calderon, a former Democratic Assembly majority leader, is emphasizing his relative youth. He was the first millennial member of the state Assembly, and is part of a Los Angeles County political dynasty. He has some ties to the cryptocurrency industry<\/a> and has name-dropped it in ads and debates.<\/p>\n Steve Hilton<\/p>\n Republican Steve Hilton, a Fox News contributor, was an adviser for British conservative Prime Minister David Cameron before pivoting to American politics. Before launching his campaign he released a book this year calling California \u201cAmerica\u2019s worst-run state.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Tom](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1772665988_562_.webp\")
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