{"id":214705,"date":"2026-03-11T11:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T11:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/214705\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T11:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T11:06:11","slug":"swalwell-leads-field-in-california-governors-race-emerson-college-polling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/214705\/","title":{"rendered":"Swalwell leads field in California governor\u2019s race: Emerson College Polling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">(WHTM) \u2013 A new Emerson College Polling\/Inside California Politics survey of the June primary for Governor finds Congressman Eric Swalwell (D) leading the open primary with 17%.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Swawell is followed in the poll of 1,000 likely California voters by businessman Steve Hilton (R) at 13%, businessman Tom Steyer (D) at 11%, Sheriff Chad Bianco (R) at 11%, and former Congresswoman Katie Porter (D) at 8%.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A quarter of voters, 25%, are undecided in the race to replace term-limited Governor Gavin Newsom, who had a 45% approval and 40% disapproval rating in the poll.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cRep. Swalwell\u2019s support increased among Democratic voters in the past month from 23% to 27%, along with Tom Steyer, whose support among this group also increased from 12% to 16%,\u201d Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said. \u201cA plurality of the independent electorate is undecided (39%), while 12% support Swalwell and Hilton respectively, and Republicans are split between Hilton (38%) and Bianco (34%).\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The economy remains the biggest issue for California voters at 37%, followed by housing affordability (22%), threats to democracy (11%), immigration (8%), and healthcare (7%).<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The poll\u2019s full results and methodology can be found on the <a href=\"https:\/\/emersoncollegepolling.com\/blog\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Emerson College Polling website.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Emerson College Polling website.&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Emerson College Polling website.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Political Power RankerLatest episodes of Political Power Ranker<a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.abc27.com\/news\/us-world\/politics\/dusty-johnson-leads-south-dakota-governor-larry-rhoden-in-june-primary\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Dusty Johnson leads South Dakota Governor Larry Rhoden in June primary;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Dusty Johnson leads South Dakota Governor Larry Rhoden in June primary&quot;}\"> Dusty Johnson leads South Dakota Governor Larry Rhoden in June primary <\/a><a class=\"link  yahoo-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/ossoff-leads-potential-georgia-senate-110000254.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Ossoff leads potential Georgia Senate opponents; Emerson College Polling;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Ossoff leads potential Georgia Senate opponents&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Ossoff leads potential Georgia Senate opponents; Emerson College Polling <\/a><a class=\"link  yahoo-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/more-americans-disapprove-trump-performance-110000492.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:More Americans disapprove of Trump\u2019s performance, new Emerson College poll shows;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;More Americans disapprove of Trump\u2019s performance, new Emerson College poll shows&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> More Americans disapprove of Trump\u2019s performance, new Emerson College poll shows <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Spencer Kimball, Director of Emerson College Polling, and Chris Berg, Political Content Director for Nexstar Media Group, discuss the poll\u2019s findings in this week\u2019s episode of Political Power Ranker.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Each week, Chris and Spencer will examine who\u2019s up and who\u2019s down in the world of politics based on the latest data from Emerson College Polling, focusing on the states and races that impact the national picture.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc27.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27.&quot;}\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(WHTM) \u2013 A new Emerson College Polling\/Inside California Politics survey of the June primary for Governor finds Congressman&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,400,28687,17361,24115,457,146,21857,46410,17382,25299],"class_list":["post-214705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-california-politics","tag-chad-bianco","tag-emerson-college","tag-eric-swalwell","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-katie-porter","tag-likely-california","tag-spencer-kimball","tag-steve-hilton","tag-tom-steyer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214705","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=214705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}