{"id":266679,"date":"2026-04-14T03:55:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T03:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/266679\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T03:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T03:55:07","slug":"wild-weekend-could-bring-big-changes-to-race-for-governor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/266679\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild weekend could bring big changes to race for Governor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe past weekend in California politics brought lots of twists and turns. &#8220;It was a wild weekend in California politics,&#8221; said Adjunct McGeorge School of Law Professor Chris Micheli.Wild about sums it up. Though the weekend is only two days long, Micheli says this past weekend packed a political punch.&#8221;It was pretty monumental in terms of the June primary,&#8221; he added.All eyes are on June. In California, only the top two vote-getters for governor, regardless of party, move on to the November election. The two top Republicans are outpacing any of the Democrats.&#8221;Will two Republicans be the two top vote getters and prevent any Democrats from getting there,&#8221; asked Micheli? &#8220;If a Democrat gets into second place, who will it be?&#8221;A Democrat has never not been on a November ballot for governor in California&#8217;s history. Could this year be a first?&#8221;Dare I say if there is a year for this to happen, it&#8217;s this year,&#8221; said California Republican Party Chairwoman Corrin Rankin.The Republican Party didn&#8217;t endorse a candidate over the weekend at its convention, but Rankin says that was expected.&#8221;We have two really amazing candidates on the Republican side that can do a really good job representing the state of California,&#8221; Rankin added.Last week, President Trump threw his support behind Steve Hilton. Some wonder if that will give him the edge over Chad Bianco.&#8221;I think President Trump&#8217;s endorsement of Steve Hilton could actually tip things in such a favor, and Bianco could drop out of second place,&#8221; said Micheli. &#8220;The question then becomes, do Democrats get behind one main candidate?&#8221;That could be a bright spot for the Democrats after a weekend full of dark clouds. Congressman Eric Swalwell dropped out of the race, facing allegations of sexual misconduct that include sexual assault. Swalwell was considered the party&#8217;s frontrunner.&#8221;We are confident we will elect a Democratic Party governor in November,&#8221; said Democratic strategist Robin Swanson. &#8220;It is just a matter of which one.&#8221;Last month, the chairman of the state&#8217;s Democratic Party urged those of the eight candidates who don&#8217;t believe they can win to get out of the race by this Wednesday. The party is confident it will come together to back a single candidate.&#8221;I think in June you&#8217;re going to see a Democrat emerge, and I do think, and I do think it is going to be a Democrat versus Republican race,&#8221; Swanson said. See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tSACRAMENTO, Calif. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The past weekend in California politics brought lots of twists and turns. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was a wild weekend in California politics,&#8221; said Adjunct McGeorge School of Law Professor Chris Micheli.<\/p>\n<p>Wild about sums it up. Though the weekend is only two days long, Micheli says this past weekend packed a political punch.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was pretty monumental in terms of the June primary,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>All eyes are on June. In California, only the top two vote-getters for governor, regardless of party, move on to the November election. The two top Republicans are outpacing any of the Democrats.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Will two Republicans be the two top vote getters and prevent any Democrats from getting there,&#8221; asked Micheli? &#8220;If a Democrat gets into second place, who will it be?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A Democrat has never not been on a November ballot for governor in California&#8217;s history. Could this year be a first?<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Dare I say if there is a year for this to happen, it&#8217;s this year,&#8221; said California Republican Party Chairwoman Corrin Rankin.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kcra.com\/article\/california-republican-party-wont-endorse-candidate-governor\/70996292\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The Republican Party didn&#8217;t endorse a candidate over the weekend<\/a> at its convention, but Rankin says that was expected.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have two really amazing candidates on the Republican side that can do a really good job representing the state of California,&#8221; Rankin added.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, President Trump threw his support behind Steve Hilton. Some wonder if that will give him the edge over Chad Bianco.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think President Trump&#8217;s endorsement of Steve Hilton could actually tip things in such a favor, and Bianco could drop out of second place,&#8221; said Micheli. &#8220;The question then becomes, do Democrats get behind one main candidate?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>That could be a bright spot for the Democrats after a weekend full of dark clouds. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kcra.com\/article\/eric-swalwell-sexual-misconduct-investigation-us-house-ethics\/71005712\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Congressman Eric Swalwell dropped out of the race<\/a>, facing allegations of sexual misconduct that include sexual assault. Swalwell was considered the party&#8217;s frontrunner.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are confident we will elect a Democratic Party governor in November,&#8221; said Democratic strategist Robin Swanson. &#8220;It is just a matter of which one.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Last month, the chairman of the state&#8217;s Democratic Party urged those of the eight candidates who don&#8217;t believe they can win to get out of the race by this Wednesday. The party is confident it will come together to back a single candidate.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think in June you&#8217;re going to see a Democrat emerge, and I do think, and I do think it is going to be a Democrat versus Republican race,&#8221; Swanson said. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kcra.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">See more coverage of top California stories here<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kcra.com\/article\/get-kcra-news-on-the-go-download\/44039145\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Download our app<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kcra.com\/subscribe\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Subscribe to our morning newsletter<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@KCRA\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The past weekend in California politics brought lots of twists and turns. &#8220;It was a wild weekend in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,34676,13540,17980,1751,943,76533,116528,24696,116527,13,3020,2211,77187,225,17382,2695,116529],"class_list":{"0":"post-266679","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news","11":"tag-california-politic","12":"tag-candidate","13":"tag-democrat","14":"tag-democrats","15":"tag-governor","16":"tag-june-primary","17":"tag-micheli","18":"tag-party","19":"tag-past-weekend","20":"tag-politics","21":"tag-president-trump","22":"tag-race","23":"tag-second-place","24":"tag-state","25":"tag-steve-hilton","26":"tag-weekend","27":"tag-wild-weekend"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266679","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=266679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}