<\/p>\n
Jane Kim speaks to supporters at El Rio in the Mission on Election Night in San Francisco on June 2, 2026.<\/p>\n
Bront\u00eb Wittpenn\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
The progressive Working Families Party is having a moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In its sixth year in California, the party notched some impressive results in last week\u2019s primary:<\/p>\n
Former San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim was the leading vote-getter in the statewide race for insurance commissioner, Randy Villegas advanced to the general election in a nationally watched swing House district in the Central Valley and Sacramento City Council Member Mai Vang got the most votes in a Sacramento-area House race, besting incumbent Democratic Rep. Doris Matsui.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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But those three and other Working Family Party candidates on the ballot in November have a tough balancing act to do over the next six months: They need to use this moment to raise the party\u2019s profile and help voters understand how it differs from the Democratic Party, while running as Democrats.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Conversely, top Democrats and Democratic Party institutions may reverse course in November and back Working Family Party candidates\u00a0\u2014 as long as they\u2019re taking on Republicans and not fellow Democrats.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s safe to say this is the biggest election day in the history of WFP,\u201d Jorge Contreras, interim California Director of the Working Families Party, told supporters on a post-election call Tuesday night.<\/p>\n A sign for Randy Villegas is seen in Arvin, Calif., on May 16, 2026.<\/p>\n Jenna Schoenefeld\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n But is the WFP ready for its close-up? It\u2019s looking that way, as some top \u201ccorporate Democrats\u201d\u00a0\u2014 those who accept corporate political action committee campaign contributions\u00a0\u2014 are lining up behind the WFP candidates who defeated the Democratic Party\u2019s chosen candidates in the June 2 primary.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Unlike the Republican, Democratic and Green parties, the Working Families Party is not a ballot-line party in California. Achieving that status could be years down the road and would take millions of dollars. The timeline for doing that is \u201cstill to be determined,\u201d said party spokesman Victor Suarez. It currently endorses and supports (through its dues-paying members) candidates who share their progressive values\u00a0\u2014 including Bay Area Reps. Lateefah Simon, D-Oakland, and Ro Khanna, D-Fremont\u00a0\u2014 in the name of getting their ideas enacted into law.\u00a0<\/p>\n The party is on the ballot in only three states\u00a0\u2014 New York, Connecticut and Oregon\u00a0\u2014 and has chapters in 18 states. For now, its candidates are emphasizing their differences from the major parties: They don\u2019t take corporate PAC contributions, they support single-payer healthcare and taxing the wealthy. It plans to ramp up from its efforts in the primary where it made 1 million calls to voters, sent 2 million texts, mailed 250,0000 mail pieces and organized 150 canvasses and phone banks.\u00a0<\/p>\n But most Working Family Party candidates, like Villegas, are registered Democrats. The Democratic Party may support some of them, but not all.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI am a proud Democrat,\u201d Villegas told me. \u201cBut I\u2019m a proud Working Families Party Democrat. And that means that I\u2019m going to be fighting for universal healthcare, I\u2019m going to be fighting for universal childcare, I\u2019m going to be fighting to get corporate PAC money out of politics, I\u2019m gonna be fighting to ban members of Congress from trading stocks. I\u2019m a Democrat who is going to be going to the mat for every single one of these issues.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Villegas\u2019 race offers a case study in the tensions at play<\/a> between the Democratic Party and the Working Families Party, which in this case both want to oust Republican Rep. David Valadao and help Democrats retake control of the House.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Villegas in the primary. The Democratic Congressional Committee endorsed Assembly Member Jasmeet Bains after pledging to remain neutral in the race. In the wake of Villegas\u2019 win, some Democrats are now threatening to withhold their DCCC dues<\/a> over its meddling.<\/p>\n Villegas pointed out that he was also endorsed by four local Central Valley Democratic Party county chairs and the Republican mayor of Mendota, Victor Martinez.\u00a0<\/p>\n Maria Pantoja, 16, center, and Elisa Lopez, 15, right, talk to a community member while canvassing for Randy Villegas in Arvin, Calif., on May 16, 2026.<\/p>\n Jenna Schoenefeld\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n What that shows, Villegas said, is that \u201cthese aren\u2019t necessarily progressive issues, these are popular issues that resonate with voters across the political spectrum. It\u2019s not this fight of left and right, it\u2019s really us versus them. We are for working families in the Central Valley who\u2019ve been left behind by politicians in both parties who would rather cater to corporations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n That may explain why Kim, who has run for San Francisco mayor and the state Senate previously,\u00a0 won the counties of Trinity, Butte, Lake, Merced, San Bernardino and Riverside, all of which supported a Republican for governor. That could also mean that the Democratic vote was consolidated behind Kim while the GOP vote was split. She is unlikely to receive the state party\u2019s support as she faces Assembly Member Ben Allen, a fellow Democrat, in November.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Kim saw the red county support differently.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt tells me that our message about running against the status quo that has contributed to wealth inequality and economic insecurity, and running on a vision that government can work and that it can make California more affordable for everyday residents resonated across the state,\u201d Kim told me.<\/p>\n Now that the fog of California\u2019s vote-counting is clearing, the Democratic Party is lining up behind at least one Working Family Party candidate.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Tuesday, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, California Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla and Reps. Zoe Lofgren and Pete Aguilar endorsed Villegas. Lofgren was one of 10 California Democratic House members who endorsed Bains.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear how far the DCCC might be willing to go in reversing course and supporting Villegas. It\u00a0 sent an email blast Wednesday that railed on Valdadao but didn\u2019t mention Villegas. But it did add Villegas to its competitive \u201cred to blue\u201d<\/a> program that could mean giving his campaign organizational and financial support. Villegas sees no conflict in accepting the support of three Democrats who have taken corporate<\/a> PAC<\/a> contributions and one, Pelosi, who previously supported<\/a> the ability of House members to make stock trades, but now supports a ban.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n It\u2019s unlikely that Kim or Vang will attract similar support from top Democrats or the state party since they are taking on other Democrats. Villegas said any support from the DCCC won\u2019t change the way he\u2019s going to run.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI am still going to stay true to who I am and my values and the way that we\u2019re going to run this campaign, and I\u2019ve made that clear since day one,\u201d Villegas said. \u201cOur campaign will not be receiving corporate PAC donations. We\u2019re going to continue to stay fighting for working families, and we\u2019re going to continue to call out corruption wherever it exists.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jane Kim speaks to supporters at El Rio in the Mission on Election Night in San Francisco on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,204,13],"class_list":["post-356124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-election","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356124","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=356124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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