{"id":357558,"date":"2026-06-12T08:08:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T08:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/357558\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T08:08:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T08:08:17","slug":"gloria-romero-to-face-fiona-ma-in-california-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/357558\/","title":{"rendered":"Gloria Romero to face Fiona Ma in California race"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former Democrat who once led the party\u2019s caucus in the state Senate and who switched her allegiance to the GOP in 2024, will advance from the June 2 primary, according to the Associated Press.<\/p>\n

Gloria Romero will face Democrat Fiona Ma<\/a> in the November race, according to the Associated Press, dashing Democrats\u2019 hopes of locking out the GOP from a race and sparing Ma an intraparty fight against two other Democratic candidates.<\/p>\n

With almost 95% of the ballots counted, Ma won 19% of the vote, compared to 18% for Romero, almost 15% for Democrat Josh Fryday and 13% for Democrat Michael Tubbs.<\/p>\n

The lieutenant governor is first in line for succession if a governor is incapacitated. They also preside over the state Senate and serve on a number of state boards.<\/p>\n

Current Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis is now running for state treasurer, the job that Ma now holds.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s lieutenant governor primary was nearly as crowded and unsettled as the higher-profile governor\u2019s race. Ma faced repeated attacks over a $350,000 settlement the state paid in 2024 to settle a former employee\u2019s claims of sexual harassment. Much of those attacks were funded by a San Francisco Democrat<\/a> who also spent several million dollars backing Tubbs.<\/p>\n

Fryday was endorsed by Gov. Gavin Newsom and serves in the governor\u2019s cabinet overseeing the state\u2019s volunteer corps.<\/p>\n

Loading\u2026<\/p>\n

Ma enters the general election with a large cash advantage. Her campaign had $2.3 million cash on hand as of the last campaign filing on May 27, compared to around $66,000 for Romero.<\/p>\n

Romero served as Democrats\u2019 majority leader in the state Senate from 2005 to 2008. She was term-limited and left the Legislature in 2010, going on to lead an unsuccessful effort to bar payroll deductions to pay for union\u2019s political activities as well as education reform.<\/p>\n

Citing disagreements on Democrats with everything from gas stoves to gender identity, Romero switched parties in 2024<\/a> in a press conference hosted by former Fox News host Steve Hilton. She endorsed President Donald Trump and told the assembled media that \u201cthis is not the Democratic Party that I once championed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Romero ran on an informal slate with Hilton, a gubernatorial hopeful<\/a>, and Republican attorney general nominee Michael Gates. All three candidates have advanced to the November general election<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Ben Paviour<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

Ben Paviour is the California political power reporter for The Sacramento Bee\u2019s Capitol Bureau. He previously covered Virginia state politics for public radio and was a local investigations fellow at The New York Times. He got his start in journalism at the Cambodia Daily in Phnom Penh. Before becoming a reporter, he worked in local government and tech in the Bay Area.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Democrat who once led the party\u2019s caucus in the state Senate and who switched her allegiance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-357558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357558","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=357558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}