{"id":359895,"date":"2026-06-14T01:31:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T01:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/359895\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T01:31:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T01:31:18","slug":"2026-election-is-californias-top-two-system-working-crowded-primary-for-governors-race-brings-renewed-scrutiny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/359895\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Election: Is California’s top-two system working? Crowded primary for governor’s race brings renewed scrutiny"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — In the leadup to the June 2 primary election, the crowded race for governor brought renewed scrutiny on California’s top-two primary system — in which the top-two vote-getters advance to the November general election, regardless of their political party.<\/p>\n

ABC7 Eyewitness News Political Reporter Monica Madden examined whether the system is working as intended.<\/p>\n

California switched to the top-two primary in 2012, promising less partisanship and more competitive races. But this year’s crowded governor’s contest really raised new questions.<\/p>\n

Most states let political parties choose their nominees before the general election.<\/p>\n

But in 2010, California voters approved a new system, giving everyone the same ballot, regardless of party.<\/p>\n

MORE: Republican Steve Hilton advances to CA governor runoff, will face Xavier Becerra in November<\/a><\/p>\n

Most of the time, voters still get a Democrat-versus-Republican match-up — but not always.<\/p>\n

This year, fears of two Republicans advancing in the race for governor sent shockwaves, with Democratic leaders calling on lower-polling candidates to drop out.<\/p>\n

At the time, that included Democratic nominee Xavier Becerra. Democrats eventually coalesced around Becerra after Eric Swalwell dropped out amid a scandal.<\/p>\n

The entire fiasco reignited the debate over the top-two system.<\/p>\n

“I think Democrats and Republicans should be thinking about changing this top-two primary system so that we don’t have the potential for millions of Californians to be facing a general election without a candidate from their party on the ballot,” said Paul Mitchell, vice president of Political Data.<\/p>\n

MORE: California election delays draw scrutiny as leaders stress ‘system is working’<\/a><\/p>\n

The sentiment has been felt — from losing candidates to winning candidates.<\/p>\n

“We need to end this top-two system and move back to something that will guarantee voters have a real choice that’s what democracy is all about,” said Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton.<\/p>\n

But not everyone agrees.<\/p>\n

Monica Madden: “Do you think the top two is having its intended effect?”<\/p>\n

“I think it is. If you look at the California State Legislature, while it’s dominated by Democrats, what we’ve seen over the years is two separate Democratic caucuses emerge: one that is much more traditionally progressive,” said Political Analyst Dan Schnur. “And then, what it is, one which is also very left-leaning on social and cultural issues, but tends to be more willing to work with the business community and with job creators.”<\/p>\n

Whether voters will want to change the system in the next primary election cycle remains to be seen, but the debate over top-two is far from over.<\/p>\n

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Copyright \u00a9 2026 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — In the leadup to the June 2 primary election, the crowded race for governor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[146454,7,9,8],"class_list":["post-359895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-146454","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359895","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=359895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}