Fellow Citizens,
Here are two potential options for learning about our upcoming June open primary:
Option A—In November, you read the ballot and discover that the only options for our next governor are two Republicans, a party representing a distinct minority of the California electorate.
Option B—You take time now to think about how the open primary works and how you want to vote (and you really should, in your own interest, vote).
The majority of California voters passed Proposition 14 in 2010, creating a single primary ballot for many offices, including governor. The Democratic and Republican parties were no longer guaranteed a spot on the November ballot for these offices.
Some of the winning arguments for Proposition 14 were:
• Our economy is in crisis.
• Unemployment in California is over 12%.
• The Legislature, whose members were all elected under the current rules, repeatedly fails to pass the state budget on time or close the state’s gaping $20+ billion fiscal deficit.
• Our state government is broken.
You can decide for yourself whether Proposition 14 made our state government more functional and capable of solving problems. Your analysis may be colored by the fact that the Democrats have a super-majority in the legislature, and the outgoing Democratic governor has held office for eight years.
But the important question before you isn’t retrospective.
Multiple Democratic candidates are running for governor. Only two Republicans are. The Republican Party has been unable to compete in gubernatorial races because the party only represents about 30–40% of California voters. In 2026, they have a rare chance to win because the Democratic primary vote may be so split that only the two Republicans are on the November ballot.
Non-Republican California voters now have an emotional and mathematical challenge in the primary. Both are tricky. The math involves helping the leading Democratic candidate win a spot on the November ballot. If multiple Democratic candidates stay in the race and win 5–10% apiece, the two Republican candidates can both be the only ones on the November ballot, with 15–20% each. Getting a Democratic candidate on the November ballot is now a daunting task and is only possible with mature, strategic voting.
The emotional dimension is also fraught. The withdrawal (fully deserved and fortuitous) of the leading Democratic candidate still leaves a field of qualified Democratic candidates. Democratic voters will have their first choices in this group and good reasons for their allegiances.
Many will have memories of their preferred Democratic candidate not being chosen in the 2016 and 2024 presidential campaigns. Some of them chose not to vote for the Democratic candidate who wasn’t their first choice in those years. Perhaps some of them now regret not voting strategically anyway, given the catastrophic consequences of those elections.
As voters, we can assess whether to risk a Republican governor for four long years to stay true to our first-choice Democrat (and then live with that regret) or vote mindfully in the June primary to ensure a Democrat is on the November ballot. That is the choice now for non-Republican voters in June.
We are reminded of the stakes every day when we wake up to absorb the daily news.
Kevin Charles
A Rockridge voice on Manila Avenue
