California Primary Election 2026: A Reflection

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The California Election 2026 primary is over.

And yet, it’s not over, because the counting continues.

Democrat leaders will justify the long counting period because they emphasize creating as much ease as possible for everyone to vote. Everyone gets a mail-in ballot, and everyone can vote from wherever they please in the state. A Los Angeles County resident can vote in Orange County or elsewhere in the state, and they can even vote with a provisional ballot if they don’t bring the original ballot with them.

The state allows ballots to be counted up to seven days after Election Day, provided that the ballots are postmarked on Election Day.

It’s Election Day, as Justice Alito commented in a recent Supreme Court case, which should very shortly upend this month-and-a-half of counting long after Election Day in wayward states.

Republicans and anyone with common sense are right to call foul on this inordinate amount of time to collect and count ballots. It’s hard to trust an election system when ballots can keep rolling in day after day, and certain margins start flipping seats here and there. Republicans have benefited from sudden changes in the voting, but Democrats by and large benefit even more. It’s not a sound, integrated system.

Thankfully, the federal government is investigating the election centers. The California Post exposed the LA County voting center for having only one person manning a desk while all the other desks sat empty, all with a $336 million budget! After the exposé, lots of employees showed up to start counting ballots.

Let’s set aside the recriminations about voter fraud, and let’s assume the results as they stand statewide will remain relatively stable. Who are the winners and losers on California’s Primary Election Night 2026?

Let’s start with the biggest winner: Trump.

He endorsed British Fox News anchor and author Steve Hilton in April (Easter Sunday, in fact), and the momentum just built for him. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco had launched his campaign in February, 2025, then Hilton followed about two months later. At one point, polls indicated that Hilton and Bianco would take up the Top Two spots, though it didn’t turn out that way.

The next biggest winner: Xavier Becerra.

This guy was struggling and straggling along with single-digit support for a greater part of the campaign season. As candidates began dropping out, including serial #MeToo creep former Congressman Eric Swalwell, Becerra’s chances increased. Democrat activists networked to push back on the single-digit gubernatorial contenders, and a wide array of liberal coalitions lined up behind Becerra, carrying him to the lead.

Another winner: Steve Hilton, obviously.

A Republican made it into the Top Two again for governor (so far), when some of the polling fearfully indicated that two Democrats could lock out Republicans for the governor’s race! Hilton had some slips along the way, and at one point, his opponent alleged that Hilton had run out of money. Yet he persisted, and Trump gave him another boost a week before the primary election day. Some of my friends were pledging to vote for Sheriff Bianco, but changed their minds following Trump’s reminder endorsements. So far, that boost has paid off.

Now, let’s talk about the losers:

Left-wing cosplaying billionaire Tom Steyer went down in flames yet again. He was much closer to getting the gubernatorial nomination this year compared to his silly bid for president in 2020. He lost the bid, and he lost $200 million to lose bigly once again. Money can’t buy a politician love in politics (just as Hillary and Kamala!), and Steyer had to relearn that lesson, too. He flooded mailboxes with campaign literature. As a high-propensity Republican voter, even I received six mailers from the Steyer campaign, including a big gloss-up slamming Becerra for mismanagement, scandal, and incompetence.

None of it worked. I visited his final rally in Downtown Los Angeles, and it was a pretty middling crowd. Becerra had a rally a few hours later, with three times the attendees, endorsements, and lots of energy.

Former congresswoman, US Senate candidate, and now gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter burned up again during her campaign, too. Democrat operatives never liked her, yet she didn’t get the message in 2024 when she played victim and cried about a rigged primary. Here, her polling bottomed out even worse. It’s stunning to see how even registered Democrats had enough self-respect that they didn’t want to give the Orange County harridan Karen a chance at any further political power. The nasty videos of her cursing at staff, her heated and unpleasant interview with a CBS reporter, both of which showcased her arrogance and diffidence towards others, revealed how out of touch and out of place she was in pursuing elected office. She believed all the progressive headlines when she got elected to Congress, but never realized that the political aura of winning a seat in once-conservative Orange County, California, would wear off.

The Progressive-Berniecrat wing of the Democrat party lost bigtime. One Revolution, Bernie Sanders’s own PAC, endorsed Tom Steyer, undermining their fundamental messaging and hurting their credibility. For years, Bernie and his bros have been railing against the billionaire class. Then they lined up behind a billionaire. Steyer’s biggest promoters struggled to justify their clashing endorsement, and voters didn’t buy it. Will this latest capitulation signal the end of Bernie Sanders’s influence in national politics?

Other losers include the Republican Party establishment. The Republican state legislators all lined up behind Sheriff Bianco early in the race, and now they have egg on their face. A majority of California county central committees also endorsed Bianco, yet their say didn’t amount to much. Republican leaders need to consider what role they play in California politics now that Trump is calling the shots so squarely.

On a similar note, Republican conservative grassroots, specifically the California Republican Assembly, also lost big with this primary election. As early as February 2026, Sheriff Bianco (a unique case), lined up conservative support—on top of his Republican Party support—and the convention endorsed Bianco overwhelmingly for governor versus Steve Hilton. That didn’t matter at all. The Trump endorsement wiped away any influence of this organization, and Republican voters who just vote, voted for Hilton.

This outcome should prompt reflection among conservatives and other Republican groups in California. If they differ from Trump, do they have any strategy or resources to sway voters? If they don’t have the time or energy to make their case, then why gather and organize in the first place?

The ballots are still being counted, but these results will pretty much pan out by July and into the November general election. Does Hilton have a chance against Becerra in November? It will take a miracle. If progressive voters sit out the election, and Republican turnout exceeds prior off-year general elections, Hilton has a chance. But Becerra has arranged key endorsements from major companies, and he has gathered enough support from disparate factions of the Democrat party, that he has the momentum and the message that a two-to-one Democrat state wants to hear.

One should also add that California, yet again, is the biggest loser of them all. If the election turns out as expected, we can expect four to eight more years of performative progressive government, complete with malfeasance, scandal, and incompetence.

Will California voters ever learn?

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