California’s gubernatorial primary is heating up fast, as the Primary Election Day rapidly approaches with no clear winner in sight. California uses a very different primary voting system to most of the country, the jungle primary: The top two candidates, regardless of party affiliation, will proceed to the General Election in November. After favorite Eric Swalwell dropped out of the race following sweeping allegations of sexual assault, polling changed dramatically. According to TIME, “…another Democrat—Xavier Becerra, former Health and Human Services Secretary—has since surged in the polls. Two Republicans are still in the race as well, a fact that has fueled lingering concerns among Democrats that the party could end up being shut out of the general election if Californians split the vote between the more numerous Democratic candidates. As the June 2 primary approaches, ‘there’s still a lot of volatility in the polls,’ says Meredith Conroy, a professor of political science at California State University, San Bernardino, telling TIME that there’s no clear frontrunner in the race at this point.”
An Emerson College poll showed 19% of candidates supporting Becerra, followed by Steyer and Republican Steve Hilton, though they were both within the poll’s margin of error. The main problem boils down to the fact that many voters are just undecided—a whopping 12%, in fact—and so many will be waiting to cast their ballots until they feel more certain. There is a small chance that two Republicans could win the jungle primary this year, but it is ultimately unlikely given the political landscape of California and the country today. –Boris Nusinzon
