A Primer on the Primary — Govs Race 2026
Hello Inland Empire and unfortunately welcome to election season 2026.
Good luck to all of us.
This is the Inaugural issue of my governor’s race newsletter. In this first issue I will break down how the California Primary Vote (June 2nd, 2026) works and how the vote is tallied to determine the General Election in November (Nov. 3rd, 2026). If you are interested in registering to vote there is also a link to where you can do that.
After this primer on CA democracy in 2026 I intend to use subsequent issues to profile candidates (not just the big ones! There are A LOT!) and their positions on the issues that will affect the Inland Empire and CA writ large. I intend to incorporate these candidates’ social media postings, interviews, op-eds, votes (for those currently serving in legislative bodies), previous experience, current news, and well-informed good faith critiques of the candidates to evaluate the field. I am writing this on March 6th which is the deadline for candidates to drop out before the primaries in June and things are going to get very interesting.
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Jungle Primary
California reformed the Primary process in 2010 in an attempt to make the primary more competitive and open while curtailing the power of parties. In the before times each party generally nominated like how presidential candidates are picked with closed primaries. This hasn’t happened in CA since the 90s.
Now, the primary is open which means voters have to assess the entire field. The top 2 vote getters will move on to the General Election. Personally, I think this way is an improvement and creates more opportunities for the public. Room for improvement? Absolutely. For example, ranked choice voting is the solution to all these Dems spooked by the idea of a Republican only General Election (i’ll bet you $20 in doesn’t happen btw), but that is a topic for another newsletter. One valid criticism of the current process is now the public has to be informed about so many more candidates in an environment where trustworthy information is hard to come by (more on this in later issues as well).
Below are two artistic masterpieces that outline closed and open primaries and give the general flow of how things will go between now and Nov. 3rd. Here is a link to register to vote at the Secretary of State’s website: Online Voter Registration
Thanks for reading and see you in the next issue!
