Getting your
Trinity Audioplayer ready...California Attorney General Rob Bonta opened a double-digit lead over Republican Michael Gates in Tuesday’s primary, a race positioned as a litmus test for the resonance of the Democratic incumbent’s high-wattage battles against the Trump administration.
As of early returns Tuesday night, representing roughly 51.8% of the potential vote, Bonta led with 54.1% to Gates’ 41.4%. Green Party candidate Marjorie Mikels, who has openly described her candidacy as a move largely to increase her party’s electoral footprint, had garnered 4.5%.
The matchup itself, which pits Bonta against Gates — a longtime Huntington Beach city attorney who championed his defiance of state political orthodoxy and briefly served in the Trump Justice Department — in the general election, was largely a foregone conclusion given the top-two primary system.
Even if Bonta’s vote share holds at above 50%, the state’s primary rules require a general election between the top two votegetters regardless of their share. That’s in contrast to local elections, where garnering a majority vote in a primary marks an outright win and eliminates the holding of a general election.
Bonta’s performance follows findings heading into Tuesday, by the CSU Long Beach-USC-Cal Poly Pomona California Elections and Policy Poll, that saw him enjoying 45% support from likely voters, a 13-point lead over Gates’ 32% poll showing.
Bonta, a former Alameda City Council member and East Bay assemblymember, was initially appointed as attorney general by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021 and then elected the following year. His administration has been defined most prominently by the 70-plus lawsuits against the president’s administration to preserve the state’s federal funding and protect the state’s independence on issues ranging from environmental regulation to immigrant relief.
But he is quick to state that he would prefer not to be routinely suing the White House, but that the president’s actions have forced his office’s hand. He also contends that the high-profile litigation comes on top of their work devoted to issues including housing and affordability policies, antitrust work targeting price fixing, tackling organized retail theft and fentanyl trafficking, and promoting red-flag measures to drive down gun violence.
Gates started his run for the position in January after about a year serving as a deputy assistant U.S. attorney general in the Justice Department, and after deciding against trying to reclaim his prior office as Huntington Beach city attorney. The crux of his political career is highlighted by his challenges as city attorney to state-mandated home building requirements and the state’s sanctuary law limiting local police cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, and his attempts to institute a voter ID requirement.
He hopes to stage an upset by riding support for a voter ID ballot measure in November, and frames his campaign as a return to turning the office’s priorities away from battling the presidential administration he recently worked under and toward statewide crime. Bonta views his opponent’s policy positions as “MAGA culture war issues” that are anathema to the values of California’s largely Democratic-leaning electorate.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.