{"slug": "borenstein-porters-and-mahans-egos-fuel-hilton-in-california-governor-race", "title": "Borenstein: Porter’s and Mahan’s egos fuel Hilton in California governor race", "summary": "San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter refused to drop out of California's gubernatorial primary, splitting the Democratic vote and likely allowing Republican Steve Hilton to advance to the general election under the state's top-two primary system. Their decision to stay in the race, despite polling in single digits, mirrors a 2020 scenario where moderate Democrats united behind Joe Biden to stop Bernie Sanders, but now risks handing Donald Trump's candidate a platform in deep-blue California. The outcome threatens to depress Democratic turnout in key fall races and shift the general election debate toward Trump rather than state policy issues.", "body_md": "**Getting your**\n\n[Trinity Audio](//trinityaudio.ai)player ready...\n\nIn 2020, Democrats faced a [strategic dilemma](https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/02/29/borenstein-to-stop-bernie-california-democrats-face-voting-dilemma/) as they approached the Super Tuesday presidential primary election.\n\nThere were so many moderates in the race that they risked splitting the vote, ensuring the nomination of Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders and potentially leading to the reelection of Donald Trump.\n\nBut, in the two days before the election, former South Bend, Ind., [Mayor Pete Buttigieg and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar set their egos aside](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/02/us/politics/amy-klobuchar-drops-out.html), dropped out and threw their support to Joe Biden. The former vice president went on to win the nomination and eventually the presidency.\n\nIt’s a lesson California Democrats should think about as they await results of Tuesday’s primary election for governor.\n\nIf the polling holds up, Democrats should be asking themselves why the party failed under the state’s top-two primary system to stop Donald Trump’s candidate from moving on to the general election in deep blue California.\n\nThe answer is that the second-tier California candidates this year, unlike Buttigieg and Klobuchar in 2020, were unwilling to put their egos aside for the greater good.\n\nSan Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter won’t win. But their legacies will likely be that they stayed in the race and enabled Republican Steve Hilton to move on to the general election.\n\n[Recent polling consistently indicates](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/polls/california-governor-election-polls-2026.html) that Hilton, a former Fox News host, will finish first or second with the other spot going to one of the two leading Democrats, former Attorney General Xavier Becerra or hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer.\n\nIf the field had been narrowed this would have been a very different campaign, with very different results.\n\nThird-tier candidates Antonio Villaraigosa, the former mayor of Los Angeles, and Tony Thurmond, state superintendent of public instruction, have barely registered. So, if they had dropped out, they would have minimally affected the race.\n\nBut Mahan and Porter, who have mostly been in single digits in May, would have reshuffled the race at the top if either, or especially both, of them stepped aside. They haven’t had sufficient support to be contenders, but they have had enough to meaningfully drag down Becerra’s and Steyer’s numbers and enable Hilton to stay in the top two.\n\nTo be sure, barring an Eric Swalwell-style implosion by Becerra or Steyer, depending on who finishes in the top two, the next governor of California will almost certainly be a Democrat. But a Democratic one-two finish, which now seems unlikely but still possible, would have provided insurance against just such an implosion.\n\nTwo Democrats at the top would have depressed Republican turnout for other key races — especially for Congress — in the fall. And it might have led to real policy debates on issues like health care, water, homelessness and housing rather than a campaign focused on Donald Trump that we will have with Hilton in the race.\n\nYes, there will be lots of complaints after the election about how the state’s top-two primary system is to blame for the fracturing of the Democratic vote.\n\nPerhaps there’s a need for some sort of change. But eliminating the state’s nonpartisan primaries is not it. Remember, California voters did away with partisan primaries because they can lead to politically polarizing selection of candidates who appeal just to their respective parties.\n\nA significant portion of California’s electorate is centrist, with [23% registered without party preference](https://elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov/ror/60day-primary-2026/complete-ror.pdf) and [31% of Democrats identifying as moderates](https://www.ppic.org/publication/california-voter-and-party-profiles/). It’s not in the Democratic Party’s long-term interest to move the party further left.\n\nA better solution would be serious consideration of ranked choice voting, in which voters can prioritize their selections. In this case, that would have allowed backers of Porter and Mahan to voice their preference but still have input as the field narrows to two.\n\nIn the meantime, however, whether running for president or governor, candidates should ask themselves why they are running — and why they continue when they are hurting their own party.\n\n*Daniel Borenstein is editor-at-large for the opinion section.*", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/borenstein-porters-and-mahans-egos-fuel-hilton-in-california-governor-race", "canonical_source": "https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/05/29/borenstein-mahan-porter-egos-fuel-hilton-trump-california-governor-race/", "published_at": "2026-05-29 21:56:07+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-05-29 22:24:06.654214+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy"], "entities": ["Matt Mahan", "Katie Porter", "Joe Biden", "Bernie Sanders", "Donald Trump", "Pete Buttigieg", "Amy Klobuchar", "California Democratic Party"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/borenstein-porters-and-mahans-egos-fuel-hilton-in-california-governor-race", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/borenstein-porters-and-mahans-egos-fuel-hilton-in-california-governor-race.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/borenstein-porters-and-mahans-egos-fuel-hilton-in-california-governor-race.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/borenstein-porters-and-mahans-egos-fuel-hilton-in-california-governor-race.jsonld"}}