{"id":833,"date":"2026-05-30T16:38:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T16:38:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=833"},"modified":"2026-05-30T16:38:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T16:38:32","slug":"borenstein-porters-and-mahans-egos-fuel-hilton-in-california-governor-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=833","title":{"rendered":"Borenstein: Porter’s and Mahan’s egos fuel Hilton in California governor race"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In 2020, Democrats faced a strategic dilemma as they approached the Super Tuesday presidential primary election.<\/p>\n

Read more 30+ summer Pride events that aren\u2019t in San Francisco<\/a><\/p>\n

There 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.<\/p>\n

But, in the two days before the election, former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar set their egos aside, dropped out and threw their support to Joe Biden. The former vice president went on to win the nomination and eventually the presidency.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a lesson California Democrats should think about as they await results of Tuesday\u2019s primary election for governor.<\/p>\n

If the polling holds up, Democrats should be asking themselves why the party failed under the state\u2019s top-two primary system to stop Donald Trump\u2019s candidate from moving on to the general election in deep blue California.<\/p>\n

The 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.<\/p>\n

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter won\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Recent polling consistently indicates 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.<\/p>\n

If the field had been narrowed this would have been a very different campaign, with very different results.<\/p>\n

Third-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.<\/p>\n

Read more Large East Bay brawl between teens ends with one hospitalized<\/a><\/p>\n

But 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\u2019t had sufficient support to be contenders, but they have had enough to meaningfully drag down Becerra\u2019s and Steyer\u2019s numbers and enable Hilton to stay in the top two.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

To 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.<\/p>\n

Two Democrats at the top would have depressed Republican turnout for other key races \u2014 especially for Congress \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

Yes, there will be lots of complaints after the election about how the state\u2019s top-two primary system is to blame for the fracturing of the Democratic vote.<\/p>\n

Perhaps there\u2019s a need for some sort of change. But eliminating the state\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

A significant portion of California\u2019s electorate is centrist, with and 31% of Democrats identifying as moderates. It\u2019s not in the Democratic Party\u2019s long-term interest to move the party further left.<\/p>\n

A 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.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, however, whether running for president or governor, candidates should ask themselves why they are running \u2014 and why they continue when they are hurting their own party.<\/p>\n

Read more SF Giants\u2019 bullpen remains glaring question following latest meltdown<\/a><\/p>\n

Daniel Borenstein is editor-at-large for the opinion section.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The legacies of the two Democrats will likely be that they enabled Trump\u2019s candidate to move on to the general election<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nBorenstein: Porter’s and Mahan’s egos fuel Hilton in California governor race - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=833\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Borenstein: Porter’s and Mahan’s egos fuel Hilton in California governor race - Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The legacies of the two Democrats will likely be that they enabled Trump\u2019s candidate to move on to the general election\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=833\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-30T16:38:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=833#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=833\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/13065d40d633843429ac57d4e5c06f9b\"},\"headline\":\"Borenstein: Porter’s and Mahan’s egos fuel Hilton in California governor race\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-30T16:38:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=833\"},\"wordCount\":711,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=833#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/75e40f6e75ccff677295f3c89e778a0f.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Opinion\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=833#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=833\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=833\",\"name\":\"Borenstein: Porter’s and Mahan’s egos fuel Hilton in California governor race - 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