On February 9, California Assemblymember Rocky Chavez, a Republican, dropped out of the U.S. Senate race. See this report. This is probably because California’s top-two system injures major parties that have multiple candidates in the primary. With only two well-known Democrats running, and three or four Republicans in the same race, the top-two system would probably result in only two Democrats on the general election ballot. The two Democrats would place first and second, shutting out all the Republicans.

There are still three Republicans running, despite the withdrawal of Chavez: Duf Sundheim, Tom Del Beccaro, and Al Ramirez.