California may elect an independent candidate to the office of Insurance Commissioner in November 2018. Steve Poizner, who held the same job as a Republican 2006-2010, is on the ballot as one of two candidates for that office again. His only opponent is a Democratic State Senator, Ricardo Lara. As far as is known, there have been no polls predicting who will win this race. If Poizner does win, he will be the first independent to be elected to California statewide office in history.

Joel Fox, editor of Fox & Hounds, here writes that Poizner was John Kasich’s California fundraising manager in 2016, when Kasich ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. Poizner was also a national co-chair of the Kasich campaign. Fox says that Kasich encouraged Poizner to run as an independent. Fox suggests that if Poizner wins, that will make it more likely that either John Kasich, or some other prominent person, will run for president as an independent in 2020.