On January 14, Bloomberg News posted a story titled “Will California Get a Republican Governor After Newsom?” It is behind a paywall and cannot be reproduced here in its entirety. The subtitle is, “California’s primary election rules, which advance the top two candidates to a runoff election regardless of party, could result in a Republican being elected Governor in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly two-to-one.” Also, “Unless something changes, what could happen is that Bianco and Hilton become the two candidates on the ballot in November.”
Democrats hold over two-thirds of the membership of each house of the legislature, so they have the power to pass a bill with an urgency clause. They could pass a bill legalizing write-in space on the general election ballot for top-two offices, so that if the November 2026 ballot does just contain the names of Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton, whichever Democrat had placed third in the primary could mount a write-in campaign in November and potentially win. Californians have elected write-in candidates in the general election office in the past. Three times, a write-in candidate was elected to Congress from California in the general election, in 1930, 1946, and 1982,
The Bloomberg story, by Erika D. Smith, is incorrect to refer to the California November election as a “runoff.” A runoff is only held following an actual election, and is only held when the actual election fails to elect someone. But the California June event is not an “election”, because no one can be elected in June. Even if a candidate receives 100% of the vote in June, he or she is not yet elected and must run in November in order to be elected. The California top-two system was written that way because federal law requires all states to hold congressional elections in November of even years.
