Splits among progressives may lead to some unsavory results in California primaries

Across California, progressives enter the June 2 primaries with rare chances to score major wins. In the governor’s race, billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer is running as a progressive class traitor. He enjoys the monetary resources necessary to challenge the party establishment-backed Xavier Becerra, a veteran congressman who was secretary of Health and Human Services under the Biden administration.

In Los Angeles, City Councilwoman Nithya Raman is an insurgent attempting to unseat Karen Bass, the embattled incumbent mayor endorsed by Kamala Harris and California Gov. Gavin Newsom. 

Yet progressives are undermining their own prospects. California’s top-two “jungle primaries,” in which the two highest vote-getters advance regardless of party, punish fragmentation. In both races, viable change candidates — Steyer and Raman — are joined by other candidates also claiming the mantle of change, a situation which splits the anti-establishment vote while clearing a path for their opponents.

A new survey of the Los Angeles mayoral race found Bass at 26 percent, Raman at 25 percent and Republican Spencer Pratt, a former reality TV villain, at 22 percent. Other polls have put Pratt ahead of Raman.

Raman, whose local electoral record is formidable, poses a serious threat to Bass. Yet the Los Angeles left is split between progressives trying to win and fellow Democratic socialist Rae Huang, challenger who still commands 9 percent of the vote, enough to help ensure they do not.

Huang is staying in on principle. “I do plan on staying in the race,” she has said. “I do not believe that I am splitting the progressive vote........

© The Hill