S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman on today's show , a few surprises between the California Republican Spring convention and the leading Democratic gubernatorial candidate. We'll break that down. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. California Republican Party leaders were in San Diego this weekend , but failed to endorse a candidate for governor during their spring convention. That news came as Representative Eric Swalwell , a leading Democratic candidate for governor , announced he suspended his campaign after multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. He is now also facing a House ethics investigation into those allegations. So what does this mean for the governor's race and for the GOP's chances ? Here with more is KPBS Public Matters reporter Jake Gatta. Jake , welcome to Midday Edition.
S2: Thank you for having me.
S1: Always glad to have you on. So you were at this weekend's California Republican Spring Convention. It was right here in San Diego. Both of the leading Republican candidates for governor were there. But the biggest news out of the California governor's race this weekend came from the Democratic side , as Swalwell announced he suspended his campaign.
S2: So the two GOP candidates are both pretty strong candidates who are polling pretty high over the last several weeks. And because of California's top two primary system , we were actually looking at a situation where those two candidates may have won the primary and advanced to the general , which would have locked Democrats out of that governor's race. But that was mainly based on the fact that there was a pretty divided Democratic field. Nobody was really consolidating votes on that side. And then these two Republicans were still standing pretty strong in the polls. So now with Swalwell dropping out , that's going to open up that field for Democrats , for the ones who are still in it. And it might make it a little bit less likely that there would be two GOP candidates in November. And if there's a Democrat on the ballot against a Republican. History shows that Democrat has a pretty good chance of winning. So it's going to make it a more uphill battle for the GOP coming into this primary. Interesting.
S1: Interesting. A lot of shifting dynamics there in that race. Let's talk about the two candidates that Republicans were hoping could top the primary to move forward in the general election. The first is Steve Hilton. He's the candidate that President Trump endorsed. Tell us more about him. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. Steve Hilton is a former Fox News TV personality , which may be why President Trump is one of his supporters. He's also British. He's not American , but he's lived here and taken a strong interest in American politics for a number of years. And he's really leaning into the Trump endorsement and working with the Trump administration to solve what he thinks are the biggest problems facing California does.
S1:
S2: The party didn't endorse a candidate at this convention , and so it's tough to say if the Trump endorsement is going to be helpful for Steve Hilton in a state like California , or if it's not really going to play in as much when , you know , a candidate like Bianco has really strong local support as well , based on his time as the sheriff of Riverside.
S1: All right. Well , the other Republican candidate for governor is Chad Bianco , and he's the sheriff of Riverside County. As you mentioned there , he also appeared at this weekend's convention.
S2: He he mentioned how he rejected some of the Covid protocols that were in place while he was sheriff. He mentioned that he's been cracking down on protesters when there was what he called the Black Lives Matter riots in the early 2020s. So he's really leaning into that aspect of his record and his history as a leader in California , and not really mentioning the national issues as much as Steve Hilton is.
S1: Are his issues issues that resonate with voters in California ? Yeah.
S2: I mean , I think that there's a lot of people who still hear , talk about law and order and think that that's an important aspect of being a leader in California. There was a lot of people who I think over the past several years , again , after Covid saw some of the there was retail theft and there was some of these sort of issues that seemed to be , you know , lawlessness that a candidate like Sheriff Bianco would be able to say , yeah , I cracked down on that stuff. And so I'm the right person for this job. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. I mean , what is the Republican vision for California , and why do they feel , um , why or why they feel it will resonate in what's considered to be a very blue state here.
S2: Well , a lot of the talk outside of , uh , Sheriff Bianco was about affordability , which is , of course , a really big issue here in California and across the nation , but especially here with housing prices and , um , gas prices rising recently. But the convention actually opened with a message that talked about how they plan to address some of those issues. And we have a clip from that message.
S3: That means building more homes , reducing costly regulations , stabilizing insurance , and lowering energy and transportation costs. Mm.
S1: Mm. Um. All right. Well , you know , it's hard to talk about the Republican Party today without talking about President Trump. As we mentioned earlier , he endorsed Bianco or the other candidate. Yeah. Hilton.
S2: Steve Hilton made sure to mention the endorsement when he gave his speech. There was Trump merch at all of the tables. There were flags and signs that said Trump 2028. So he's definitely still a focus and pretty popular within the Republican Party , it would seem. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. Aside from the governor's race , Republicans are also the the minority party in the Assembly and state Senate.
S2: And if they're able to win a few of those elections , then they might be able to have a little bit more influence. But it's going to be tough when we're looking at a year that is likely to be somewhat of a blue wave. Prop 50 show that there's a lot of turnout for the Democratic side already , and so that's going to be another uphill battle for them.
S1: And on prop 50 last year , you know , it's solidified. Democrats hold on several congressional seats this year. But there's one district that does seem to have some real competition there. And that's in the the redrawn 48th Congressional District. I mean , tell us about that race. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. So the 48th district is here in San Diego County , a lot of North and East County , and it was held by Darrell Issa for the past several years. And that was one of the districts that brought 50 aimed to change in terms of voter registration , to make it more friendly to a Democrat. Well , Issa is not running anymore. He decided to retire , and he's endorsed Jim Desmond , who's the county supervisor represents that area. And Jim Desmond is probably a pretty strong candidate for the Republican side. He has lots of support among people who know him and like what he's been doing at the county level and similar to the governor's race , there's sort of a divided field on the Democratic side , and there's a lot of candidates running , so it's unclear if one of them is going to be able to really consolidate support ahead of the primary and then the general. But again , it's going to be an uphill battle based on that balance of voter registration. That changed because of prop 50.
S1: All right. I've been speaking with KPBS Public Matters reporter Jake Gatta. Jake , thanks for that breakdown.
S2: Thanks for having me.
S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
