Not even party officials could rein in the chaos of the Democrats in California's recent primary. What does the chaos mean for Democrats in a true-blue state?
State Sen. Scott Wiener, shown in February, won the primary race for outgoing Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco congressional seat. More candidates are willing to sidestep seniority to try their luck — especially younger progressives.
The intrepid folks who bother to cast a ballot in these first-round races are largely a group of engaged voters, and drawing conclusions from such a narrow minority is a losing game. So however the final June results tally out, the lessons learned won’t easily translate to the larger electorate that will almost surely show up in November.
But if this election doesn’t tell us much about what fall voters will do, it does tell us something about the Democratic Party that dominates this state: It’s chaotic, to put it gently. And no, that’s not entirely the fault of the “jungle” primary. Traditional rules seem to have broken down and new ones haven’t yet emerged.
The old guard has lost control, and maybe vision, and the result is more candidates willing to sidestep seniority and a wait-your-turn mentality to try their luck — especially younger progressives. California’s gubernatorial primary might not be decided for days or weeks. President Trump plans to use our primary to assert federal control of state-run elections.
Sometimes that chutzpah works, sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s a mirror of the national trend of Democratic infighting and a glimpse into just how fragmented the party has become as it tries to figure out who it stands for and who it supports before the 2028 presidential election.
“I feel like I’m definitely running against major institutional forces, but that’s how it is,” state Sen. Scott Wiener told me recently.
“At times we see sort of a little bit of a fortress mentality, and other perspectives are not welcome, and younger folks, newer voices are not welcome, and and that’s a dynamic that plays out in a lot of different places. ” Wiener, who could be considered king of the line-jumpers, just took the top spot in the San Francisco-centered race to represent the 11th Congressional District, the seat held by Nancy Pelosi since 1987, when Wiener was 17.
By most accounts, Pelosi and Wiener had a mostly cordial relationship until last year, when he entered the race before she announced her retirement. Though Wiener had been clear for years that he planned such a run when Pelosi stepped down, Pelosi is an icon in the city, beloved by constituents and uncontested as queen of the old guard.
Announcing his campaign before she officially made that decision — or had the chance to choose her successor — sent shock waves through the political firmament. When Pelosi endorsed Supervisor Connie Chan in May, it was seen by many as a sign of her displeasure. Chan, who had struggled to gain traction in the primary, came in second with the Pelosi boost and will face Wiener in November. Across the state, there were other races with upstart contenders.
In Southern California, Jake Levine, a progressive Democrat who served in the Obama White House, took on incumbent Brad Sherman. Sherman, who at 71 has served almost 30 years in Congress, resoundingly beat out Levine by more than 20 points. In Sacramento, there is Mai Vang, a progressive City Council member, who is challenging Rep. Doris Matsui, another member of the old guard royalty.
Vang is in a tie for second place with a Republican contender as remaining votes are counted. And of course, there is the governor’s race itself, which included a field so determined and uncontrollable even before the fiasco of Eric Swalwell’s sexual misconduct scandal that the state Democratic Party started putting out its own polling in a seeming bid to convince some blue contenders to drop out. It didn’t work.
Notably, progressive Katie Porter and moderate San José Mayor Matt Mahan stuck in until the bitter end. But old guard candidate Xavier Becerra came out on top. Democrat Xavier Becerra starts out with a huge advantage over Republican Steve Hilton. How will they use the next five months?
To discuss their policy differences? Or just talk about Trump? If these races have a lesson, it’s that different Democratic voters want different things, but the party hasn’t figured out how to embrace that other than offering up the moderate middle ground.
“This is a big question to this Democratic establishment, about how big of a tent they want to build,” said Irene Kao of Courage California, a progressive advocacy organization. She said that it “bodes well” that so many strong progressive challengers came out for the primary, because it allows a chance for candidates outside the party power structure to find an audience with voters, even if they are ultimately unsuccessful.
And where voters go, the party will eventually be forced to follow. That doesn’t necessarily mean a more progressive Democratic Party, but it likely means a more inclusive one if they want to lure the kind of low-information and low-propensity voters who make or break a general election.
“People are sick of the games, and sick of people trying to just maneuver things to get their own person in,” Wiener said. “People want to have choices. ” The following AI-generated content is powered by Perplexity. The Los Angeles Times editorial staff does not create or edit the content.
The column argues that California’s June primary results should not be overinterpreted as a forecast for November, because the electorate that votes in primaries is a small and unusually engaged slice of voters whose preferences may not reflect the broader general-election public. Yet, the piece contends that even if the primary is a poor predictor of November, it reveals a great deal about the state’s dominant party: California Democrats appear internally chaotic, with traditional norms and hierarchies breaking down while no clear new rules or power structure have emerged.
The article suggests the old guard of the party has lost both control and, perhaps, political vision, creating space for more candidates—especially younger progressives—to defy seniority, ignore the “wait-your-turn” culture, and launch ambitious bids that challenge entrenched leadership. The column frames this intraparty turbulence as part of a broader national pattern of Democratic infighting, portraying California as a microcosm of a party that is increasingly fragmented as it struggles to define whom it represents and whom it will elevate before the 2028 presidential race.
Using the congressional contest for Nancy Pelosi’s longtime San Francisco seat, the piece describes state Sen. Scott Wiener as emblematic of “line-jumper” candidates: someone who moved ahead with a campaign before Pelosi formally announced retirement, which the article says shocked the political establishment and angered the old guard.
The column notes that Pelosi’s endorsement of Supervisor Connie Chan, a candidate who had initially struggled to gain traction, was widely read as a rebuke of Wiener, illustrating how powerful party figures still try to shape succession but can no longer do so unchallenged as both Chan and Wiener advance. Moving beyond San Francisco, the article highlights a series of upstart-versus-incumbent contests—such as Jake Levine’s challenge to longtime Rep. Brad Sherman and Mai Vang’s challenge to Rep.
Doris Matsui—as evidence that ambitious progressives are testing whether the old guard’s hold on safe Democratic seats is weakening, even when those challengers ultimately fall short. In the governor’s race, the piece describes an unruly field of Democratic contenders and recounts how party leaders, worried about an unwieldy slate and the fallout from Eric Swalwell’s scandal, even tried to shape the race by releasing internal polling to push some candidates out—only to have most of them stay in, underscoring what the column portrays as diminished establishment control.
The article notes that while prominent progressive Katie Porter and moderate San José Mayor Matt Mahan stayed in until the end, it was old guard favorite Xavier Becerra who emerged on top, suggesting that even amid disorder, establishment figures still have significant strength, though the path to victory is more contested and less choreographed. The column argues that the deeper lesson of these contests is not a simple left-versus-center split, but rather that different Democratic voter constituencies want very different things and the party has not yet figured out how to meaningfully embrace that diversity beyond defaulting to a moderate middle-of-the-road option.
Citing progressive advocacy voices, the piece presents the surge of credible progressive challengers as a positive sign that candidates outside the party’s traditional power structure can now find an audience with voters, even if they lose, and that over time party institutions will be forced to adjust to where voters are rather than the other way around. The article suggests this evolution will not necessarily make the California Democratic Party more ideologically progressive, but will likely push it toward being more inclusive and responsive if it hopes to attract low-information and infrequent voters who are decisive in general elections.
Finally, the column emphasizes that many voters are tired of backroom maneuvering and coronation-style politics; by quoting candidates who say people are “sick of the games” and want real choices, the piece concludes that messy, competitive primaries are a symptom of a party struggling with internal democracy and identity, not just a mechanical byproduct of the top-two “jungle” primary system. In contrast to the column’s portrayal of chaos, some election analysts describe the crowded Democratic fields as a predictable outcome of California’s top-two primary system and the party’s numeric dominance, arguing that having six leading Democrats for governor and multiple strong contenders down-ballot reflects an abundance of viable talent rather than outright dysfunction.
Whereas the article frames the scene as the old guard losing its grip, coverage from outlets such as CalMatters emphasizes structural factors—like the fact that Republicans have only two major gubernatorial contenders while Democrats must choose among many—which naturally produce more intraparty competition and uncertainty without necessarily indicating a breakdown in party governance. Some observers also caution against reading voter behavior as a reaction to “games” by party elites; CalMatters notes that many Democratic voters, especially older white Democrats, are returning ballots later and appear to be taking more time to decide in a complicated field, suggesting deliberation and strategic thinking rather than disillusionment alone.
Rather than seeing the primary as a sign of uncontrolled fragmentation, analysts point out that polls still show a relatively clear group of frontrunners—including Xavier Becerra in the governor’s race—indicating that, despite the noise, well-known establishment figures continue to command broad support among Democratic voters. Some coverage stresses that Democratic voters’ slower ballot returns and last-minute decision-making can be explained by the mechanics of the top-two system, where voters in a safely blue state often try to ensure at least one Democrat advances, rather than by deep ideological estrangement from party leadership.
National political reporting on the multi-state primary day presents California’s Democratic competition as one piece of a larger national primary landscape, focusing on the high stakes and the size of the field but framing it as a competitive, if complex, contest rather than uniquely chaotic or symptomatic of a party in crisis. Commentators on progressive podcasts that compare “election chaos” in Texas Republican politics with turbulence among California Democrats argue that both parties are experiencing intense primaries, but they often depict the Republican turmoil—particularly around Trump-aligned candidates and legal controversies—as more destabilizing than the intraparty debates playing out in California’s Democratic contests.
From this vantage point, the friction between California progressives and establishment Democrats is seen less as an existential fragmentation and more as a normal adjustment phase in a large, ideologically diverse governing party that continues to hold a firm statewide electoral advantage. Some strategists contend that competitive primaries can strengthen eventual nominees by testing their messages, mobilizing volunteers, and increasing voter engagement, suggesting that the presence of credible challengers to incumbents and a three-way gubernatorial competition may ultimately help Democrats refine their agenda rather than splinter their coalition.
Additionally, several analysts emphasize that the key immediate takeaway from the governor’s primary is voter indecision and the complexity of choice—not a rejection of party institutions—and argue that the real test of Democratic unity will come in the general election, where the party’s substantial registration edge and history of statewide victories have repeatedly translated into cohesive support behind the eventual nominee. Anita Chabria is a California columnist for the Los Angeles Times, based in Sacramento.
Before joining The Times, she worked for the Sacramento Bee as a member of its statewide investigative team and previously covered criminal justice and City Hall. Follow her on Bluesky at anitachabria.bsky.social and on X at @anitachabria. Rebuilding L.A.
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