Current polling:

https://www.ppic.org/publication/ppic-statewide-survey-californians-and-their-government-february-2026/

Steve Hilton, a Republican - 14
Katie Porter, a Democrat - 13
Chad Bianco, a Republican - 12
Eric Swalwell, a Democrat - 11
Tom Steyer, a Democrat - 10
*Other candidates - 30
Don't know - 10

To be clear, the primary is a top two race, so whoever the top 2 candidates are go to the general and those are your two choices for Governor.

With 1 point separating 1 from 2, 2 from 3 and so on, it could very easily be Hilton and Bianco (the only 2 Republicans running.)

30% of the vote is going to "Other". Those folks need to drop out and endorse a candidate who can actually win.

Why did California pick such a clearly terrible way of running primaries? It could have worked with ranked-choice voting but, the way it is now, you get hilarious features like the Republican frontrunner being incentivized to have people vote for the other Republican rather than for him (because if he's #1 and a Democrat is #2, he definitely loses the general election, but if he's #1 and the other Republican is #2, he has about 50% odds of winning).

You are on this ballot, but we do not grant you the ranked choice voting.

If the two Republicans both with the primary and go on to the general election, could a campaign to recall the winner start gathering petitions to get on the general election ballot before they even know who they’re recalling?

Could a candidate get elected and recalled in the same election?

Well, democrats as a whole are largely organized around facilitating republican policies, so I guess this checks out.