Who will run California? Can Democrats win Iowa? Here’s what happened, and what might be next.
It’s the day after another Primary Day, and we are still waiting on final results from the major races in California. But contests in other states, from New Jersey to Montana, gave us hints about where the Democratic Party is headed — and set the stage for some major fights to come this fall.
While we wait for more results to come in, here are six big political questions we have coming out of last night’s primaries:
Who’s going to be California’s next governor?
The outcome of the highest-profile race held on Tuesday, the primary election to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, remains unclear, with hundreds of thousands of ballots yet to be counted.
The top two finishers in the nonpartisan primary will advance to the general election in November.
Among the votes that have been tallied, Steve Hilton, a Trump-backed Republican, is leading two Democrats, Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer. Of the three, Steyer appears to have the narrowest path to advance to the general election, but his supporters are holding out hope that uncounted mail-in ballots will lift him into the top two.
Many Democrats waited until the last minute to cast ballots by mail, which could mean that Hilton’s strength in the results so far is a so-called red mirage. Steyer told supporters that he was “going to give democracy time to work.”
The California race has drawn an unusual field.
Becerra is a former Biden administration official who has drawn support from moderates. The London-born Hilton is a former Fox News host who once served in the government of Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain. Steyer is a billionaire who says he wants to raise taxes on the wealthy and has spent more than $200 million on his own campaign.
What does Trump’s setback in Iowa mean?
Lately, President Trump’s endorsement has looked like the ultimate weapon in Republican primaries, powering a series of candidates to victory — sometimes over long-established incumbents.