CA-GOV: Some Democrats Float Strategy of Waiting Until Final Days to Vote In Primary For Governor

A vote for Matt Mahan or Katie Porter might, at this point, be a throwaway vote in the June 2 primary unless one or the other rises suddenly in the polls to overtake Tom Steyer or Xavier Becerra. Becerra, who's now the subject of some aggressive attack ads, has been on a quick rise in the last month, overtaking Steyer by six percentage points in the latest poll.

And so, some Democrats online are pushing for a strategy of withholding their votes until Election Day or just before it, and voting for whichever Democrat in the race is polling at the top in three weeks time — because, who knows, some of those attacks on Becerra may stick, and things could shift once more.

As Cal Matters reports, the push for voting late and coalescing around the lead candidate isn't coming from any official party channels, but through social media, where a post from April 30 falsely attributed the strategy to popular Democratic influencer Heather Cox Richardson.

And some, including political consultant Paul Mitchell, say it's a silly idea because voter turnout — by early voting, or whathaveyou — is the most important thing, and actually organizing a campaign to accomplish this "wait until the last minute" strategy is nearly impossible at this point.



https://sfist.com/2026/05/12/democrats-float-strategy-of-waiting-until-final-days-to-vote-in-primary-for-governor-focusing-on-frontrunner/