What A Day - Californians Vote With New Map

Episode Date: June 2, 2026

California politics is experiencing a rare moment on the national stage as wacky candidates and local scandals have become a microcosm for the country as a whole, as well as a potential preview of what November’s midterms have in store. We talk to KQED’s Marisa Lagos about what the hell is going on with California politics right now.And in headlines, primary season kicks off nationwide, Trump's Iran War negotiations hit another setback, an appeals court rules Trump's ban on transgender troops illegal, the White House temporarily pauses its slush fund for Trump's political allies, and several states extend bar and restaurant hours for the World Cup.Show Notes: Check out Marisa's work – www.kqed.org/author/mlagos Call Congress – 202-224-3121 Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/y4y2e9jy What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/ For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

It's Tuesday, June 2nd. I'm Aaron Ryan in for Jane Koston, and this is What a Day, the show that when it must be the bearer of bad news, coats it with some peanut butter and cheese, so the news goes down easier. On today's show, a federal judge shreds President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegset's ban on trans troops, happy pride boys. We've also got another setback in the Trump administration's so far futile attempts to wrap up the war they started with Iran. We've almost got a peace treaty is to the Trump administration. What full self-driving is just around the corner is to Elon Musk. But before we get to all that,

California politics are often treated as an afterthought to the rest of the national media. Well, California is often seen as a democratic paradise with a deep bench. This year, a combination of dangerously wacky candidates and own-goal scandals have propelled the Golden State to national front pages. Today's primary will winnow down crowded fields across seven, several important races. So we talked to journalist Marisa Lagos. She's a political correspondent at KQED and co-hosts its podcast Political Breakdown. And she can help answer the question, what the hell is going on with the California governor's race right now? Marisa, welcome to what a day. Thanks for having me. All right, let's just get right into it. I've seen a lot of commentary that this has been a weird election year in California. As a seasoned veteran of covering California, From your perspective, is it that weird? It's so weird.

Oh, my gosh. I mean, I think my first season covering California politics was the recall of Gray Davis and the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger. And this feels like on par with that down to the fact that we have like 60 folks on the ballot, one of him who changed his name to be Barack Obama, right? Barack Obama is on the ballot in California. Barack Obama's on the ballot in California. I checked, though, he did change it back in 2013. So if this was the purpose, it was a long game. No, but back to your question, it just is.

It is an unsettled year. It's been more sort of marked by who didn't run than who did. There was, you know, Kamala Harris passing on this. Rob Bonta, the Attorney General, U.S. Senator Alex Vidia. Then we had like Eric Swalwell, the representative, you know, sort of gaining momentum. He flames out with these sexual misconduct allegations. It's just, and then one of the front runners, Javier Bacera, is now, you know, polling in the mid-20s. He was at 5% back in April.

So predictions are useless. It's been a weird one. And I think it's going to continue to be weird, honestly. I don't know that we'll have an answer this week. And I think that it could be any sort of combination of the top three folks, Bcerra, Tom Steyer and Republican Steve Hilton, like any combination of those. three could end up in a runoff, I think, at this point. Well, let's talk a little bit about how we choose who gets to be in the runoff. In California, they use something called the jungle primary, which basically means the top

two candidates end up on the November ballot, regardless of their party. And there has been some buzz in reason months that two Republicans could take those spots in the governor's race due to how crowded the Democratic field was. That doesn't seem like a possibility now going into the primary today. Who are the frontrunners for the governor's race? You mentioned them a little bit, but can you go a little bit more into them? who they are and who is attracted to voting for them. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think, yes, to dispense with that, it is almost an impossibility at this point that we could have to Republicans.

We have seen Javier Bacera. You know, he served as Health and Human Services Secretary under Joe Biden. He's a former state attorney general here in California. He also represented Los Angeles in Congress. He's sort of like the establishment Democratic candidate, you know, after Swalwell's flame out and after all the uncertainty, Democrats really seem to. to sort of coalesce, or at least some of them, around him, including a lot of the more sort of like institutional organizations, some labor groups, some business groups. I think he is seen as a sort of safe bet. The insurgent here is Tom Steyer, ironic to be a billionaire and a progressive insurgent, but I think that's really where he's at. Guy has spent over

$213 million of his own money on this race. You may remember him from great hits like running unsuccessfully in 2020 for president. He also helped bankroll a lot of more progressive ballot measures here in recent decades. So he's sort of running as an anti-oligarch billionaire. It's strange, and I think it's given him a lot of things to answer for. There's a lot of progressives that are kind of skeptical of him. But when you sort of look at Bacera through what, you know, Steyers, people are painting him as the corporate Democrat, it gives the sort of left wing of the party a little bit of pause here. And we've seen Steyer be able to capitalize on that. And then you have Steve Hilton, former Fox News personality, a businessman,

former prime minister aide in the UK. He's British, which every time he comes on TV, and my 10-year-old is like, why is a British guy running? But he, you know, he did get the endorsement of President Trump. That's really helped him sort of consolidate GOP. support. He's not the Trumpiest guy. He's actually more intellectual and sort of traditional Republican, I would say. Low taxes, you know, anti-regulation, promising to shrink government. But he has benefited from Trump's endorsement and a lot of connections kind of in Maga land. And so he has really emerged as the alternative to a Democrat in this race. Hmm. Okay. Well, another notable thing about this year is how candidates are using social media,

Democratic candidate and billionaire Tom Steyer has spent a lot of money on influencers to promote himself. From where you're standing is all this money being funneled to influencers making a difference in his campaign? You know, I think we're going to have to see. I mean, certainly the money he's spent have helped him grow his share, you know, if polls are to believe, from, you know, single digits up into the 20s. But a lot of the fights we're seeing, I mean, we're also seeing accusation on Steyer's side that, Sarah's got a bunch of bots on social media who helped him kind of like garner this, you know, excitement after the Swalwell drop out. I don't think voters care. I mean, what do voters care about?

Like, they want to know who these people are. I think that there's a lot of skepticism around sort of online influencers to begin with. I will note, UC Berkeley just put out a poll that was really interesting and showed, not surprisingly, but a lot of people under the age of 30 are getting a lot of their information on this election from places like social media. So could it make a difference? Absolutely. I think it's one arrow in a very large quiver that Steyer built with those millions of dollars. And it does seem like there was some sort of grassroots excitement around Bacera. But I think, you know, look forward six months. There will be post-mortems for both of these campaigns. And I think it'll be interesting to see if those are kind of the things that move the needle or not. But not quite as much craziness on. social media, I'll say, as we've seen the LA mayor's race, where AI seems to be a feature, not a bug, of that election. Yeah, let's talk about, let's talk about the LA mayor's race. I know, you know, L.A. mayor, it's a city, but there are 10 million people in L.A. County

that would make it bigger than 40 states, I believe. So we always have at least a few colorful characters on the L.A. local ballot, but they're usually not at the top of the pack. And if they're running for mayor, they're usually like driving around in a convertible with a sign. You know what I mean? They're fun. They're local color. But this year is a little bit different. Can you walk us through who is at the top of the pack for L.A. mayor? Yeah.

I mean, if polls are to believe, again, we have a sort of three-way tie also in that race. Incumbent mayor Karen Bass, a longtime L.A. politician served in both the state legislature and in Congress, really came out of the horrific 2025 L.A. fires very weakened. And I think that's why we saw both Nithia Raman. a former kind of ally of hers on the city council, a progressive politician announced this spring that she was going to jump in with a last minute bid for this office.

And then the dark horse here is Spencer Pratt. You might remember him from the hills since we're around the same age. You know, he's a reality TV star has made his money outside of TV selling crystals and things like that. Like kind of the last person you would have expected to run for mayor.

He lost his house in the Palisades fire and has essentially built a campaign around that and really just like on an anti-incumbency platform. And we've seen a lot of support coming, you know, from outside L.A., from outside California for Pratt, President Trump-Waiden saying he likes the guy. I'm sort of waiting to see how much, like this shakeout, like how much of this is an online campaign?

Is it translating into real support? And then, of course, if you can make it through Tuesday's primary, like, could he actually make? out to challenge in a city where Republicans are just so outnumbered by Democrats. It's a very difficult thing for somebody, even in a nonpartisan race, to win just given the demographics. Okay. Turning to Congress, California was the first blue state to respond to the president's mid-decade redistricting push. How have California's new maps changed the playing field for candidates in the midterms for Congress? Yeah, I mean, broadly, there was about five seats that

they shored up. And I think we're expecting most of those to turn blue. I think what's most interesting is you're seeing that this has created some like party on party races in some of these areas. I'm thinking about an Orange County where two sitting members of Congress who are Republicans were drawn into the same district, young Kim and Ken Calvert. That race has gotten nasty. There are ads about Calvert being in a car with a prostitute 20 years ago. Something about young Kim saying she wouldn't let her daughters date Donald Trump. I mean, just really, really, uh, wait, as a bad thing, are they like, she wouldn't even let her daughters date Donald Trump, like that? Exactly. It's like, you're not Trumpy enough. And it was funny because I think the appearance that came from was her saying,

I love his policies, but I wouldn't let, you know. So yeah, that one has devolved into like, who's the Trumpiest Trumpy of all. And then there's also a Central Valley race where you have the sitting Republican, David Valadeo, has just been such a thorn in Democrats' side. They've only beat him once in the past couple decades in 2018. He just keeps winning, even though there's more Democrats than Republicans. And in that race, it's fascinating because you have Randy Villegas, a progressive, former school board trustee and teacher who is running with, like, the support of Bernie

Sanders organization, really carving out that left progressive lane. And then Yasmeet Baines, an assembly member in the state assembly, who's running more as a moderate. And again, just like this dem-on-dem race has gotten really vicious. They both really want to make it to this runoff. And I think it's an open question, which one will be stronger in a district like that, which is like 70% Latino, very low-income. And again, has just eluded Democrats over and over and over again. I like to call it Lucy in the football. All right. So, you know, California's last day to vote is today. And given the rundown of how California tabulates its votes, how soon would it be reasonable to expect results? Can we just tune out on election night or are there things that we'll know right away? Well, I'll be doing some podcast and live radio. So please tune in. But I will say it is unlikely we'll know everything on election night. I think the governor's race, very likely that vote count could, you know, drag on for days, maybe even weeks.

I hate to say that, but it's possible. I think one note on that is, like, you could expect really strong Republican returns at the beginning because Democrats have been holding onto their ballots this cycle in California. So you kind of might see an overperformance of Republicans at the beginning. So keep that in mind. But, yeah, I think the governor's race, the mayor's race, some of these more closely contested congressional races, it could be at least. several days, if not longer. Sometimes we say that and then everything just gets counted quickly so you never know. But I would say get your popcorn. It could be a few days and a bit of a long haul here. Three days worth of popcorn. Marisa, thank you so much for joining me and see you on the

other side. Thank you so much for having me. That was my conversation with Marisa Lagos, co-host of the KQED show and podcast Political Breakdown. We'll never spend a million dollars on crystals like L.A. Mioral candidate Spencer Pratt. And if you like that, make sure to subscribe, leave a five-star review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, watch us on YouTube and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. What a day is brought to you by Zbiotics. I have to tell you about this game-changing product I use before a night out with drinks. It's called pre-alcohol. Zbiotics, pre-alcohol probiotic drink is a world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by PhD scientists to

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The president said, I don't care if they're over, honestly. I really don't care. I couldn't care less. If they're over, they're over. If they're not, you know, I think they took too much time. Frankly, I think they started to get a little boring. Fantastic news, courtesy of CNBC, who asked President Trump Monday about Iran's decision to suspend negotiations with the U.S. over Trump's ongoing war there. Trump also posted on Truth Social Monday that Israel and Hezbollah have agreed to dial back fighting after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Per Axios, the conversation went so well that President Trump said both, what the fuck are you doing? and you're fucking crazy, paging Dr. Orna. Netanyahu confirmed the conversation but said the Israeli military will continue to, quote,

operate as planned in southern Lebanon. But Iran wants any peace deal to include Lebanon, so that's going to be a problem. The Trump administration said Monday it would temporarily pause its $1.776 billion fund meant to compensate allies complying with a court order. The slush fund drew backlash from Republicans who raised concerns about a lack of oversight, and the potential for payouts to participants in the January 6th insurrection. The Justice Department said in a statement that it, quote, disagrees strongly with that decision, but it would abide by it.

The president says he plans to follow the law, and this is news. A federal appeals court ruled that a Pentagon policy banning transgender troops for military service is illegal. The Monday decision is another legal setback for President Trump's sweeping agenda. The majority opinion by a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held that the Trump administration's policy was designed to exclude people from the military based on their gender identity. However, the ban remains in effect. The U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Pentagon to start enforcing it last year as litigation continues to play out. Its primary day in more states than California, Iowa, New Jersey, New Mexico, Montana, and South Dakota all head to the polls today.

Here are some of the things that we'll be watching closely. In New Jersey, one district could play a major role in who controls the House of Representatives. In Iowa, the governor and Senate seats are up for grabs. Look for both races to have major ripple effects across congressional contests as well. And in Montana, open seats create high stakes for both the Senate and the House. World Cup fans in a growing number of U.S. cities won't have an issue finding a drink to go with their late-night match. State leaders across the U.S. are extending bar and restaurant. on hours during the world's most watched sporting event. They want to help businesses and improve

fan experiences, particularly for those who may have been priced out of tickets, which is all of us. Kansas, Missouri, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Washington have all approved various measures to extend hours for alcohol sales during the tournament. Similar proposals are being considered in New York and Massachusetts, more options than ever for European tourists who thought they could easily walk from New Jersey to Manhattan. And that's the news. Before we go, Angelinos come catch a live taping of love it or leave it. They've moved into a new space at Interwoven Studios and have an exciting lineup of upcoming guests, including the stand-up Todd Glass, S&L alum, J. Farrow, never have I-evers, porn, juganathan, and more. Plus, don't miss a special Pride episode later in June.

That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, be a Scott Pelly and not a Nick Bilton and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just about long time 60 minutes. and its correspondent Scott Pelly, yelling at the show's new EP, Nick Bilton during a work meeting, like me. Whataday is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Aaron Ryan and enjoy the bagels. What Today is a production of Crooked Media.

Our show is produced by Caitlin Plummer, Emily Four, Erica Morrison, and Adrian Hill. Our team includes Haley Jones, Greg Walters, Matt Berg, Joseph Dutra, Johanna Case, and Desmond Taylor. Our music is by Kyle Murdoch and Jordan Cantor. We had helped today from the Associated Press. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. Thank you.