California Top-Two Primary System Revisions Proposed by Leading Democrat

Rusty Hicks says California’s top-two primary system could sideline Democrats and wants changes before future governor races.

A proposed overhaul of California’s top-two primary system is back in the spotlight as one leading Democrat warns the current setup can produce outcomes he considers unfair for his party.

Rusty Hicks, head of the California Democratic Party, has said he is increasingly frustrated by the possibility that Democrats could be pushed out of the governor’s race under the existing voting rules.. In that system, the top two vote-getters move to the general election regardless of party.. Hicks is now calling for a revision, or even a repeal, to ensure future primaries do not yield a result that leaves Democrats without a competitive path.

The push matters because the way primaries work can shape who even gets a chance to campaign statewide, long before voters reach the general election.

Hicks emphasized that any changes would not be in place for the upcoming primary, but he wants a new proposal to reach voters by the end of the year.. He said the idea could come through the state legislature or be introduced as a ballot measure backed by a well-funded effort.. Beyond that timeline and the general direction, Hicks did not outline a specific alternative design.

California’s “jungle primary” structure began in 2010 and was approved by voters at the time, after being promoted as a reform. Under the rules, both parties compete in the same primary contest, and the two highest finishers advance.

Before the shift to the open-for-all approach, California held primaries in a more familiar way: voters typically chose each party’s nominee separately. Some critics of the older setup argued it could give more influence to the most ideologically driven parts of each party.

Meanwhile, supporters of the jungle primary pointed to benefits for candidates who could appeal beyond their party’s most loyal base. Even so, Misryoum reports that the open-for-all format has also been associated with awkward strategic behavior in past contests.

In the 2018 governor race, Misryoum says one campaign encouraged a competing outcome that would avoid a Democratic-vs-Democratic faceoff in the general election.. This year, Hicks’s concern is different: with a crowded Democratic field, he worries the vote could split in a way that allows Republican contenders to take the two top spots.

At the same time, Misryoum notes that some Democrats have dismissed the worst-case scenario as unlikely based on polling and recent momentum. Still, Hicks has previously argued for lower-polling Democrats to consider stepping aside to prevent vote-splitting under the current system.

Ultimately, the debate over California’s top-two primary is less about one election and more about control over the political “gate” that decides who advances, and why that gate should not lock a major party out by design.