California held its primary on Tuesday, and of course, it being California, days later, nobody knows who won most of the key races. The counting could take weeks. In a functioning democracy, that would be a scandal. In California, it's the standard.
Steve Hilton, the former television host turned sharp policy commentator, spent much of this race leading in public polling for the governor's seat. As of Thursday morning, he still holds that lead. With roughly 58% of the vote counted in the gubernatorial primary (as this piece goes to press), Hilton sits at about 27.6%, with former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra trailing at roughly 25.6%. Far-left billionaire Tom Steyer lands in third at around 19.8%.
That looks good, but hold the celebration.
While Hilton has roughly a 400,000-vote advantage over the third-place candidate, about 4.1 million votes remain uncounted statewide. In California, where mail-in ballots trickle in and get processed long after Election Day, anything can happen, and often, it does. Republicans have seen this movie before and know exactly where this usually goes: Republicans build early leads. They look like they're on the edge of something historic. Then, the late ballot dumps that break heavily toward Democrats. Then GOP margins erode, ballot drop by ballot drop, until a Democrat slides past the finish line.
California runs that play over and over. The mechanism is slow ballot counting married to a flood of mail-in votes, and the combination has been very good for the Democrat machine there.
Florida can get their election results in hours, but California? A dumpster fire every time, and if you don’t think that’s intentional, you’re not paying attention.
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Let’s look at Los Angeles, where Spencer Pratt has waged a surprisingly strong mayoral campaign, drawing widespread media attention along the way. Thursday morning’s Decision Desk HQ tally shows Karen Bass leading with 183,701 votes and 35% support, Pratt in second with 157,116 votes and 29.9%, and radical-left candidate Nithya Raman in third with 119,809 votes and 22.8%. Decision Desk HQ called Bass the winner in the runoff, but the second advancing slot remains unsettled.
Here’s where your blood will start to boil.
Polymarket already shows Pratt dropping to third in the betting odds, now trailing both Bass and Raman.
JUST IN: Spencer Pratt drops to third in LA mayoral odds, trailing Mayor Bass & Democratic Socialist Nithya Raman. pic.twitter.com/co2rYiHorH
— Polymarket (@Polymarket) June 3, 2026
Does this reflect reality or an early overreaction to incomplete data? Who knows? But clearly, at the moment, people expect Pratt, despite being comfortably in second place as of now, to get shut out of the runoff.
How convenient.
In light of this prolonged counting business, I couldn’t help but remember something Gavin Newsom said last month. He casually admitted to having a "break-the-glass" contingency plan to make sure at least one Democrat advances in the gubernatorial primary. He made it sound like his contingency plan was based on campaigning. I didn’t believe it then, and I’m not convinced something sinister isn’t afoot. A man certain of the outcome does not build contingency plans. Newsom's public calm and his private maneuvering are two very different things.
We’ve seen far too many elections flip on mail-in ballots counted days and weeks after Election Day, and I’m starting to get nervous that it’s happening again.
Editor's Note: The Democrats are doing everything in their power to undermine the integrity of our elections.
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