{"id":2614137,"date":"2026-06-15T08:19:59","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T12:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/californias-gubernatorial-primary-was-a-contest-to-see-which-democrat-could-pander-harder\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T08:21:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T12:21:04","slug":"californias-gubernatorial-primary-was-a-contest-to-see-which-democrat-could-pander-harder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/californias-gubernatorial-primary-was-a-contest-to-see-which-democrat-could-pander-harder\/","title":{"rendered":"CA Gubernatorial Primary Tested Which Dem Could Pander Harder"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcalifornias-gubernatorial-primary-was-a-contest-to-see-which-democrat-could-pander-harder%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2614137&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article criticizes the current political landscape,illustrating it through the California gubernatorial race as an example of politicians pandering to popular interest groups. It highlights how candidates like billionaire Tom Steyer and Xavier Becerra shifted their positions on key issues,such as healthcare,to appeal to leftist and powerful interest groups,often abandoning previous stances for political gain. Steyer,initially opposed to single-payer healthcare,endorsed it to appeal to progressive voters and other interest groups,leading to accusations of opportunism. Becerra, once supportive of single-payer, retracted that support when it became politically advantageous, removing references to it from his campaign. The article draws parallels to Joe Biden\u2019s rise in 2020 as a candidate seen as an empty vessel who could unite the Democratic Party after Bernie Sanders\u2019 surge. It warns that such <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >political maneuvering risks electing figures<\/a> with a history of incompetence, with broader implications for political integrity and governance.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>In our cynical era, large swaths of the American public believe politicians just say what people want to hear to get elected. The recently concluded primary election to succeed Gavin Newsom as California\u2019s governor epitomizes this theory.<\/p>\n<p>After the campaign of Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., imploded over sexual assault allegations, two Democrats who remained fought to assure themselves a spot in November\u2019s general election by pandering to different groups \u2014 one to corporate interests, the other to woke interests. Both efforts brought to mind a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0751819\/quotes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">quote<\/a> from <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2020\/01\/23\/yes-minister-shows-the-foibles-of-the-deep-state\/\"><em>Yes, Minister<\/em><\/a>, often attributed (probably incorrectly) to a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Alexandre_Auguste_Ledru-Rollin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">politician and revolutionary<\/a> in 19th-century France: \u201cI am their leader. I must follow them.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Steyer: Playing to Woke Groups<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The first candidate, billionaire Tom Steyer, thought that embracing \u201cpeak woke\u201d would offset his plutocratic background. As I <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/01\/08\/democrats-want-a-fully-government-controlled-health-care-system-and-they-keep-saying-so\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">noted in January<\/a>, Steyer embraced a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wisconsin-dem-senate-candidate-announces-support-for-medicare-for-all\/\" title=\"Wisconsin Dem Senate ... Announces Support for Medicare for All\">single-payer health care system<\/a> for California. In doing so, he followed the tradition of Newsom, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/news\/politics-government\/capitol-alert\/article174827261.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pledged<\/a> he would get single-payer done during his first gubernatorial campaign in 2018, only to allow the issue to fizzle out upon taking office.<\/p>\n<p>His endorsement of socialized medicine moved Steyer significantly to the left compared to his (failed) 2020 presidential campaign. He <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/healthcare\/5668579-tom-steyer-single-payer-health\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">claimed<\/a>, \u201cBernie Sanders was right. We need single-payer health care. \u2026 In 2019, I didn\u2019t think we <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dems-call-for-a-fully-government-controlled-health-care-system\/\" title=\"Dems Call For A Fully Government-Controlled ... Care System\">needed single-payer health care<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A post-election <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/06\/09\/billionaire-tom-steyer-loses-governors-race-00950463\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">analysis<\/a> of his campaign noted that the flip-flop on health care represented just one of the ways Steyer pandered to the left:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>For the nurses, that was single-payer health care. For environmentalists, it was breaking up utility monopolies. And for the California Teachers Association, which endorsed Steyer after Swalwell\u2019s exit, it was raising corporate property taxes through a special election \u2014 a costly fight that, for some, came with the unspoken expectation that Steyer could help pay for it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The analysis continued by comparing Steyer\u2019s campaign to a political version of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pviYWzu0dzk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>The Oprah Winfrey Show<\/em><\/a>  \u2014 \u201cYou get a car! You get a car! \u2026 Everybody gets a car!\u201d \u2014 which \u201cleft people debating where [Steyer\u2019s] conviction ended and his calculation began.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Becerra: Party Apparatchik <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Contrast Steyer\u2019s attempt to appeal to leftist interest groups with the campaign of former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. Days after I had drafted my <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/05\/04\/xavier-becerra-is-no-moderate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">article<\/a> noting Becerra\u2019s long history of supporting single-payer, the candidate suddenly decided he didn\u2019t support the issue after all. And you\u2019ll never guess where he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kqed.org\/news\/12082059\/xavier-becerra-backpedals-on-single-payer-as-he-woos-powerful-doctors-lobby\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">announced<\/a> he had arrived at that conclusion:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Democratic candidate Xavier Becerra has softened his support for\u00a0a single-payer healthcare system\u00a0as he secures endorsements in his bid to be California\u2019s next governor, most recently from the powerful doctors\u2019 group, the California Medical Association, which officially backed him this week. \u2026 \u201cHe said very clearly that, at this point, he wasn\u2019t supportive of single payer,\u201d said Dr. Ren\u00e9 Bravo, president of the\u00a0California Medical Association.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The article noted that Becerra\u2019s sudden rise in the polls after Swalwell\u2019s implosion \u201cforced him to clarify the nuances of his policy positions, including single-payer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cClarify the nuances\u201d puts it too politely. Suddenly, when his candidacy went from also-ran status to potentially viable, someone who had as recently as March 23 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/becerraforgovernor\/posts\/pfbid037DvVA3jWPySUowTRfmmPBotuNWXjRxE2j8vYd3u55NF1A3VtoWs7dPMmpJWrisbCl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">posted<\/a> that \u201cI\u2019m ready to go further as Governor and deliver single-payer health care for our state\u201d no longer believed in achieving it while in office \u2014 at least not when there was political advantage to be gained by flip-flopping. <\/p>\n<p>Thus, Becerra\u2019s campaign website got <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofsandiego.com\/politics\/2026\/05\/23\/governors-race-xavier-becerra-single-payer-healthcare\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">scrubbed<\/a> of references to single-payer. And business interests <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/opinion\/xavier-becerra-gets-a-supreme-courtassist-dd31f702?mod=editorials_article_pos12\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">contributed millions<\/a> to boost Becerra\u2019s prospects in the closing stretch of the primary campaign, while simultaneously running ads bashing Steyer.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Biden Redux?<\/strong> <\/h2>\n<p>The end result in California looked something like Biden\u2019s miraculous rise from the political dead around the time of the South Carolina primary in 2020. That year, the leadership of the Democrat Party consolidated in record time around Biden \u2014 a longtime party functionary with a not-particularly-noteworthy history \u2014 because they needed someone, anyone, to combat the rise of avowed socialist Bernie Sanders.<\/p>\n<p>This time around, Becerra has taken on the role of Biden. By simply functioning as an empty (or nearly empty) vessel for the party machine, Democrats hope Becerra can defeat Republican Steve Hilton in the general election this November, just as Biden recaptured the White House for Democrats in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>But Biden\u2019s sole term in office <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/jill-biden-joe-biden-stroke-2024-debate-sunday-morning-interview\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">didn\u2019t exactly end well<\/a>, and Becerra has a <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/ozij9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">history of incompetence in office<\/a>. All of this means Democrats should be careful what they wish for in the Golden State. They just might get it.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<div>\n<p>      Chris Jacobs is founder and CEO of Juniper Research Group and author of the book &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/1645720020\">The Case Against Single Payer<\/a>.&#8221; He is on Twitter: <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/chrisjacobsHC\">@chrisjacobsHC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Politicians pander to voters, as California primaries show<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":2614138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/becerra.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[4045,8954,34059,56854,66269],"class_list":["post-2614137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-california","tag-campaigns","tag-election-2024","tag-gubernatorial-primary","tag-political-pandering"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/becerra.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2614137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2614137"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2614137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2614141,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2614137\/revisions\/2614141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2614138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2614137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2614137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2614137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}