{"id":5241,"date":"2026-05-14T18:46:48","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T01:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/?p=5241"},"modified":"2026-05-14T18:48:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T01:48:27","slug":"voter-guide-june-2-2026-california-primary-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/?p=5241","title":{"rendered":"Voter Guide: June 2, 2026 California Primary Election"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Hello, friends and enemies! It\u2019s election season again. Election day is June 2, but you will get a ballot in the mail before then (assuming you&#8217;re registered to vote!). The question on everyone&#8217;s mind in this election is who will be the next governor of California, but that&#8217;s not the only thing on the ballot. We have all the top California offices open, State Board of Equalization members to pick, and various congresspeople up for election. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00bfBuscas la versi\u00f3n en espa\u00f1ol? <a href=\"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/?p=5256\">Est\u00e1 aqu\u00ed<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Reminders and Resources for California Voters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Everyone registered to vote in California <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sos.ca.gov\/elections\/voter-registration\/vote-mail\">will get a ballot in the mail<\/a> this election! You do not have to go to a polling place if you don\u2019t want to.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/registertovote.ca.gov\/\">Register to vote<\/a> on or before Monday, May 18. You can still register after May 18, but you will need to use the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sos.ca.gov\/elections\/voter-registration\/same-day-reg\/\">same-day voter registration form<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Official Voter Information Guide is online here: <a href=\"https:\/\/vig.cdn.sos.ca.gov\/2026\/primary\/pdf\/complete-vig.pdf\">https:\/\/vig.cdn.sos.ca.gov\/2026\/primary\/pdf\/complete-vig.pdf<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Check your voter status online: <a href=\"https:\/\/voterstatus.sos.ca.gov\/\">https:\/\/voterstatus.sos.ca.gov\/<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>See where you can vote or drop off your paper ballot: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sos.ca.gov\/elections\/polling-place\">https:\/\/www.sos.ca.gov\/elections\/polling-place<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Remember to sign your ballot envelope!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Disclaimer: I am not an expert on politics or government. I\u2019m just a person who\u2019s good at reading and looking things up. If you trust my judgment, you can vote how I vote. You can also use my guide as a starting point for your own research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Quick Reference<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>This table summarizes how I\u2019m planning to vote in this election. I explain my choices below!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Office<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>My Vote<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Governor<\/td><td>Xavier Becerra<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Lieutenant Governor<\/td><td>Alice Stek<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Secretary of State<\/td><td>Gary Blenner<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Controller<\/td><td>Meghann Adams<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Treasurer<\/td><td>Glenn Turner<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Attorney General<\/td><td>Rob Bonta<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Insurance Commissioner<\/td><td>Jane Kim<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Superintendent of Public Instruction<\/td><td>Nelson Esparza<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Board of Equalization District 1<\/td><td>Frank Lara<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Representative (Congressional District 7)<\/td><td>Mai Vang<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Justice of the Superior Court Office No. 15<\/td><td>Heath Langle<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Justice of the Superior Court Office No. 21<\/td><td>James Morris<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Senate District 8<\/td><td>Angelique Ashby<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Assembly District 10<\/td><td>Stephanie Nguyen<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Member, Board of Supervisors, District 5<\/td><td>Pat Hume<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Assessor<\/td><td>Christina Wynn<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Some General Thoughts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Before I get into my opinion of the candidates, I want to remind everyone that California has an \u201copen\u201d primary (sometimes referred to as a &#8220;jungle primary&#8221;) thanks to the <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sos.ca.gov\/elections\/political-parties\/no-party-preference#top-two-candidates\">Top Two Candidates Open Primary Act<\/a><\/em>. This means that you are not restricted to voting for candidates for the political party you belong to. The two candidates with the most votes\u2014regardless of party affiliation\u2014will face off in the general election in November. That means we could have, for example, two Republican candidates running for governor in November, rather than one candidate from each party, if two Republican candidates were the ones who got the most votes in the primary. What a nightmare that would be! You may remember that, <a href=\"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/?p=4010\">in 2024 when we voted Adam Schiff<\/a> in as our senator, he took advantage of the primary structure to <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/41m6v\">box his fellow democrats out of the race<\/a> because he knew he could beat a Republican candidate in the general election. Normally, I&#8217;d say that the primary is the time to vote with your heart, <em>but <\/em>we need to make sure we get at least one Democratic candidate for governor on the ballot so let&#8217;s not get too wild.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I also must share that candidates have to <em><a href=\"https:\/\/elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov\/statewide-elections\/2026-primary\/candidate-statement-guidelines.pdf\">pay $25.00 per word<\/a> <\/em>for their statements in the voter guide, &#8220;not to exceed $6,250.00 (250 words).&#8221; I used to think that candidates who barely wrote anything were being lazy or disrespectful of the voters, but now I realize they&#8217;re trying to avoid spending thousands of dollars. However, most major candidates, especially for a position like the governor, have institutional backing from a political party, so $6,000 on a statement is no big deal for them. Independent or third-party candidates are likely to have shorter statements because they have fewer campaign funds. Be sure to look at their websites before making a decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For making my choices, I refer to candidate statements, their websites, and news online. Additionally, Under the Desk News put together a <a href=\"https:\/\/underthedesknews.substack.com\/p\/california-governors-race-a-guide\">great guide on the top candidates<\/a>\u2014the ones polling over one percent\u2014in the governor&#8217;s race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Statewide Positions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Governor<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>My vote: Xavier Becerra<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This election really sucks. We&#8217;ve got 50-something people on the ballot and most of them have no business running for office, let alone governor of one of the world&#8217;s largest economies. I don&#8217;t think you should be able to run for governor if you&#8217;ve never held public office before, but I suppose that&#8217;s an argument for another day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;ve ultimately decided to vote for Xavier Becerra, not the least because he&#8217;s currently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/politics\/article\/california-poll-governor-race-debate-22230776.php\">polling fairly high<\/a>, and that&#8217;s an important consideration given the top-two primary system. Becerra is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.xavierbecerra2026.com\/priorities\/health-care\/\">for single-payer healthcare<\/a>, which is great. It also makes sense that this would be a top priority since he served as the secretary of Health and Human Services under Biden. His platform also says he supports affordable renewable energy. I did hear some chatter online about Becerra receiving a big donation from Chevron, so I wondered if there was some hypocrisy happening. It looks like he did get <a href=\"https:\/\/www.transparencyusa.org\/ca\/candidate\/xavier-becerra\/contributors\">a $39,200 donation<\/a> from them, but this mostly seems to be news because one of his leading opponents, Tom Steyer, is <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TomSteyer\/status\/2052480421330370676\">tweeting about it<\/a> to make it a thing (by the way, why is anyone still using the site formerly known as Twitter?). Would I prefer him not to take money from Chevron? Of course, but I&#8217;m working with what I have right now and most of these candidates are clowns (derogatory). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking of Thomas Steyer, the other alleged Democrat with high polling numbers, can I just say: what the fuck? Steyer is a billionaire who has never held political office. He got rich from being an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spokesman.com\/stories\/2026\/apr\/06\/billionaire-candidate-for-california-governor-catc\/\">early investor in the private prison company<\/a> now known as CoreCivic, which builds ICE detention centers. He has sold off all the stock in this company, but he is still a billionaire. He actually has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomsteyer.com\/issues\">the most progressive platform<\/a> of the top candidates, but I question whether we can trust a billionaire to deliver on progressive policies. We have no way to know if Steyer really means his campaign promises or if he&#8217;s just saying whatever he thinks will get him elected. Campaign promises are not binding. For all we know, he could win the election and then go mask-off and say he only ran to prevent us from taxing billionaires. We have no idea what he would do in office because he has no record of public service. He claims to be a progressive now, but if someone really wanted to atone for their ill-gotten gains, I would expect to see them giving money away. Why are you still a billionaire? Write a big check to pay off people&#8217;s medical debt! Go fund 100,000 Go Fund Me campaigns. Give a local library enough money to operate comfortably for the next 100 years. Get creative! I&#8217;m not voting for a fucking billionaire! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are some people I&#8217;m <em>not<\/em> voting for and why:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Betty Yee<\/strong>: She was my original choice for governor. Her name is still on the ballot, but she has officially <a href=\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/politics\/2026\/04\/california-governor-race-yee\/\">dropped out of the race<\/a>.  <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Katie Porter<\/strong>: I like Porter and I always enjoyed the videos of her using the whiteboard to give people hell as a Congressperson. There&#8217;s some talk online about her being, essentially, a bitch. Maybe she is, maybe she isn&#8217;t, but <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/20251014030902\/https:\/\/www.politico.com\/newsletters\/women-rule\/2023\/01\/13\/katie-porters-bad-boss-problem-00077874#selection-1637.234-1763.378\">the allegations<\/a> are no worse than what any other man in politics does. My concern at this point is that too many people think she&#8217;s being a mean old lady and there&#8217;s no way for her to get enough votes, even though she is one of my top choices for governor. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Matt Mahan<\/strong>: Current San Jose mayor and it kind of seems like <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/san-jose-homeless-shelter-arrests-dc558aa848621a8d4c8eb34c5a961cc4\">he hates homeless people<\/a>? He&#8217;s a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2026\/02\/10\/mahan-california-governors-race-silicon-valley\/\">former tech executive<\/a> and it seems like he is very steeped in the world of Silicon Valley, which is really not the kind of guy I want governing my state.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Chad Bianco<\/strong>: Republican election-denier who recently &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/FSgNO#selection-3095.87-3095.212\">seized more than 650,000 ballots<\/a> from last November\u2019s election to determine, he says, whether they were fraudulently counted.&#8221; He&#8217;s also somehow making <a href=\"https:\/\/www.desertsun.com\/story\/money\/business\/2024\/06\/26\/riverside-county-sheriff-chad-bianco-salary\/74218214007\/\">almost $600,000 a year<\/a> as Riverside County sheriff. That doesn&#8217;t seem right to me. We should not be voting for a man who says you can&#8217;t trust election results. If that&#8217;s true, why even run for office?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Steve Hilton<\/strong>: He&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/politics\/2026\/04\/california-gop-convention-governor\/\">Trump&#8217;s first choice<\/a> for governor, and my last. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Butch Ware<\/strong>: I was somewhat interested in Ware&#8217;s campaign, but he hasn&#8217;t made it onto the ballot because &#8220;he <a href=\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/politics\/2026\/03\/green-party-candidate-governor\/\">did not file the correct tax returns<\/a> in time to qualify.&#8221; If you can&#8217;t get the paperwork done on time to be an official candidate, maybe you are not ready to be governor of one of the world&#8217;s largest economies. He is now running a write-in campaign but we already have 50 people on the ballot and don&#8217;t need to split the vote any further because this man couldn&#8217;t figure out how to file his paperwork correctly. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Eric Swalwell<\/strong>: Although his name is still on the ballot, Swalwell has <a href=\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/politics\/2026\/04\/swalwell-congress-resignation\/\">dropped out of the race<\/a> after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/politics\/article\/eric-swalwell-allegations-22198271.php\">credible sexual assault allegations<\/a> surfaced. Do not vote for this man! Not sexually assaulting people is a very low bar. There shouldn&#8217;t be anyone in power who has committed sexual assault. If you can&#8217;t respect other people&#8217;s autonomy enough to keep yourself from assaulting them, you have no business governing. Journalist Lyz Lens had some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/posts\/male-friendship-155277691\">very good commentary<\/a> on this, noting:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>I know that what you read in the story isn&#8217;t actually the whole story. That&#8217;s just what the reporters and the legal department could nail down enough not to fear legal challenges. I know that it&#8217;s very likely that the journalists know a lot more, perhaps even worse things, that they cannot tell you, because they cannot prove it or verify it, or because the people who can will not go on record, because they are scared or tired, or a legal threat silenced them. I can tell you that if a story makes it this far, it is not in doubt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you find yourself not believing women when it&#8217;s not politically expedient to do so, then you don&#8217;t actually believe women. You only want to use women&#8217;s pain as a political tool to weaponize against your enemies.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Lieutenant Governor<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>My vote:<\/strong> <strong>Alice Stek<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Alice Stek is running under the banner of the Peace and Freedom Party (the party I&#8217;m registered with!) and is part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/leftunityslate.org\/left-unity-slate-2026\">Left Unity Slate<\/a> for this election. Her platform has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alicestek4ca.com\/#program\">everything I dream about<\/a>: free college for all, and end to medical and student loan debt, healthcare for all, investing in community safety programs, divesting from Israel, guaranteed parental leave, even banning privatization of the coastline! These are the kind of policies we need! I like seeing bold platforms featuring ideas that would actually improve our lives, rather than lock us into an endless cycle of neoliberal mediocrity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re not ready to let leftists take the wheel, my second and third choices here are Michael Tubbs and Janelle Kellman, respectively. Tubbs was the mayor of Stockton, where he tried out a basic income program, which helped citizens tremendously. Kellman sounds like a very strong candidate on climate, which we certainly need now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Secretary of State<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>My vote: Gary Blenner<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m voting for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blenner4sos.org\/\">Gary Blenner<\/a> of the Green Party for Secretary of State because he supports, among other things, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ranked_voting\">ranked-choice voting<\/a>. With ranked-choice voting, we wouldn&#8217;t feel like we have to vote based on whether candidates are &#8220;electable&#8221; because everyone would vote for their top choices. For example, if we were using system now, I might say that my first choice for governor is Katie Porter, second choice is Xavier Becerra, etc. and all of that would count! This would make it much easier for us to elect people we want because we wouldn&#8217;t have to worry about &#8220;throwing away&#8221; votes on candidates who might only get a small fraction of the vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Blenner also supports public financing of campaigns, which would be such an immense change in how elections work. Instead of being bombarded by the people with the most cash, every candidate would receive an equal amount of funds to run their campaign. Wouldn&#8217;t that be nice?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Controller<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>My vote:<\/strong> <strong>Meghann Adams<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the jobs of the state controller is to direct the CalPERS and CalSTRS retirement fund (the state employees&#8217; and state teachers&#8217; retirement funds, respectively). Meghann Adams, my pick for controller, would <a href=\"https:\/\/www.meghann4ca.com\/\">divest these gigantic pension funds<\/a> from companies that are being used to fund the genocide in Gaza\u2014and that&#8217;s something very important to me. She notes that &#8220;CalPERS holds nearly $400 Million in Lockheed Martin, whose missiles, fighter jets, and precision-guided bombs are being used to level apartment buildings, schools and hospitals in Gaza. CalSTRS has significant holdings in Elbit Systems and Caterpillar, whose products are being used to bomb civilians and bulldoze neighborhoods in Gaza.&#8221; Our retirement shouldn&#8217;t hinge on whether we financially invest in war. I&#8217;ve <a href=\"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/?p=3816\">written previously<\/a> about trying to keep <a href=\"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/?p=4237\">my own retirement contributions<\/a> from being invested in companies that deal in war. It&#8217;s not easy but I can report that it does pay off. My 401(k) has not lost any money during the recent economic madness. I guarantee that it&#8217;s possible to save enough money to retire without investing in genocide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Treasurer<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>My vote:<\/strong> <strong>Glenn Turner<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Glenn Turner is the Green Party candidate and, like her fellow Left Unity Slate candidate, Meghann Adams, <a href=\"https:\/\/glennturner26.org\/\">she supports divesting<\/a> CalPERS and CalSTRS from war and fossil fuels. She is also calling for taxing billionaires and forgiving student debt. Those are all things I want to happen, so I&#8217;m voting for her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m <em>not<\/em> voting for Eleni Kounalakis, our current lieutenant governor and the Democratic candidate, because I think she&#8217;s more focused on her real estate portfolio than supporting regular Californians. Last year, when Kounalakis was planning to run for governor instead of treasurer, <a href=\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/politics\/2025\/04\/california-governor-eleni-kounalakis\/\">CalMatters reported that<\/a> she &#8220;earns millions of dollars annually from extensive property investments around the Sacramento region and beyond,&#8221; which would be a notable conflict of interest. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/CAStateWorkers\/comments\/1c1jx38\/who_is_behind_the_rto_push\/\">People speculating online<\/a> have also wondered if part of the reason state employees had to go back to working in the office was because Kounalakis&#8217; holdings include state office buildings and other places that would benefit financially from employees being downtown. Everyone agrees that employees were just as productive at home (if not more so) as at the office, yet Governor Newsom pushed for state employees to return to the office during an ongoing pandemic. Might Kounalakis&#8217; influence have been involved here? Regardless, we have no reason to believe that her choices as treasurer would not benefit her financially, and that&#8217;s not how our public servants should be operating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Attorney General<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>My vote:<\/strong> <strong>Rob Bonta<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The official voter guide on the Secretary of State website (and the version I got in the mail) does not list the Democratic candidate, incumbent Rob Bonta; however, I did confirm online that he is <a href=\"https:\/\/elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov\/statewide-elections\/2026-primary\/cert-list-candidates.pdf\">a certified candidate<\/a> in the primary election. I&#8217;m voting for him because it seems like he&#8217;s been doing a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Rob_Bonta#Attorney_General_of_California\">really good job<\/a> as attorney general doing things like suing crisis pregnancy centers (which are religious organizations that trick people into thinking they are legitimate healthcare providers). I want him to keep doing that stuff!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Insurance Commissioner<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>My vote: Jane Kim<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m voting for Jane Kim because she has a coherent, specific plan for what she wants to do as insurance commissioner and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.janekim.org\/\">things she wants to do would actually help regular people<\/a>. She wants to establish a single-payer version of universal disaster insurance to help address the effects of climate change. She&#8217;s proposing public-option car insurance and ending pricing discrimination. Now that she mentions it, why <em>do <\/em>insurance companies get to use price discrimination?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As to the other candidates, Steven Bradford doesn&#8217;t seem like a bad choice, but I like Kim&#8217;s platform better. Patrick Wolff seems way too corporate and I also think it&#8217;s weird to bring up in his candidate statement that he&#8217;s a chess grandmaster\u2014that isn&#8217;t necessarily going to make you a good insurance commissioner, but I&#8217;m sure it makes him sound smart. I&#8217;m also not voting for the Left Unity Slate candidate, Eduardo &#8220;Lalo&#8221; Vargas, because he has not published a platform specific to the job. I have to know what you&#8217;re going to do when you get there!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Board of Equalization District 1<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>My vote:<\/strong> <strong>Nelson Esparza<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>District 1 includes almost all of the non-coastal counties, including my home of Sacramento County. There are two Democratic candidates for this seat, and Esparza is the only one with a coherent candidate statement. I like that he says he wants to make sure that &#8220;the wealthy are paying their fair share.&#8221; I want that too! Tax the rich! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Superintendent of Public Instruction<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>My vote:<\/strong> <strong>Frank Lara<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Frank Lara is another member of the Left Unity Slate with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.frank4caschools.com\/\">platform that I love<\/a>. He is the only candidate for superintendent of public instruction talking about keeping ICE and police out of schools. How are kids supposed to learn when they&#8217;re worried about being kidnapped by ICE? You can&#8217;t focus on school when you&#8217;re stressed about something that serious. Lara supports increasing funding for schools, noting that California uses &#8220;less than 3 percent of the state&#8217;s GSP [gross state product] to fund our schools,&#8221; and he is against private schools receiving public money. I also like that he is pushing for better special education services, free universal childcare, and expanding adult education. California could have it all!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Sacramento County Elections<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Congressional District 7<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>My vote: Mai Vang<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Listen. Our current congressperson, Doris Matsui, is <em>81 years old<\/em>. That is TOO OLD to be in Congress! She&#8217;s also married to a billionaire and, based on a rare town hall appearance last year, is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/opinion\/article312626105.html\">fairly out of touch<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m voting for Vang because she actually has some progressive vision and has been out meeting with the people. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/politics\/article\/doris-matsui-mai-vang-primary-22079629.php\">Per SF Gate<\/a>, &#8220;Vang wants to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement, supports both the federal wealth tax proposal from U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna and the state wealth tax ballot initiative, and supports the single-payer health care reform proposal called Medicare for all.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.maiforus.com\/platform\">Her platform overall<\/a> is progressive and full of things we really need like universal child care and ending funding for Israel&#8217;s genocidal war on Gaza. It would be great to have her as our congressperson after decades of Matsui signing off on military funding and various modern horrors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Justice of the Superior Court Office No. 15<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>My vote: Heath Langle<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Voting on judges is always weird because they&#8217;re supposed to be non-partisan, yet, we&#8217;re voting on them and have very little information available to us. Unless you&#8217;re an avid court-watcher, it&#8217;s hard to know whether someone will be the kind of judge you want. Additionally, both of the Superior Court Office positions have just one judge on the ballot, so in a way, our votes matter very little. You can, of course, withhold your vote from a candidate you don&#8217;t like or write someone in, but I don&#8217;t think it will have much of an effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There&#8217;s not a lot of information about Heath Langle online. He&#8217;s currently a judge in the Sacramento Superior Court and he was Lincoln Law School&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/lincolnlaw.edu\/about\/alumni\/alumnus-of-the-year\/\">alumnus of the year in 2025<\/a>. Cool? I didn&#8217;t find anything offensive about him, so I guess he has my vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Judge of the Superior Court Office No. 21<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>My Vote: James Morris<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>James Morris is also running unopposed and is currently a Sacramento Superior Court Commissioner. He does <a href=\"https:\/\/jamesmorrisforjudge.com\/\">have a website<\/a> that mainly seems focused on who has endorsed him, including a long list of judges and the Sacramento County Deputy Sheriff&#8217;s Association. I really wish I knew more about this man but I guess I&#8217;m voting for him because it&#8217;s Morris or nobody for this position. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Senate District 8<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>My vote: Angelique Ashby<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Angelique Ashby is our <a href=\"https:\/\/sd08.senate.ca.gov\/\">current state senator<\/a> for district 8. I don&#8217;t <em>love <\/em>her but it looks like she has been involved in <a href=\"https:\/\/sd08.senate.ca.gov\/2025-legislation\">some good legislation<\/a> and it seems like she&#8217;s doing a decent job overall. <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Angelique_Ashby\">Her Wikipedia page<\/a> doesn&#8217;t even have a &#8220;controversies&#8221; section, so I guess she&#8217;s doing well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I would like to vote for the Peace and Freedom Party candidate, Linda Roberts, however, she doesn&#8217;t seem to have a website or any information online about what she stands for. There&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.peaceandfreedom.us\/index.php\/news\/elections-campaigns\/linda-roberts-for-state-senate-2026\">an article<\/a> on the Peace and Freedom Party website stating that she&#8217;s running for office but that&#8217;s it. I have to have more information if I&#8217;m going to vote for someone! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Assembly District 10<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>My vote: Stephanie Nguyen<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stephanie Nguyen is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.assembly.ca.gov\/assemblymembers\/10\">our current assembly member<\/a> and something I like about her is she&#8217;s always doing events and activities where she can meet people in the district. I&#8217;m subscribed to her newsletter so I see that she&#8217;s doing things like a monthly craft meetup where people can come talk to her or organizing a time to go walking where she can chat with constituents. I think that&#8217;s a really thoughtful way to connect with the people she represents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Her only opponent, Vanya Singh, wants to &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/drsinghforassembly.com\/about\/\">make California great again<\/a>,&#8221; so I&#8217;m not voting for that shit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Member, Board of Supervisors, District 5<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>My vote: Pat Hume<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pat Hume is the current District 5 county supervisor and is running unopposed. So &#8230; sure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Assessor<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>My vote: Christina Wynn<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Christina Wynn is running unopposed for Sacramento County Assessor. She is the incumbent and has been our assessor <a href=\"https:\/\/ballotpedia.org\/Christina_Wynn\">since 2017<\/a>. I didn&#8217;t find any bad news about her, so I guess she&#8217;s getting my vote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Share This Post!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>You made it to the end! I invite you to share this post if you found it useful. Please leave a comment if you think I missed something important. Thanks for voting!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hello, friends and enemies! It\u2019s election season again. Election day is June 2, but you will get a ballot in the mail before then (assuming you&#8217;re registered to vote!). The question on everyone&#8217;s mind in this election is who will be the next governor of California, but that&#8217;s not the only thing on the ballot&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[441,248],"tags":[462,225,17,253,15,357,229],"class_list":["post-5241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-voter-guide","category-weekly-update","tag-462","tag-california","tag-election","tag-june","tag-politics","tag-primary","tag-voter-guide"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3ni6N-1mx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5241"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5385,"href":"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5241\/revisions\/5385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}