California Primary Drama May Outlast Election Night: Erika Smith

California voters will settle a slew of nationally important primary races on Tuesday, most notably the chaotic race to succeed a termed-out and likely presidential-campaign-bound Gavin Newsom as governor.

New polling shows that Xavier Becerra, a Democrat who served as health secretary in the Biden administration, is in first place, followed by Republican former Fox News commentator Steve Hilton and progressive Democrat and billionaire activist Tom Steyer.

For months, political insiders had been worried that, for the first time in more than 25 years, there was no front-runner among the Democratic candidates, opening the door to a Republican winning the ...