Happy primary day. It’s Tuesday, June 2.

• Key races remain unsettled as primary day arrives.
• The “strange emptiness” of the governor’s race.
• And the Cal State system tears itself apart over AI.

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Election 2026

1.

With just 17% of ballots returned statewide as of Monday, analysts said key races in California’s primary remained far from settled. The two marquee contests — for California governor and Los Angeles mayor — were being closely fought heading into the final stretch of the campaign. In both races, Republican outsiders commanded outsize attention among largely blue electorates, evidence of a well of voter frustration. “Anybody who thinks this election right now is definitive, in terms of outcome, is greatly mistaken,” said Larry Gerston, a politics professor. “There are just too many variables remaining.” Mercury News | A.P.

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What to know on Election Day

• Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Find your polling place.
• Ballots returned by mail can be postmarked as late as today.
• See election guides. 👉 CalMatters | L.A. Times
• Track results here, but be prepared to wait. While most races should be decided by Wednesday morning, results in close contests could take days or even weeks.

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2.

The New Yorker’s Nathan Heller, in customarily eloquent prose, wrote about the “strange emptiness” of California’s race for governor:

“With the clock to Tuesday’s election running down, a startling number continue to have prospects, or at least the prospect of prospects, as they pass hurdles to the sound of no applause. None of the kingmakers in California Democratic politics — Newsom, Nancy Pelosi, the current senators, the former Vice-President — has issued an endorsement for a standing candidate, a silence perceived as an extension of the if-you-can’t-say-anything-nice rule and, no duh, an unpropitious sign.”

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3.

Xavier Becerra, the Democratic front-runner in the governor’s race, presents as a perpetually mild-mannered politician. It’s led to perceptions that he’s a lightweight, Politico wrote in a profile based on interviews with more than 50 political insiders: “But his murky policy positions and amiable demeanor belie a willfulness that has been a trademark in his approach to campaigns and governance for nearly 40 years.”

• The L.A. Times investigated Becerra’s remarkable rise. Tom Steyer’s people said a bot network amplified his campaign after Eric Swalwell quit. But Becerra’s favorability ratings were better than his rivals.

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4.

Other developments:

• The redrawing of California’s congressional districts left just four seats out of 52 that remain safely red. Tuesday’s primary races aren’t expected to determine which Republicans are ousted in most cases. But they will set the stage for California to play a potentially decisive role in the fight for Congress. L.A. Times | N.Y. Times
• A bond measure in Compton to fund construction of a new high school drew broad support from Democrats, along with rap royalty Dr. Dre. So many were stunned when Rep. Maxine Waters urged voters to reject it. Repeated attempts to ask her why have been met with silence. Politico | L.A. Times

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Statewide

5.

In February 2020, the California State University system announced plans to go all-in on artificial intelligence, turning the institution into “the nation’s first and largest AI-powered public university system.” At San Jose State, the “AI Everywhere” strategy is evident across campus: there’s an AI librarian and an AI Center for Civic and Social Good. New students are welcomed by an AI avatar of the university president. It’s all marketed as progress, wrote the New York Times Magazine. But it’s tearing the university apart.

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6.

In a commentary on the saga of California’s bullet train, CalMatters’s Dan Walters drew a historical comparison. In 1863, with the nation entangled in a civil war, construction began on the transcontinental railroad and was completed in six years. California’s train project was launched in 2008 with plans to finish by 2020:

“Eighteen years later, an initial segment in the San Joaquin Valley, linking a station near Merced with one near Bakersfield, is little more than a skeleton of concrete supports, dubbed Stonehenge by some critics, with no track, no trains and, therefore, no service.”

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Northern California

7.

“Something has to give Shawn … Take it seriously darling.”

In 2023, a young man from Sacramento named Shawn Stewart found himself in jail on suspicion of stalking his drug counselor, Bridget Adams. Incredibly, the police had relied on screenshots Adams provided purporting to show harassment, without verifying their authenticity. Neither is there any indication that they looked into the accuser’s past, which would have revealed her as a lifelong fabulist who invented fake identities to torch the lives of those who crossed her. Reporter Matthias Gafni told the extraordinary story of “the wrong stalker.” S.F. Chronicle

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8.

During a recent ethnic studies training session at a San Francisco high school, a workshop addressed so-called “adultism,” or the idea that young people should yield to the authority of their elders. “Due to systemic power dynamics inherently the relationship between students and educators is an oppressive one,” one slide read. Screenshots from the presentation drew derision online. The episode comes as San Francisco’s schools chief is set to depart for Washington to testify before a Republican-led committee on “indoctrination” in public education. S.F. Chronicle

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9.

Anthropic filed paperwork on Monday for an initial public offering, moving the San Francisco artificial intelligence company closer to what one analyst said would be “the most scrutinized public offering in tech history.” Just five years old, Anthropic was recently valued at $965 billion. Its debut, along with those of OpenAI and SpaceX, is expected create a deluge of new wealth, while “potentially reshaping benchmark indexes, investor flows, and the broader narrative driving U.S. equities.” Washington Post | Reuters

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10.

As companies like Meta and Coinbase shed jobs in the name of artificial intelligence, Box expects to add 100 new positions this year. The jobs at the Silicon Valley maker of storage software have titles like AI architect, AI solutions manager, and AI platform leader. The growth of such roles is not expected to make up for AI-related cuts. But Stephan Meier, a business professor, noted what happened after the arrival of computers: “Completely new jobs, new businesses, new degrees were created.” N.Y. Times

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11.

Brooke Rollins, the U.S. agriculture secretary, offered an explanation for her effort to block the removal of a pair of obscure dams along Northern California’s Eel River. PG&E, the owner, wants to retire the structures because of their age and expense. But Rollins directed blame at California’s “radical leadership,” accusing it of putting fish over farmers, despite the state having no direct involvement in the matter. Keeping the dams, she went on, would advance the Trump administration’s “energy dominance agenda.” S.F. Chronicle

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Southern California

12.

In a new poll, a striking 69% of San Diego residents said the city is on the wrong track, up 20 percentage points from 2025. Housing and affordability appear to be driving much of the frustration, the survey found. But not taxes. A full 50% of respondents they would pay more if they thought it would do good. Ryan Clumpner, a pollster, said the results suggest that many San Diegans don’t share the business community’s concerns about government overreach: “The answer is actually that they haven’t reached far enough to solve the things that people expect them to solve.” Voice of San Diego

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