Share This Podcast

• Check out Marisa’s work – www.kqed.org/author/mlagos
• Call Congress – 202-224-3121
• Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/y4y2e9jy
• What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast

Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/

TRANSCRIPT

Erin Ryan: It’s Tuesday, June 2nd. I’m Erin Ryan in for Jane Coaston, and this is What a Day, the show that, when it must be the bearer of bad news, coats it with some peanut butter and cheese so the news goes down easier. [music break] On today’s show, a federal judge shreds President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s ban on trans troops. Happy Pride, boys. We’ve also got another setback in the Trump administration’s so far futile attempts to wrap up the war they started with Iran. We’ve almost got a peace treaty, as to the Trump Administration, what full self-driving is just around the corner is to Elon Musk. But before we get to all that, California politics are often treated as an afterthought to the rest of the national media. While California is often seen as a Democratic paradise with a deep bench, this year, a combination of dangerously wacky candidates and own-goal scandals have propelled the Golden State to national front pages. Today’s primary will winnow down crowded fields across several important races. So we talked to journalist Marisa Lagos. She’s a political correspondent at KQED and co-hosts its podcast, Political Breakdown. And she can help answer the question, what the hell is going on with the California governor’s race right now. Marisa, welcome to What a Day. Thanks for having me. All right, let’s just get right into it. I’ve seen a lot of commentary that this has been a weird election year in California. As a seasoned veteran of covering California politics, from your perspective, is it that weird? 

Marisa Lagos: It’s so weird. Oh my gosh. I mean, I think my first season covering California politics was the recall of Gray Davis and the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger. And this feels like on par with that down to the fact that we have like 60 folks on the ballot, one of whom who changed his name to be Barack Obama, right? Like. 

Erin Ryan: Barack Obama’s on the ballot in California? 

Marisa Lagos: Barack Obama is on the ballot in California. I checked though he did change it back in 2013 so if this was the purpose it was a long game. 

Erin Ryan: Uh huh. 

Marisa Lagos: Um. No, but back to your question it just is. It is an unsettled year it’s been more sort of marked by who didn’t run than who did. Um. There was you know Kamala Harris passing on this, Rob Bonta the attorney general, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla. Then we had, like, Eric Swalwell, the representative, you know, sort of gaining momentum. He flames out with these sexual misconduct allegations. It’s just and then the one of the frontrunners, Xavier Becerra, is now, you know, polling in the mid 20s. He was at 5% back in April. So predictions are useless. It’s been a weird one. And um I think it’s going to continue to be weird, honestly. I don’t know that we’ll have an answer this week, and I think that it could be any sort of combination of the top three folks, Becerra, Tom Steyer, and um Republican Steve Hilton, like any any combination of those three could end up in a runoff, I think, at this point. 

Erin Ryan: Mm hmm. Well, let’s talk a little bit about how we choose who gets to be in the runoff. In California, they use something called the jungle primary, which basically means the top two candidates end up on the November ballot regardless of their party. And there has been some buzz in recent months that two Republicans could take those spots in the governor’s race due to how crowded the Democratic field was. That doesn’t seem like a possibility now going into the primary today. Who are the front runners for the governor’s race? You mentioned them a little bit, but can you go a little more into them, who they are? And who is attracted to voting for them. 

Marisa Lagos: Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think, yes, to dispense with that, it is almost an impossibility at this point that we could have two Republicans. Um. We have seen Xavier Becerra. You know, he served as Health and Human Services Secretary under Joe Biden. He’s a former state attorney general here in California. He also represented Los Angeles in Congress. He’s sort of like the establishment Democratic candidate. You now, after Swalwell’s flame out and after all the uncertainty, Democrats really seemed to sort of coalesce, or at least some of them, around him, including a lot of the more sort of um like institutional organizations, some labor groups, uh some business groups. I think he is seen as a sort of safe bet. The insurgent here is Tom Steyer, um ironic to be a billionaire and a progressive insurgent, but I think that’s really where he’s at. Guy has spent over two hundred and thirteen million dollars of his own money on this race. Um. You may remember him from great hits like running unsuccessfully in 2020 for president. He also helped bankroll a lot of more progressive ballot measures here in recent decades. Um. So he is sort of running as an anti-oligarch billionaire. It’s strange, and I think it’s given him a lot of you know things to answer for. There’s a lot of progressives that are kind of skeptical of him. But when you sort of look at Becerra through what you know, Tom Steyer’s people are painting him as the corporate Democrat. It gives the sort of left wing of the party a little bit of pause here. And we’ve seen Steyer be able to capitalize on that. And then you have Steve Hilton, former Fox News personality, a businessman, former prime minister aide in the UK. He’s British, which um every time he comes on TV, my 10 year old is like, why is a British guy running? Um. [laugh] But he you know, he did get the endorsement of President Trump. Um. That’s really helped him sort of consolidate GOP support. He’s not the Trumpiest guy. He’s actually more intellectual and sort of traditional Republican, I would say. Um. Low taxes, you know, anti-regulation, promising to shrink government. Um. But he has benefited from Trump’s endorsement and a lot of connections kind of in MAGA land. And so he has really emerged as the alternative to a Democrat in this race. 

Erin Ryan: Hmm. Okay. Well, another notable thing about this year is how candidates are using social media. Democratic candidate and billionaire Tom Steyer has spent a lot of money on influencers to promote himself. From where you’re standing, is all this money being funneled to influencers making a difference in his campaign? 

Marisa Lagos: You know, I think we’re going to have to see. I mean, certainly the money he’s spent have helped him grow his share, you know, if polls are to believed from, you know, single digits up into the 20s. But a lot of the fights we’re seeing, I mean we’re also seeing accusation on Steyer’s side that Becerra’s got a bunch of bots on social media who helped him kind of like garner this, you know, excitement after the Swalwell dropout. I don’t think voters care. I mean, what do voters care about? Like they want to know who these people are. I think that there’s a lot of skepticism around sort of online influencers to begin with. Um. I will note, UC Berkeley just put out a poll that was really interesting and showed, not surprisingly, but a lot of people under the age of 30 are getting a lot of their information on this election from places like social media. So could it make a difference? Absolutely. I think it’s one arrow in a very large quiver that Steyer built with those millions of dollars. Um. And it does seem like there was some sort of grassroots excitement around Becerra, but I think, you know, look forward six months, there will be postmortems for both of these campaigns and I think it’ll be interesting to see if those are kind of the things that move the needle um or not. But not quite as much craziness on social media, I’ll say, as we’ve seen in the LA Mayor’s race where AI seems to be a feature, not a bug, of that election. 

Erin Ryan: Yeah, let’s talk about lets talk about the LA mayor’s race. Um. I know, you know, LA mayor, it’s a city, but there are 10 million people in LA county that would make it bigger than 40 states, I believe. Um. So we always have at least a few colorful characters on the LA local ballot, but they’re usually not at the top of the pack. And if they’re running for mayor, they’re usually like driving around in a convertible with a sign. You know what I mean? They’re fun, they’re local color, but this year is a little bit different. Can you walk us through who is at the top of the pack for L.A. Mayor?

Marisa Lagos: Yeah. I mean, if polls are to believed again, we have a sort of three way tie also in that race. Incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, a long time L.A. politician, served in both the state legislature and in Congress, really came out of the horrific 2025 L.A. fires very weakened. And I think that’s why we saw both Nithya Raman, a former kind of ally of hers on the Council, a progressive politician announced this spring that she was going to jump in with a last-minute bid for this office And then the dark horse here Spencer Pratt. You might remember him from the Hills since we’re around the same age. You know, he’s a reality tv star. Um. Has made his money outside of tv selling crystals and and things like that like kind of the last person you would have expected to run for mayor. He lost his house in the Palisades fire and has essentially built a campaign around that um and really just like on an anti-incumbency platform. And we’ve seen a lot of support coming, you know, from outside LA, from outside California for Pratt, President Trump weighed in saying he likes the guy. Um. I’m sort of waiting to see how much, like this shakeout, like how much of this is an online campaign? Is it translating into real support? And then, of course, if you can make it through um Tuesday’s primary, like could he actually mount a challenge in a city where Republicans are just so outnumbered by Democrats? It’s a very difficult thing for somebody, even in a nonpartisan race, to win, just given the demographics. 

Erin Ryan: Mm hmm. Um. Okay, turning to Congress, uh California was the first blue state to respond to the president’s mid-decade redistricting push. How have California’s new maps changed the playing field for candidates in the midterms for Congress?  

Marisa Lagos: Yeah, I mean broadly there was about five seats that they shored up, um and I think we’re expecting most of those to turn blue. I think what’s most interesting um is you’re seeing that this has created some like party-on-party races in some of these areas. I’m thinking about an Orange County where two sitting members of Congress who are Republicans were drawn into the same district, Young Kim and Ken Calvert. That race has gotten nasty. There are ads about Calvert being in a car with a prostitute 20 years ago. Uh, something about Young Kim saying she wouldn’t let her daughters date Donald Trump. I mean, just really really uh– 

Erin Ryan: Wait, as a bad thing? Are they like, she wouldn’t even let her daughter’s date Donald Trump, like that? 

Marisa Lagos: Exactly. It’s like you’re not Trumpy enough if and it was funny because I think the appearance that came from was her saying I love his policies, but I wouldn’t let my you know. So yeah, that one has devolved into like who’s the Trumpiest Trumpy of all? Um. And then there’s also a Central Valley race where you have the sitting Republican David Valadao, has just been such a thorn in Democrats’ side. They’ve only beat him once in the past couple decades, in 2018. He just keeps winning, even though there’s more Democrats than Republicans. And in that race, it’s fascinating because you have Randy Villegas, a progressive former school board trustee and teacher who is running with, like, the support of Bernie Sanders organization, really carving out that left progressive lane. And then Jasmeet Bains, a assembly member in the state assembly who’s running more as a moderate. And again, just like this Dem on Dem race has gotten really uh vicious. They both really want to make it to this runoff. Um. And I think it’s an open question, which one will be stronger in a district like that, which is like 70% Latino, very low income. Um. And again has just eluded Democrats over and over and over again. I like to call it Lucy and the football. 

Erin Ryan: [laugh] Um. All right, so, you know, California’s last day to vote is today. And given the rundown of how California tabulates its votes, how soon would it be reasonable to expect results? Can we just tune out on election night or are there things that we’ll know right away?

Marisa Lagos: Well I’ll be doing some podcast and live radio, so please tune in. But I will say it is unlikely we’ll know everything on election night. I think the governor’s race, very likely that vote count could, you know, drag on for days, maybe even weeks. I hate to say that, but it’s possible. I think one note on that is like you could expect really strong Republican returns at the beginning because Democrats had been holding onto their ballots this cycle in California. So you kind of might see an over performance of Republicans at the beginning. So keep that in mind. Um. But yeah, I think the governor’s race, the mayor’s race some of these more closely contested congressional races it could be at least several days if not longer. Sometimes we say that and then everything just gets counted quickly. So you never know, but um I would say get your popcorn. It could be could be a few days and a bit of a long haul here. 

Erin Ryan: Three days worth of popcorn. Marisa, thank you so much for joining me and see you on the other side. 

Marisa Lagos: Thank you so much for having me. 

Erin Ryan: That was my conversation with Marisa Lagos, cohost of the KQED show and podcast, Political Breakdown. We’ll never spend a million dollars on crystals like LA mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt. If you like that, make sure to subscribe, leave a five-star review on Spotify and Apple podcasts, watch us on YouTube and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. [music break]

[AD BREAK]

Erin Ryan: Here’s what else we’re following today. 

[sung] Headlines.

[clip of unnamed CNBC news journalist] I said, do you think the negotiations are over now, or is this a bluff by the Iranians? The president said, I don’t care if they’re over, honestly, I really don’t care, I couldn’t care less. If they’re over, they’re over. If they are not, you know, I think they took too much time. Frankly, I think they started to get a little boring. 

Erin Ryan: Fantastic news, courtesy of CNBC, who asked President Trump Monday about Iran’s decision to suspend negotiations with the U.S. over Trump’s ongoing war there. Trump also posted on Truth Social Monday that Israel and Hezbollah have agreed to dial back fighting after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Per Axios, the conversation went so well that President Trump said both, what the fuck are you doing, and you’re fucking crazy. Paging Dr. Orna. Netanyahu confirmed the conversation, but said the Israeli military will continue to quote, “operate as planned in southern Lebanon.” But Iran wants any peace deal to include Lebanon, so that’s going to be a problem. The Trump administration said Monday it would temporarily pause its $1.776 billion fund meant to compensate allies complying with a court order. The slush fund drew backlash from Republicans who raised concerns about a lack of oversight and the potential for payouts to participants in the January 6th insurrection. The Justice Department said in a statement that it, quote, “disagrees strongly with that decision, but it would abide by it. The president says he plans to follow the law,” and this is news. A federal appeals court ruled that a Pentagon policy banning transgender troops from military service is illegal. The Monday decision is another legal setback for President Trump’s sweeping agenda. The majority opinion by a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held that the Trump administration’s policy was designed to exclude people from the military based on their gender identity. However, the ban remains in effect. The US Supreme Court allowed the Pentagon to start enforcing it last year as litigation continues to play out. It’s primary day in more states than California. Iowa, New Jersey, New Mexico, Montana, and South Dakota all head to the polls today. Here are some of the things that we’ll be watching closely. In New Jersey one district could play a major role in who controls the House of Representatives. In Iowa, the governor and Senate seats are up for grabs. Look for both races to have major ripple effects across congressional contests as well. In Montana, open seats create high stakes for both the Senate and the House. World Cup fans in a growing number of U.S. cities won’t have an issue finding a drink to go with their late-night match. State leaders across the U.S. are extending bar and restaurant hours during the world’s most watched sporting event. They want to help businesses and improve fan experiences, particularly for those who may have been priced out of tickets, which is all of us. Kansas, Missouri, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Washington have all approved various measures to extend hours for alcohol sales during the tournament. Similar proposals are being considered in New York and Massachusetts, more options than ever for European tourists who thought they could easily walk from New Jersey to Manhattan. And that’s the news. 

[AD BREAK]

Erin Ryan: That’s all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe. Be a Scott Pelley and not a Nick Bilton and tell your friends to listen. And if you’re into reading and not just about long time 60 minutes correspondent Scott Pelley yelling at the show’s new EP Nick Bilton during a work meeting like me, What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Erin Ryan and enjoy the bagels. [music break]

Jane Coaston: What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. Our show is produced by Caitlin Plummer, Emily Fohr, Erica Morrison, and Adriene Hill. Our team includes Hayley Jones, Greg Walters, Matt Berg, Joseph Dutra, Johanna Case, and Desmond Taylor. Our music is by Kyle Murdock and Jordan Cantor. We had help today from the Associated Press. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. [music break]