Overview
- Delegates at the San Diego convention on Sunday voted by secret ballot and gave Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco 49% and Steve Hilton 44%, short of the 60% needed for the party’s nod, with 75 choosing no endorsement.
- Trump endorsed Hilton a week earlier, yet delegates resisted consolidating behind him, highlighting activist preference for their own vetting over a top-down pick.
- California’s top-two primary advances the two highest vote-getters regardless of party, and a fragmented Democratic field after Eric Swalwell’s suspension could make two Republicans finishing first and second a real possibility.
- Court records show Bianco’s office cited disputed election-denial claims to seize about 650,000 ballots, and the state Supreme Court has paused the related probe, adding legal uncertainty to the race.
- While declining to back a governor candidate, delegates endorsed several other Republicans for statewide posts, signaling selective unity even as the marquee race remains unsettled.