FORMER STATE CONTROLLER BETTY YEE dropped out of the governor’s race on Monday, saying she couldn’t see a path to get donors and additional support from undecided voters with six weeks left before the primary.
“It was becoming clear that the donors were not going to be there,” she said. “Even some of my former supporters just felt like they needed to move on as well.”
She did not immediately endorse another candidate, but said she would do so in the next few days. Six Democrats and two Republicans are leading in polling ahead of the June 2 election.
Yee was one of the earliest to enter the race, announcing her candidacy more than two years ago. She ran on her experience handling the state budget and her family’s middle-class, immigrant background.
A progressive who supported continuing the state’s greenhouse gas reduction mandates, Yee also emphasized her ability to balance the budget and spoke often about the importance of growing the state’s economy and auditing state programs for fraud. In recent days, she had begun styling herself as “Boring Betty,” promising a drama-free state government experience.
But pragmatism never translated into star power. Yee has stayed at or near the bottom of the polls, never garnering more than about 3% of likely voters, and lagged in fundraising.
Yee said she chose to run a grassroots campaign from the beginning rather than seek out large institutional support like other Democrats. But in the second half of last year, she brought in just $344,000 — compared with other candidates’ millions — and spent more than she raised. Donors, she said, held back out of concern about her low polling numbers, even those from Asian American communities that she said had backed her in the past.
That made her one of California Democratic Party Chair Rusty Hicks’ unnamed targets of a public campaign to pressure lower-polling Democrats to drop out of the race. With many Democrats in the race potentially splitting the liberal vote, Democrats were concerned two Republicans could possibly win the top-two primary election in June.
‘People want a personality’
Yee, the former vice chair of the party, insisted she had grassroots support and wouldn’t be forced out of the race by a slate of wealthy, male candidates. She and the other candidates of color banded together to denounce their exclusion from a USC candidate debate last month after the university used a formula based on polling and fundraising to decide who to invite. The debate was ultimately canceled.
“This has been my life story, frankly, as a woman of color,” she told reporters in March. “I’ve been overlooked, I’ve been underestimated and pushed aside.”
In a tearful news conference on Monday, Yee expressed frustration about Hicks’ public pressure effort, which involved releasing periodic polls to prompt candidates to “assess the viability of their campaigns” that Yee said became “self-fulfilling.” She said voters didn’t appear interested in her “experience and competence,” instead flocking toward candidates who made splashier statements about fighting the Trump administration.
“People want a personality,” she said. “You have to either be the loudest, you have to have gimmicks, you gotta do what you gotta do to get attention. I got no gimmicks.”
In the latest party-funded poll released Monday after her exit, just 1% of likely voters preferred Yee. The two Republicans, Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco, are still in the lead while former state Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who was previously polling in the single digits just above Yee, surged to 13% after former Rep. Eric Swalwell dropped out over sexual assault allegations. About 20% of likely voters remain undecided.
“People want a personality. You have to either be the loudest, you have to have gimmicks, you gotta do what you gotta do to get attention. I got no gimmicks.”
Betty Yee, former gubernatorial candidate
In his own news conference about the poll Monday, Hicks thanked Yee but said there are still “too many Democrats in the field.”
“I hope other candidates will consider (Yee’s) example,” he said.
The chances of Democrats getting locked out of the general election have gone down since Swalwell left the race over a week ago and after President Donald Trump endorsed Hilton on the Republican side.
The race is entering its most expensive phase yet with multiple candidates launching television ads last week.
Yee’s exit leaves only one woman in the contest, former Rep. Katie Porter.
Like Swalwell, Yee dropped out after a March state deadline to file or withdraw for the race, so her name will remain on the ballot in June.
This story originally appeared in CalMatters.