primary

The scene at Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna’s election night party was mostly buzz cuts, dark suits and high-gloss black shoes. Deputies and politicos chatted over festive music while the local news played silently on a big screen at El Pescador Bar and Grill in Carson, which served as Luna’s campaign headquarters on Tuesday.

When the newscast declared around 9:50 p.m. that the sheriff had won a second term, dozens of friends, family members and colleagues nursing margaritas and tacos burst into a rousing round of applause. After one of the sleepiest sheriff’s races in recent memory, Luna had again cruised to victory over his predecessor, Alex Villanueva.

The vibe Tuesday night was very different than it was at the intimate gathering at his home in Long Beach in June 2022, when Luna learned that his relentless retail politics had fueled a convincing win over the rest of the field in that year’s primary.

Luna has risen far from the low-income neighborhoods on L.A.’s Eastside where he was raised in the 1970s and 1980s, when gangs and violence were rampant. His parents left behind their lives in the Mexican states of Sinaloa and Michoacán, immigrating to the U.S., where he was born in an East Los Angeles hospital.

Luna’s wife Celines said Tuesday she didn’t believe he was going to win when he sat her and their two adult children down in summer 2021 and told them he wanted to come out of his brief retirement to run for sheriff. But “he worked 110% and he never gave up” during both the 2022 and 2026 campaigns, said Celines, who brought cheerleading pom-poms to shake for her husband Tuesday evening.

“He got home after 10 o’clock most nights. He basically worked two jobs,” she said.

All that work paid off Tuesday, when Luna became the first sheriff to secure a second term in L.A. County since Lee Baca, who held the office from 1998 to 2014.

Villanueva, on the other hand, has now lost three consecutive elections, including his last two sheriff bids and his failed 2024 campaign for L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn’s seat, which Hahn won outright in the primary with nearly three-fifths of the vote. The former sheriff’s brand of sharp-elbowed politics plagued by scandal and vitriol has left him effectively radioactive in county politics, according to some political observers.

Luna, meanwhile, has presided over a period of relative calm at the Hall of Justice. “There are, unfortunately, fractured relationships that need to be fixed,” Luna told The Times four days before he began his first term in 2022. “Sometimes,” he added, “the way you approach governing makes a huge difference.”

Luna has made good on that promise to improve relationships. The L.A. County Board of Supervisors took drastic measures to try to rein in Villanueva’s behavior while he was sheriff, including voting to investigate the department’s activities and freezing millions of dollars in funding. Luna, on the other hand, was endorsed by all five supervisors during this year’s campaign.

“Sheriff Robert Luna has earned the trust and support of voters, and this election is an overwhelming show of confidence in his leadership,” Hahn said in a statement. “Crime is down, he is bringing transparency and accountability back to the department, and he is working closely with me and my colleagues on the Board of Supervisors to make our communities safer.”

A vague sense that the sheriff is “always in the news” for something good was part of what drove Rafael Nolasco to support his candidacy for a second term. The 49-year-old East L.A. native said last month that he planned to vote for Luna, whom he views as a role model for his children.

“Seeing somebody from your background having a position like that, to me it’s amazing,” Nolasco said after talking with Luna outside a taqueria in the neighborhood.

For Luna, campaigning has meant long hours away from his loved ones, so he’s excited to be able to focus solely on his work as sheriff.

“I want to get back to just doing my one full-time job and get reacquainted with my wife and my family. They sacrifice so much,” he said minutes after the sheriff’s race was called Tuesday night. “You’re working so hard, and at one point you take a deep breath and go, my God, how much have I sacrificed? And is it worth it? But tonight it was.”

Luna’s tenure as sheriff will now stretch from the late COVID-19 era through the 2028 Summer Olympics and beyond. He said late Tuesday that he’s got some priorities for his second term, including making more progress on deputy gangs and determining “what are we going to do with Men’s Central Jail.”

The U.S. Department of Justice announced in September that it is investigating conditions at Men’s Central Jail, which has been plagued for years by overcrowding, violence and other issues. Luna has said in the past that he would like to see the aging jail shut down if it is first replaced with a modern facility providing clinical care to inmates.

The sheriff also said he plans to track and adapt to how the broader political changes ushered in by the Democratic wave in the midterm elections Tuesday could impact approaches on immigration enforcement and other federal initiatives with local implications.

But first he said he’s going to take some time to determine the best way forward for his department.

“I’m going to bring my team back together, and we’re going to revisit all of our priorities … We’re going to continue the things that worked, reexamine things that may not have worked,” he said. “There’s a lot of work to do. This is not a finished product.”

DETROIT — Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed’s former opponent in the U.S. Senate primary, Rep. Haley Stevens, stunned party officials Sunday by endorsing his Republican rival, Mike Rogers, after Democratic tensions boiled over days before the election that could determine the balance of power on Capitol Hill.

Stevens endorsed Rogers after attending a Detroit church service with him. The remarkable show of support for the President Trump-backed candidate in the tightly contested race comes after she was uninvited to a joint event the same day with El-Sayed, who defeated the congresswoman by a slim margin in the August primary.

“Our Democratic nominee for Senate said I was no longer welcome in his campaign and that I should stay away,” Stevens said in a video announcing the endorsement. “And he’s right. And that’s why I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today.”

El-Sayed dismissed the endorsement when asked about it by reporters later Sunday, saying he’s focused on issues voters care about, such as the high cost of living.

“At the end of the day I actually don’t think about Haley Stevens,” he said, adding later: “None of this matters.”

Michigan Democratic leaders were left shocked. With just less than 48 hours to go before election day, a party that had spent months trying to unite behind its Senate nominee was suddenly grappling with an extraordinary defection in one of this year’s most important races.

Tensions between the two Democrats have festered since the primary. Stevens is a staunch supporter of Israel, while El-Sayed is a fierce critic of the U.S. ally. He has also been criticized by some in the community for past remarks regarding a Michigan synagogue attack and for appearances with controversial streamer Hasan Piker.

El-Sayed, a former Michigan public health official, is facing Rogers, an ex-congressman, for the seat held by the retiring Democrat, Gary Peters. Keeping Michigan in Democratic hands is vital to the party’s effort to win a majority for the final two years of Trump’s second term.

Stevens and El-Sayed were originally scheduled to attend church together, along with other Michigan and national Democrats, including South Carolina Rep. James E. Clyburn. Democrats hoped it would be a show of unity as they worked to boost turnout in the Detroit area, where concerns have lingered about enthusiasm among Black and Jewish voters in key Democratic strongholds.

Instead, Stevens swayed to gospel music alongside Rogers in the pews at Perfecting Church, while El-Sayed was a few miles away at a different house of worship campaigning alongside prominent Democrats, including Clyburn.

Stevens’ top aide resigns

After the church service north of Detroit, where Stevens and fiance Jason Turkish worshiped with Rogers and his wife, Kristi, the congresswoman told reporters, “I’m not turning my back on Democrats. It is this one vote.”

Rogers, standing beside her, said he was “honored” by her support.

Their appearance came days after Stevens publicly reaffirmed she would vote for El-Sayed. It also led her longtime chief of staff to resign, with a number of staff members expected to follow soon, according to a person familiar with the developments who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.

“We are shocked and heartbroken,” the aide said in a statement.

The state party chair, Curtis Hertel, said Stevens’ endorsement “shows that she has abandoned everything she claims to care about.”

“We reject the attempts by Stevens and bad-faith actors to divide our party and undermine our momentum,” Hertel wrote, adding that they won’t let such eleventh-hour “distractions” deter the campaign. Hertel later wrote that Stevens “is not a current member of the Michigan Democratic Party, nor will she be in the future.”

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who supported Stevens in the primary, denounced her endorsement of Rogers.

“This is a despicable betrayal from Rep. Stevens,” Schumer, of New York, wrote in a social media post.

Dingell disinvited Stevens after it became ‘distracting’

Among the Democrats who joined El-Sayed at church Sunday morning were Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan, Sen. Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who dropped out of the Senate primary before voting began.

Dingell, a senior Democratic figure in the state who helped organize the planned joint appearance, said she asked Stevens not to attend and that Stevens told her she would abide by that.

“I’m the one who pulled it because it had become way too distracting,” Dingell said a telephone interview Sunday before Stevens’ appearance with Rogers. “This is not how I was going to spend my weekend before the election, to be perfectly frank.”

In the August primary, Stevens defeated El-Sayed in Wayne County, which includes Detroit, and neighboring Oakland County, drawing support from Black and Jewish voters who are important parts of the Democratic coalition.

Early voting for Tuesday’s election has been underway since Oct. 24. As of Friday, more than 1.8 million people had already voted in Michigan.

How did we get here?

The Democratic primary was among the most bitter this year. Each candidate accused the other of making personal attacks. Tens of millions of dollars in outside spending poured into the race, including from the super PAC affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, known as AIPAC, which backed Stevens. El-Sayed took particular offense to an outside group’s ad accusing him of disrespecting women.

Although Stevens pledged after the primary to help El-Sayed however she could, the two have not appeared together publicly since a unity breakfast two days after his primary win.

Last week Stevens’ fiance told the Detroit News that he would vote for Rogers. Stevens later appeared on CNN to reaffirm her support for El-Sayed but urged his campaign to “shut out the hate and call it out.”

But on Friday, after the Associated Press reported on the planned joint appearance, Stevens released a lengthy statement calling on El-Sayed to condemn an ad by an independent left-wing group that linked U.S. support for Israel to high grocery prices.

“Abdul promises to get money out of politics,” Stevens wrote. “He can begin by getting Israel out of his explanation for everything Michigan cannot afford.”

El-Sayed then responded: “So while Congresswoman Stevens seems intent on relitigating a primary that ended three months ago, let’s all focus on the task at hand.”

He made clear the ad was not made by his campaign and said “I do not agree with the contents of that ad.”

The Michigan-born Democratic nominee, meanwhile, has been the frequent target of Islamophobic attacks, including from Trump. At a rally last weekend, Trump called El-Sayed a “jihadist,” adding: “He would be the only senator that will have to go through a metal detector before he’s allowed to go into the Senate.”

Trump and Republicans revel in the discord

Trump praised Stevens in a social media post, saying she was “a Highly Respected Democrat” and that her support from Black and Jewish voters in Michigan is “virtually unprecedented.”

“Haley said what few people are willing to say. She showed great and almost unprecedented loyalty to the Great People of Michigan with what she did,” Trump wrote. “It’s a thing called bravery, and few people have it like just displayed by Congresswoman Haley Stevens!”

Appearing with Trump in Iowa for a campaign rally, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said that he spoke to Stevens after she endorsed Rogers. Johnson said he “encouraged her to stay safe and keep speaking the truth.”

Stevens is not seeking reelection to her House seat Tuesday.

A spokesman for the Republican National Committee, Hunter Lovell, said Democrats who feel abandoned by El-Sayed “have a home” with Rogers.

Cappelletti, Williams and Householder write for the Associated Press. Cappelletti reported from Washington.

In the race for Los Angeles mayor, incumbent Karen Bass and City Councilmember Nithya Raman will need to win over a substantial portion of the 218,000 Angelenos who voted for Spencer Pratt in the primary and who are concentrated in certain neighborhoods.

In the June 2 primary, Bass earned more than a third of the vote, while Raman was close with 29%. Reality television personality Pratt finished third with 25.5%. The votes for him are nearly five times the 44,800-vote gap between Bass and Raman. This voting bloc could be key to either candidate securing the mayoral race.

Pratt carried 20% of the city’s 739 precincts, mainly in the West Valley — Woodland Hills, Encino, Granada Hills, West Hills, Chatsworth, Northridge and Tarzana — along with Brentwood, Pacific Palisades and San Pedro, according to a Times analysis of certified election results. In comparison, Bass had the most votes in 49% of the precincts, while Raman had 30%.

According to the latest Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies/Los Angeles Times poll, Raman and Bass are in a dead heat, each with the support of 40% of likely voters. Polls show 45% of Pratt voters are undecided.

In the primary, Pratt had the most votes in 24 of the city’s 113 neighborhoods. All but three of those 24 neighborhoods heavily favored developer Rick Caruso over Bass in the 2022 mayoral race.

This week, Caruso said he will vote for Bass.

Voters in precincts that voted heavily for Pratt also turned out more than others. Turnout there was 46%, compared with 37% in the rest of the city, more than in past mayoral primaries.

There is a large pool of potential voters for Bass and Raman to cast ballots through Election Day Tuesday. Pratt’s support stretched well beyond the places he won. About 125,000 of his votes came from precincts that Bass or Raman won.

Pratt had his weakest showing in the city’s 43 majority-Latino neighborhoods, where he got 22% of the vote. Bass did well in 35 of them. The only one Pratt did well in was San Pedro, where Latinos make up just over half the population.

Pratt’s stronghold neighborhoods

Pratt’s largest base stretched across the west and north San Fernando Valley, from Chatsworth and Porter Ranch in the northwest corner through Woodland Hills, Tarzana and Encino. He was the leader in 76 precincts there, which together cast about 120,000 votes.

Pratt got 40.5% of the vote in those precincts. Bass finished second in all but one of those areas. Raman got 19%.

This month, Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath endorsed Raman, giving her a strong ally on the Westside and in the Valley and possibly new inroads in those areas.

On the Westside, Pratt swept the wealthy neighborhoods of Pacific Palisades, Brentwood and Bel-Air. Pratt’s home in the Palisades was destroyed in the January 2025 fire. His strongest showings were in the Palisades and Bel-Air, where he got about 50% of the vote.

Raman ran ahead of Bass in some of Pratt’s precincts, including ones in Pico-Robertson, Brentwood and Beverly Grove.

In the northeast Valley, Pratt did well in the foothill communities of Sunland, Tujunga and Shadow Hills. It’s a small part of the city’s electorate, with 38,000 registered voters. He got 44% of the vote, Bass 28% and Raman 18%.

At the city’s southern tip, Pratt did well in 11 precincts in San Pedro and parts of Harbor City with 42% of the vote. Raman had her weakest showing, with 16%.

Raman came within 5 percentage points of Pratt in only a handful of his precincts, including ones in Valley Village, Pico-Robertson and West Los Angeles.

A primary school teacher revealed he even had his nipples removed and eyeballs tattooed

A primary school teacher has described the lengths he’s gone to in order to get more tattoos.

Sylvain Helaine has been working in classrooms in both the UK and his native France for nearly two decades. However, he has revealed that he began a new, unique journey in 2012, when he was 27.

Back then, he got his first tattoo. Now, aged 40, he is the most tattooed teacher. Sylvain made a special appearance on This Morning, in a tell-all chat with hosts Dermot O’Leary and Sian Welby.

The ITV presenters opened the segment by describing what comes to mind when they think of their own primary school teachers. Sylvain told them he was working in Britain when he saw someone with a full sleeve, which opened his eyes and led him to get an arm tattoo of his own.

He quickly became increasingly dedicated to getting more. Sylvain confessed that he always knew he wanted to be ‘fully covered’. Asked about how it has impacted his work, he told them: “During the first day [of school], because if I do something good, people will say, ‘Oh, obviously he’s the best, we were about to see that’. But if I do something a little bad, they will think that I’m awful because of my appearance.”

Ensure our latest TV stories always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate or add us as Preferred Source in your Google search settings.

As they asked about what kind of reactions Sylvain receives in his line of work, he revealed that he had previously said: “It always takes two minutes for children to accept me, two hours for the parents, and two days for grandparents. So it just takes a little bit of time.”

Sylvain went on to reveal that he doesn’t actually talk about his tattoos while at work. He revealed: “I don’t talk about my tattoos and my appearance at all when we are in the classroom. We just work, we take out our exercise book, write out the date, and it goes like that. I’m really serious. But if they have some questions to ask me, they can wait for the playground, for example.”

The teacher’s tattoo journey is far from over, however. He shared that he intends to go over some of his existing ink on most of his body again.

Sian pointed out that the whites of his eyes have also been completely covered with black ink. He also had his nipples and belly button removed.

His reason was to have a smoother skin surface. to make the tattooing process easier and get more. Other places he has been tattooed include his tongue, and underneath his nails on both his hands and feet.

However, when asked if he was ‘addicted’ to getting them, he shared that he actually can’t stand getting them and does not look forward to the next session. He explained: “I hate the pain. I hate getting tattooed.”

He continued: “I love evolving. I love seeing myself evolving. You suffer, and I really hate the pain and am counting the days to the next tattoo session. I’m really anxious. I don’t want to go, but at the end of the tattoo session, I’m really proud, and I feel invincible.”

This Morning continues tomorrow at 10.00am on ITV1 and ITVX.

Foes of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is widely viewed as a likely 2028 presidential candidate, are launching television and digital ads this weekend in early primary states that criticize the governor’s opposition to the proposed billionaire tax on California’s November ballot.

The ad, funded by backers of the wealth tax, castigates Newsom for opposing Proposition 40, the ballot measure that would impose a 5% tax on California billionaires’ assets to offset federal healthcare funding cuts approved by congressional Republicans and signed by President Trump last year.

“We’re all struggling with the high cost of healthcare. In California, Democrats are championing a one-time tax on billionaires that would save coverage for millions,” a narrator says in the 30-second ad. “So why [has] presidential hopeful Gavin Newsom betrayed his own supporters by trying to sabotage the billionaire tax? Maybe it’s because the same billionaires who oppose Prop. 40 also gave millions of dollars to Newsom. Gavin Newsom turned his back on working Californians. Will he do the same to you?”

The ad specifically calls out billionaires Stewart Resnick, who owns several businesses including Pom Wonderful, Fiji Water and Justin Wines; crypto executive Chris Larsen; former Google leader Eric Schmidt; and venture capitalist Michael Moritz, all of whom have backed Newsom’s political ambitions.

Newsom has argued that, although he supports wealth taxes, they ought to be enacted at the national level, rather than a state-by-state patchwork that could drive the rich to leave California, a state with a volatile budget heavily dependent on the state’s wealthiest residents.

The primary funders of the ad are the Service Employees International Union – United Healthcare Workers West, which crafted Proposition 40; Saikat Chakrabarti, a climate change warrior and political advisor who made his wealth in part as a founding engineer at Stripe; and Ross Boucher, an early engineer at Stripe.

The ad buy is six figures but could grow, according to its backers. Among the states where the ad is expected to air are South Carolina, Nevada, New Mexico, Virginia and New Hampshire.

Earlier this month, Newsom stumped for candidates in New Hampshire, his latest foray to early presidential primary states.

The ad launch comes amid a contentious, expensive battle over the proposed wealth tax, which has divided Democrats and their allies. Although Newsom is among Democrats who oppose it, the ballot measure was endorsed by the state Democratic Party and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Voters are closely divided about the measure.

While Republican Steve Hilton has spent months jackrabbiting around California during his long-shot bid for governor, Democratic front runner Xavier Becerra just recently emerged from quasi hibernation and stepped into political daylight.

Hilton has blasted Becerra as taking the state’s voters for granted, failing to hold public campaign events to explain his detailed plans to address California’s many ills. Despite pledging to participate in multiple debates, Becerra brushed aside several invitations, agreeing to just a solitary one-hour face-off against Hilton on CNN in late September.

That month, Hilton held 14 public events, a dozen more than Becerra, but the Democrat’s spokesperson said he appeared at multiple functions sponsored by other groups. Hilton wasn’t buying it.

“He is a useless nothing, a totally unaccomplished pipsqueak who is so smug, so arrogant, so entitled, that he somehow thinks he’s owed this job just because he was picked as a useful puppet by the Sacramento machine,” Hilton, a former Fox News commentator and British political strategist, said last week in West Sacramento.

On Oct. 10, Becerra, a longtime member of Congress and Biden’s secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, scoffed at his GOP rival.

“Uh, hello?” Becerra said sarcastically to reporters in Sacramento after being asked about his absence from the campaign trail.

“That Steve Hilton doesn’t see me on Fox News is his problem, not mine. I am gonna talk to voters,” Becerra said, rattling off a list of his recent campaign events. “I will talk to them until November the 3rd, and then I’ll be ready to talk to voters and taxpayers and the people of California when I’m the next governor.”

On Thursday, Becerra held a news conference in downtown Los Angeles with Latino leaders and famed Mexican actor Eugenio Derbez urging voters to turn out despite alleged intimidation efforts by the Trump administration.

On Monday, he held get-out-the-vote events in Santa Clarita and Glendale, shortly after he campaigned for former state Sen. Richard Pan, a congressional candidate, in Sacramento, and urged voters to cast their ballots early at an event in Santa Rosa. In September, Becerra promoted Proposition 1, a proposal on the November ballot that would allow the state to sell nearly $11.3 billion in bonds to fund affordable housing.

“We know we can get these men and women who are wearing these orange vests to work and keep them working, so they can afford to buy a house if we pass Proposition 1,” Becerra said, standing alongside union members in front of a chain-link fence encircling a vacant lot in North Long Beach.

Gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra held a news conference in Long Beach on Sept. 4 to highlight his housing agenda.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson, who endorsed Becerra in April and appeared at the housing event, pushed back on the notion that Becerra is taking the election for granted after winning a top spot in the primary, positioning him to be the first Mexican American elected governor of California.

“I’ve seen firsthand the work that has taken place under the radar that may not be explicitly, openly political or openly be seen as campaigning, but it is the kind of thing you want to see,” Richardson said in an interview on Thursday, adding that he saw Becerra meeting with elected officials of both parties, the mayors of the state’s largest cities and labor leaders. “I’ve seen a very active candidate that has been making sure that real time was put into building relationships that will ultimately translate to a successful governorship, because that’s the goal. I mean, ultimately, what we want is a leader who has the relationships to lead our state.”

Becerra’s campaign said that the candidate has frequently met with voters since the primary without press coverage to hear from Californians, and that he would be a frequent public presence in the weeks before the election, when “voters really get engaged, when ballots land in their mailbox,” said spokesman Jonathan Underland.

“People have incredibly busy lives. They are worried about affording their healthcare, putting food on the table, paying for gas to fill their tank,” Underland said. “What is at the forefront of Secretary Becerra’s mind is the very real problems that Californians are facing every day.”

In contrast, Hilton has been publicly barnstorming California since the June primary.

Becerra’s schedule is not surprising given Democratic dominance in California, where the party’s registered voters outnumber Republicans nearly 2 to 1. While appearing at parades, pancake breakfasts and in voters’ living rooms can be effective for candidates running in local campaigns, the most effective way for candidates to reach voters in a state as vast as California is through sustained advertising buys, which can cost tens of millions of dollars.

“If you’re the Democrat running in California, the operating theme of your campaign is do no harm and measure the drapes and figure out how you’re going to put an administration together and what is the tone that you’re going to set for that administration,” said Tim Rosales, a veteran GOP consultant who led businessman John Cox’s unsuccessful 2018 gubernatorial campaign and previously worked on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s successful effort to replace Gov. Gray Davis in the 2003 recall campaign.

Newsom was more active in the 2018 general election campaign against Cox than Becerra has been this year, but Rosales argued that could be because Becerra views it as the final chapter of his political career, which also may have been the case with former Gov. Jerry Brown in his 2014 reelection campaign. Newsom, however, is pondering a 2028 run for the White House.

“This is potentially more of a swan song for Xavier Becerra, the icing on the cake for a long and distinguished political career, and for Gavin Newsom, it was a stepping stone,” Rosales said.

Becerra has raised $40.5 million, as of Friday, while Hilton has raised $29 million, according to the fundraising disclosure reports filed with the state. Those figures do not include the exponential advantage that Becerra had in independent expenditure committees’ spending over Hilton in the primary.

Veteran Republican strategist Rob Stutzman, an advisor to Schwarzenegger, said that while Becerra will almost certainly be the state’s next governor, he should be cautious about his approach weeks before the November election.

“What he needs to be careful of is a big Democratic night across the United States that looks muted in California, and if that happens, the analysis will be that it’s his fault,” Stutzman said. “He should want to optimize his political capital as the clear leader of his party now in California. So he has to be a little careful of leaving some political capital on the table by not creating a stronger brand over the next three weeks.”

The last gubernatorial race that was viewed as competitive took place in 2010 between Brown and former eBay chief Meg Whitman, then a Republican who spent $144 million of her personal wealth on her campaign.

That contest drew national attention, but Brown beat Whitman by nearly 13 percentage points. Every gubernatorial election since that race has been sleepy and ignored in national politics, with Democratic candidates coasting to victory. The state has seen contentious gubernatorial primaries, notably in 2018, and this year, when the Democratic field was so crowded that party leaders urged low-polling candidates, including Becerra, to drop out.

He won the top spot in the primary after then-Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin) dropped out amid rape and sexual assault allegations.

Mason Harrison, who worked for Republicans Carly Fiorina in a 2010 Senate bid and Neel Kashkari in a 2014 gubernatorial campaign, and worked with Hilton on business ventures but is not affiliated with his campaign, noted that while Brown was well-known by Californians because of decades in the public eye, Becerra is not. However, given Democrats’ edge in the state’s voter registration, as well as current headwinds against the GOP in California and across the nation, it’s unsurprising that Becerra has been less visible than Hilton. Harrison compared Becerra’s campaign to Biden’s in 2024 before the then-president bowed out of the race.

“The calculus seems to be, the more he gets out on the campaign trail, the greater the potential of him having a misstep in an interview or getting some tough question that he’s going to have to answer, and what’s the advantage of that in a year when you’re running against a party that, by historical standards, stands to lose significantly,” Harrison said. “Why make it more competitive by making yourself more vulnerable?”

Indeed, Becerra previously committed to multiple debates, but has participated in one so far and appears unlikely to agree to another. Still, he has repeatedly disputed the notion that he is taking the race for granted.

“If I were trying to coast, I’d be out on the coast right now instead of here with you all,” he told reporters one sweltering August afternoon in Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles, an area he represented in Congress.

Xavier Becerra, center, walks with Helen Ota, left, president of the 2026 Nisei Week Foundation, while touring businesses and meeting with business community leaders at Japanese Village Plaza in Little Tokyo in Los Angeles on Aug. 18.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

While there, he met with local business and community leaders. And he bought merchandise and delicacies, including a sweet mango mochi wrapped in a thin, fluffy pancake at a 123-year-old Japanese confectionery.

Times staff writer Nicole Nixon contributed to this report from Sacramento.

“We are stunned and heartbroken by this senseless tragedy,” Bend-La Pine Schools Superintendent Steven Cook said in a statement.

“No words can adequately express the grief our community is experiencing.”

Local law enforcement responded to reports of an active shooter at Silver Rail Elementary in Bend, Oregon, at 12:59 local time, Bend Police Department spokeswoman Sheila Miller told reporters.

The first call indicated that an unknown suspect had shot into a car, she said. Photos released from the scene show a red truck with bullet holes.

Minutes later, the local county dispatch received a flood of 911 calls and law enforcement were sent to the scene.

The suspected shooter was shot dead at around 13:02pm, Miller said.

While police said the shooter was a local 16-year-old boy, they declined to add further details pending the ongoing investigation.