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Betty Yee drops out of California governor’s race

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by Brett Stover - 04/20/26 4:26 PM ET

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by Brett Stover - 04/20/26 4:26 PM ET

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(Inside California Politics) — Former California State Controller Betty Yee, a favorite of Democratic Party insiders who never broke through with the public, is dropping out of the race for governor.

Yee announced Monday morning she would suspend her campaign, citing lagging poll numbers and the short time remaining before the primary. She said the decision was her own but acknowledged that the party’s emphasis on re-polling the race had a chilling effect on donors.

“This race, from the very beginning, has been a series of starts and stops,” Yee said.

Although she didn’t endorse a candidate Yee doubled down on earlier criticism of former Democratic U.S. Rep. Katie Porter in an interview with Inside California Politics host Nikki Laurenzo.

After Porter threatened to walk out of an interview with a CBS reporter last year, Yee called her a “weak, self-destructive candidate” who is “unfit to lead California” and called on her to drop out of the race. Yee stood by those statements in the interview Monday.

“I think temperament really does matter,” she said.

Yee said she expects to make an endorsement “in the next couple of days.”

“I know all the candidates quite well,” she said. I hope that one of them I can feel confident about carrying the mantle of what I have been trying to get across to voters.”

Yee was mired in the low single digits of polls throughout the campaign, only exceeding 5 percent in a handful of surveys. The most recent Inside California Politics/Emerson College poll showed her being backed by just 1 percent of likely primary voters.

But she garnered more support among the party faithful, including at the California Democratic Party Convention where she received 17 percent of the vote among delegates in February. (The top vote-getter at that event, former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D), is also no longer in the race.)

Before her two terms as state controller, Yee also served for more than a decade as a California on the State Board of Equalization.

Yee’s decision to drop out comes after California Democratic Party Chair Rusty Hicks repeatedly called on candidates to evaluate their campaigns’ viability amid worries that the large field could lead to an all-GOP general election.

It could also raise the internal pressure on other struggling candidates, including State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan. That trio of Democrats polled at 1 percent, 3 percent and 5 percent in the recent Emerson poll.

Although leading Democratic candidates Tom Steyer, former Rep. Katie Porter and former Healht and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra have put some distance between themselves and their fellow party members, the lack of a true frontrunner also leaves hope for Mahan, Villaraigosa and Thurmond that a late surge could propel them into the top two.

The top Republican candidates in the race are conservative commentator Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.

Hilton, Bianco, Steyer, Porter, Becerra and Mahan are all set to take the stage Wednesday at the Inside California Politics gubernatorial debate. The event will begin at 10 p.m. EDT and will broadcast live across all Nexstar television stations in California.

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