(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) — Are there too many Democrats running for governor in California?

Corrin Rankin, the chair of the California Republican Party, told ABC News on the sidelines of a Republican National Committee meeting last month, “I think the Democrats should have a few more candidates. I say, if you’re a Democrat, and you feel like running for governor? I say, jump in.”

Rankin’s taunt reflects very real anxiety among some Democrats in the state in the 2026 race to succeed term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom.

California uses top-two primaries, in which all candidates regardless of party are on the same ballot and the top two vote-getters advance to the general election.

It’s been expected that a Democrat and Republican will advance or, given California’s blue tilt, two Democrats. But a crowded Democratic field increases the chances that two Republicans and no Democrats make it past the June primary.

“The fact that it’s a possibility at all is enough to raise eyebrows and generate concern,” Steven Maviglio, a California-based Democratic operative, told ABC News.

RL Miller, who chairs the California Democratic Party’s Environmental Caucus, told ABC News that the scenario where no Democrats advance is a bit “more of an academic exercise,” but certainly something candidates are discussing in fundraising emails.

The Democratic field was effectively frozen for months until former Vice President Kamala Harris announced she would not run. Around a dozen Democrats, including U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell, former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, former Health Secretary Xavier Becerra, and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, are vying for the nomination. 

For some candidates, it’s been tough to break through, but they say they want to stay in because they feel their experience means they’re best for the job.

Antonio Villaraigosa, a former mayor of Los Angeles and former state representative, told ABC News on the sidelines of a recent candidate forum in the city he once led that he’s pointing to himself as “a proven problem-solver … people are looking for competence, common sense and of course-correction. They want the next governor to focus on the challenges we face.”

Asked more directly how he’s trying to stand out and if he thinks the Democratic field needs to consolidate more before the primary, Villaraigosa did not say anyone should drop out but pointed again to his record.

“I’m running on a vision for California that says we can restore the California Dream… [I’m] the only one in this in this race who’s been a chief executive of a large city,” he said.

Betty Yee, California’s former state controller, told ABC News on the sidelines of that forum in Los Angeles that she is pointing to her statewide job experience and financial acumen as a way she stands out from the pack.

“I think at the end of the day voters really do want somebody who can really just get on the job and begin to do the work,” Yee said.

She also added that Democratic candidates have not had a “long runway” to run, given the focus on the Proposition 50 congressional map election last November and the uncertainty over whether Harris would run for the governorship.

“So now, with all that behind us, we now have the focus on the race… what I did during that time was just to engage and just do as much direct voter engagement as I could,” Yee said.

Among the Republican candidates, front-runners Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco are expressing confidence that either one of them will make it to one of the top two slots in the primary.

Hilton, a business owner and former Fox News host, told ABC News that’s because of what he said is backlash to high costs and other challenges in California, which has been dominated by Democrats in the state legislature and executive branch for years.

“There’s a majority, a clear majority, who think we need change, and that means a change from the Democrats,” he said.

Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff, told ABC News that he feels there is a crowded Democratic field because Newsom has not cultivated an heir apparent.

“So the Democrat Party below him is just [in] complete disarray, which is why you see a dozen Democrats — prominent Democrats — jumping in this race, wanting to be the next heir apparent, and it has to benefit Republicans,” Bianco said.

But Hilton expressed some skepticism about the benefits for the GOP of the top-two primary.

“Now on the Democrat side, you’re right, there’s a lot of candidates, but I think we’ve all seen how things work in California,” Hilton said, speculating that unions and donors will at some point coalesce around one candidate.

But Maviglio, the Democratic strategist, cautioned that donors and labor unions are holding back because of the crowded field, and labor groups in particular have multiple allies in the ring.

“It’s splintered,” Maviglio said.

Some Democrats have pointed to the state party’s upcoming convention in late February as a moment of truth — since candidates may drop out afterwards if it becomes clear they don’t have support to gain enough internal votes for the party’s endorsement.

But no candidate is expected, at the moment, to clear the threshold for an endorsement.

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(WASHINGTON) — Expanding her probes into Trump administration policies, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is demanding answers from Health and Human Service Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about the impact of federal immigration surges on children’s health.

In a letter to Kennedy first obtained by ABC News, Warren, Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, and other congressional Democrats expressed concern that the health department is failing in its responsibility to protect the wellbeing of children.

“This disregard for child welfare undermines the government’s core child-protection obligations,” the lawmakers wrote. “Yet your agency [HHS] does not appear to be taking any action to speak out against or investigate the impacts of the Trump Administration’s immigration agenda on children,” they wrote.

The letter says the federal operations from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) “risk traumatizing children and depriving them of access to education and basic services, with lasting consequences for their behavioral, physical, academic, and emotional wellbeing.”

Warren told ABC News, “Donald Trump promised two things: he would lower costs for American families and he would keep families safe.”

“Costs are up and, thanks to ICE targeting, families are more at risk than at any time in living memory,” she said.

The Massachusetts senator urged Kennedy to respond to her inquiry and remind the world of the health department’s responsibility to children.

“That means not putting [kids] through the trauma of violent separation from their parents, having flash bangs thrown at them, having them gassed, or using them as bait to try to snare their family members,” Warren told ABC News at the Capitol on Wednesday.

HHS spokeswoman Emily Hilliard asserted that “The Department remains committed to the safety and well-being of all unaccompanied minors in its care.”

“Any claims otherwise are baseless and inaccurate,” she said.

More than 50 lawmakers signed on to the letter requesting that Kennedy provide any information HHS has regarding the impact of ICE and CBP operations on children’s mental health and development by Feb. 18. Their letter comes amid Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota, where Trump’s border czar Tom Homan announced Wednesday the government will reduce about a quarter of the 3,000 federal troops in the state effective immediately. Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith told ABC News the federal operation has resulted in a precipitous drop in school attendance that will have a “dramatic” and “long-lived” impact on children and families.

Warren’s letter stressed that ICE and CBP’s tactics include the alleged use of tear gas, explosives, attack dogs and window-smashing in or near schools and child care centers in places like Minnesota, Illinois and Texas. It also recounts at least four students who have experienced “raids” at schools, day care centers, and a child’s birthday party.

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin has stressed that the agency is not invading or raiding classrooms. However, a DHS memo outlining the department’s approach said “[ICE] Officers would need secondary supervisor approval before any action can be taken in locations such as a school. We expect these to be extremely rare.”

National Parents Union President Keri Rodrigues said she spent the last week with parents in Minnesota and told ABC News that it’s “deeply unsafe” for children to be walking through what she described as “war zones” to get to school.

“Parents want the expectation that in places like schools, their kids are going to be safe,” Rodrigues said. “You got ICE agents that are stalking kids walking to elementary school. You got guys with binoculars banging on the doors of the schoolhouse — like none of this is going to work for parents,” she added.

Neither DHS nor the White House responded to ABC News’ request for comment.

Warren, a fierce defender of public education and vocal Trump critic, has used Trump’s second term to fight back against his policies.

Last year, Warren launched her “Save Our Schools” campaign in opposition to Trump and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education and another investigation called the Social Security War Room, a coordinated effort to combat the administration’s so-called “attack on Americans’ Social Security” at the Social Security Administration.

Meanwhile, the impact of Trump’s immigration curb is having a ripple effect across the country, according to education leaders and experts who’ve spoken to ABC News, saying it’s leaving some families and communities fearful of returning to school each day — from the nation’s capital to Los Angeles, California —

To-wen Tseng, a substitute teacher in California, said her students ask her ‘What will happen if the ICE agents come to our classroom?'” “I told them that won’t happen because the school won’t let them in and I won’t let them enter the classroom [either],” Tseng told ABC News. “But the truth is, I don’t know what I can do if ICE really shows up at my classroom door,” she said.

“I keep telling my children and my students that they are safe, just because I don’t want them to worry, and I feel it should be our responsibility to protect them,” Tseng added. “We should keep them safe.”

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