California’s ‘jungle primary’ faces repeal push — and a rival plan to expand it
This year’s primary for governor caused heartburn among both Democrats and Republicans who feared getting locked out of the November general election.
Now critics of California’s top two primary system are advancing a ballot measure that would undo the “jungle” primary and revert to siloed, Democratic and Republican June elections. Backers of the current system are promising a lawsuit — and their own effort to expand it further, allowing as many as five candidates to advance to the November general election.
The top two system was bourne out of a budget-related deal in 2009 between legislators and then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Voters rubber-stamped the proposal the next year in Proposition 14. It created a single primary open to all voters and dictated that the two highest performing candidates advance to the November general election, regardless of their party affiliation.
Backers wrote in the 2010 voter guide that the change would help mend a “broken” state government by electing “more practical officeholders who are more open to compromise.”
Critics like Democratic consultant Steve Maviglio argue the system failed.
“We’ve got more than almost two dozen races across the state where it’ll look like a ballot in the Soviet Union with one party on it,” Maviglio said. “No other state has adopted this for a reason: It’s a failed experiment.”
Maviglio said he’s talking to potential donors to raise the millions that will be needed to boost a 2028 ballot proposition seeking to undo it, with the title and summary was approved by Attorney General Rob Bonta on Tuesday. Supporters of undoing the current system range from former Republican Party Chair Ron Nehring to Democratic former Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez. Maviglio’s group, Undo the Top Two, also notes the range of smaller parties that opposed the 2010 ballot measure, including the Green and Libertarian parties.
Backers of the current system, united under the banner of More Choice California, are already preparing a lawsuit to challenge Bonta’s title and summary because it doesn’t mention that the change would revert voters back to party primaries, which sometimes excluded independent voters.
Dan Schnur, a former Republican turned independent and politics professor at several California universities, is advising More Choice. He blamed “party insiders and special interest fat cats” for driving the push to repeal the top two system. And while this year’s gubernatorial primary was close — Republican Steve Hilton narrowly edged out Democrat Tom Steyer for second place by less than 2 percentage points — Schnur said concerns about one party locking out the other were never plausible.
“Party insiders wanted to use that tiny possibility, that very small possibility, as a scare tactic,” he said.
The group is also advocating changes to allow three or more candidates to advance to November, though he said the exact details are still being worked out. Schwarzenegger told Politico he also opposes the repeal effort.
More Choice is funded by Independent Voters Project, an advocacy nonprofit that backed the 2010 top two system and sponsors annual junkets for state lawmakers in Hawaii and Mexico alongside business leaders.
This story was originally published July 16, 2026 at 4:30 AM with the headline "California’s ‘jungle primary’ faces repeal push — and a rival plan to expand it."
