Political groups voice opinions as primary votes are counted
COACHELLA VALLEY, Calif. (KESQ) – Votes continue to be counted across the state. As a clearer picture of which candidates will likely advance to November's gubernatorial election emerges, local voters and political groups are reacting to the numbers.
The Riverside County Registrar of Voters has been regularly updating its unofficial election results. As of 10:00 a.m. Wednesday, Chad Bianco led the field in the governor's race with 27.4% of the vote in Riverside County. That represented a 3-point lead over Xavier Becerra and a 6-point lead over the other Republican frontrunner, Steve Hilton.
Statewide, though, the numbers told a different story. Steve Hilton, instead, led the field. He held a firm 17-point lead over Bianco. Xavier Becerra trailed 3 points behind Hilton. As the current top two candidates, Hilton and Becerra will move on to November's ballot if these numbers hold.
The East Valley Republican Women Patriots were firmly behind Sheriff Chad Bianco. The group's president, Joy Miedecke, expressed a wish that things went differently ahead of the primary election.
"We're really proud of [Bianco's campaign]. We worked hard for him. We're lucky because we get to keep him as our sheriff," Miedecke said. "I feel very sad about the fact that people listened to – I'm just going to say Fox News and how they were preaching that he should get out of the race. ... Trump endorsing and then Fox News getting behind that really hurt Chad and that's the unfortunate part. But he fought the good fight."
Despite Miedecke's disappointment that Bianco will likely not advance to November's ballot, she was pleased with the number of Republicans across the state that made it through their respective primaries.
"It's very exciting. And guess what? Republicans are in almost every race," she said with a smile.
On the other side of the aisle, top Democrats are committing to backing the leading Democrat in the race. With Becerra in the lead right now, Joy Silver, the Chair of Riverside County's Democratic Party, made that clear.
"Whatever Democratic candidate leads, that's who this county will be working solidly behind. I think the Democrats are really feeling very positive," she affirmed.
Despite the way the vote split between Becerra and other Democratic frontrunner, Tom Steyer, Silver said there aren't any worries about what that could spell in November.
"Even those people who are solidly behind Steyer will jump in, from my perspective, behind Becerra," she predicted. "I don't think there's one Democrat that won't come out to vote against the opposition."
For both parties, the next steps ahead of Election Day in November is to continue messaging and raising awareness about the looming election.
Miedecke said, "My biggest problem is getting people out to vote. And still we have that problem. So that's one thing our club is going to be working on for the future between now and November is to get the vote out." She pointed to a lack of participation of young people. She hoped more younger voters would take action.
We also asked Silver what her plans were. She responded, "Get out the vote. Make sure everybody gets their ballot in. Make sure people know there's an election. You'd be surprised how many people don’t."
