On June 5, 2018, our California Midterm primaries will finally be taking place.  Midterm primaries are a process were the public decide who will be their upcoming candidates for whatever government position they may be running for.  However, the voting for the primaries began on May 7.  The top candidates running for Governor here in California are John Chiang (Democrat), John Cox (Republican), Gavin Newsom (Democrat), and Travis Allen (Republican).  The top candidates that are running for California State Treasurer are Fiona Ma (Democrat), Vivek Viswanathan (Democrat), Greg Conlon (Republican), and Jack Guerrero (Republican).  The individuals running for California Secretary Of State are Alex Padilla (Democrat), Ruben Major (Democrat), Mark P. Meuser (Republican), Raul Rodriguez Jr. (Republican).  Currently, Republicans hold 14 of California’s 53 seats in the United States House and it has taken lots of hard work to get this far in the election.

These candidates have to meet certain criteria to be involved in the election.  They will search from previous elections to public office they have done, check if the candidate has at least a 5% support from voters, look at established public opinion polls, and be able to fundraise.  However, political parties control the method of nomination for office in the name of the party.  State voters start the electoral process for governors and legislators through this primary process, as well as for many local officials from city councilors to county commissioners.  The candidate who has moved from the primary to be successful in the general election takes public office.  Running for office is not easy nor simple, but an individual can achieve this goal.  In California’s primary, the top two finishers in June move on to the November general election, regardless of their party.

http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/upcoming-elections/statewide-direct-primary-june-5-2018/key-dates-deadlines-june-5-2018/ https://ballotpedia.org/Main_Page