Politics
Californians less likely to vote cite a common reason: They don’t like the presidential candidates
Most Californians say they’re likely to vote in the November election, but among those who aren’t sure, there’s a common reason: They don’t like the presidential candidates.
That finding comes from a poll released Friday by the UC Berkeley Institute for Governmental Studies, which asked 5,095 registered voters across California to reflect on their likelihood of voting in the Nov. 5 general election that will feature a rematch between President Biden and former President Trump.
The poll, conducted for the nonprofit Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, found that about 78% of California’s registered voters say they’re highly likely to vote. The poll also found that the intent to vote varies widely by age, race and political affiliation — as do the reasons why people say they aren’t likely to cast a ballot.
Californians who see themselves as highly likely to vote said participating in the presidential election is the leading reason. But among those who say they’re less likely to vote, 40% cited not liking the candidates for president as a reason. That rose to 55% among voters who have voted regularly in the past but aren’t sure whether they’ll vote this year.
Trump, a Republican, is now running as the first former president convicted of crimes after a jury last month found him guilty of falsifying records in a scheme to conceal payments to a porn actor who alleged they’d had an affair. Biden, a Democrat, is facing criticism from some in his own party over his support for Israel in its war against Hamas, as well as his moves to restrict asylum at the Mexico border. And both are facing questions about their age: Trump is 77 and Biden is 81.
“The presidential election seems to be cutting both ways,” said Mark DiCamillo, the director of the Berkeley IGS poll. “It’s a motivating factor for those who are already on board and likely to vote, but it seems to be inhibiting others.”
Democrats and liberals were more likely than Republicans and conservatives to say that their dislike of the presidential candidates is one reason they may not vote, the poll found.
More than 1 in 3 voters in the state said they weren’t likely to vote because “special interests and big money are controlling things,” and almost 3 in 10 voters said they weren’t well informed about the issues and the candidates.
“It’s clear that when it come to our politics, belief is low and cynicism is high,” Jonathan Mehta Stein, the executive director of California Common Cause, said in a statement.
California’s ballot on Nov. 5 will be a lengthy one, including the presidential election, a growing list of statewide ballot initiatives and several competitive legislative races that could determine which party controls Congress. Some races in purple areas are expected to be won on razor-thin margins.
Overall, the poll found that the groups that appear to be most inclined to vote are over the age of 65, white voters, Republicans, homeowners and those with post-graduate degrees.
The groups in which the fewest people said they were likely to vote include voters who are young, Black or Asian American, have no post-high school education, or are naturalized citizens.
“It’s pretty much what we’ve seen in past elections — that older voters, white voters, the better educated voters are the most likely to turn out,” DiCamillo said.
The likelihood of voter participation varied widely by race, the poll found. Among white respondents, 90% said they were highly likely to vote. The share was 66% among Black voters, 70% among Latino voters and 62% among Asian American voters.
The foundation provided special funding to focus on Asian Americans, California’s fastest-growing demographic group, DiCamillo said.
The poll used voter-roll information to find voters who requested voting materials in Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese, then asked the poll questions in those languages. (The poll always asks questions in both English and Spanish.)
The results give “a better read of those voting constituencies than we’ve ever had in the past,” DiCamillo said, and suggest that there are wide disparities in voting propensity among Asian Americans.
Nearly 2 in 3 Vietnamese Americans described themselves as highly likely to vote. That rate rose to 71% among other Asian American and Pacific Islander groups, including Filipino and Japanese Americans.
By comparison, slightly less than half of Korean Americans and 54% of Chinese Americans said they were likely to vote.
The poll also asked California’s registered voters what could make them more engaged in the general election.
White and Asian American voters were most likely to say that their chances of voting would rise if they felt that “ballot measures or candidates would advance my interests.”
Latinos were most likely to say that their chances of voting would increase if “election results were more trustworthy.” And Black voters most frequently said that they would be more likely to vote if they “had access to an unbiased and trusted source of news about the election.”
Christian Arana, a vice president of the Latino Community Foundation, said in a statement that investment in voter education is crucial to ensure that voters “understand the significance of their vote and the influence they hold.”
Voters under the age of 30 were four times more likely than voters over 65 to say that “getting more information about how and when to vote” could improve their changes of participation.
They were also far more likely to say that their voting behavior could change if voting were more convenient, or if they had assistance from “a person or group that I trust to help me better understand the issues and the candidates.”
DiCamillo cautioned that 78% of respondents rating themselves as highly likely to vote does not mean a prediction of 78% turnout. Most voters have good intentions about voting, he said, “but they probably overestimate it.”
During the 2020 presidential election, more than 80% of registered voters cast a ballot in California, the highest percentage since 1976.
The poll was conducted May 29 to June 4 in five languages. The margin of error for the overall sample of registered voters was estimated to be plus or minus 2 percentage points, and could be higher for subgroups.
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A Republican state senator who spotlighted his support for President Donald Trump and his MAGA agenda is one step closer to succeeding Ken Paxton as Texas attorney general.
State Sen. Mayes Middleton on Tuesday defeated Rep. Chip Roy, one of the most conservative members of the U.S. House, for the Republican attorney general nomination in Texas, the Associated Press reports.
Roy conceded the race shortly after the results came in, saying he had called Middleton to congratulate him.
“Just a little while ago, I called and congratulated @mayes_middleton for his victory in our race for the Republican nominee for Attorney General. I will have a full statement tomorrow. Onward,” Roy wrote on X.
The ballot-box battle between Roy and Middleton, the president of an independent oil and gas company, turned bitter and expensive, and partially became a test of which candidate was more of a fighter for Trump and his America First and MAGA movements.
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State Senator Mayes Middleton, a Republican candidate for Texas Attorney General, speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Grapevine, Texas, on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (Shelby Tauber/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Middleton, who edged Roy in the March primary, dished out roughly $17 million of his own money to back his campaign. But Roy, a former Texas assistant attorney general and former chief of staff to conservative Sen. Ted Cruz, received a late surge in fundraising from major backers.
“We’ve gotten the financial support necessary to compete with my self-funder opponent, who’s got his inheritance money that he can just spend,” Roy highlighted in a Fox News Digital interview on the eve of the runoff.
Roy argued that Middleton’s lack of courtroom experience would make him a poor attorney general.
“Having been the first assistant attorney general makes me ready on day one, but it’s also that I’ve been a prosecutor, I’ve been in court, I’ve sat in front of a judge, stood in front of a judge, argued cases, and he has never done any of those things. And we think those things should matter,” Roy emphasized.
TED CRUZ ENDORSES CHIP ROY FOR TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL: ‘NO ONE BETTER’
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, seen walking up the House steps for a vote in the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, April 16, 2026, has won the GOP nomination for Texas Attorney General. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Middleton pushed back, questioning Roy’s conservative credentials and running ads claiming Roy’s “betrayed MAGA” as he pointed to the times the congressman has broken with Trump over policy.
“Chip Roy is someone that has spent a decade fighting the president. He actually said President Trump committed impeachable conduct on the House floor,” Middleton told Fox News Digital. “Instead of spending 10 years fighting President Trump, what have I done? I’ve spent 10 years fighting to defeat the left, which is what matters the most in this race.”
TEXAS REP CHIP ROY ANNOUNCES RUN FOR STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL TO REPLACE KEN PAXTON
While he stayed neutral in the Republican Attorney General runoff election in Texas, President Donald J. Trump was a key point of contention in the primary battle. (Kyle Mazza/Pool/Sipa USA)
But Roy, in response, said, “Everyone knows that I’m a longtime defender and supporter of the president’s agenda, of the America First agenda, the MAGA agenda, but I’m also an independent thinker who will stand up and make the case.”
And pointing to Middleton, Roy charged, “MAGA is not something you just buy. My opponent thinks you can buy the brand.”
Middleton returned fire, arguing, “Chip Roy is putting out there that he is a top ally to President Trump when the exact opposite is the case.”
Trump stayed neutral in the runoff showdown.
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Middleton will likely face Democratic state Sen. Nathan Johnson, who came close to clinching his party’s nomination in the primary. Johnson was facing off against former Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski.
Paxton decided against seeking re-election, as he ran for the Republican Senate nomination against longtime GOP Sen. John Cornyn.
WASHINGTON — Precarious talks to end the war with Iran appeared close to collapse on Tuesday as renewed fighting across the region threatened to derail fragile progress toward a comprehensive settlement.
U.S. strikes against targets in southern Iran — the first since a ceasefire was declared in the war seven weeks ago — coupled with escalating attacks by Israel in Lebanon have undermined optimism that an agreement was within reach.
The attacks occurred just hours after U.S. and Iranian diplomats arrived in Qatar for peace talks. Iran’s top negotiators left Doha on Tuesday without comment. News of the strikes, and threats of retaliation by Tehran, sent global oil prices soaring back to more than $100 a barrel.
U.S. Central Command described Monday’s actions as “self-defense strikes” that were restrained and modest in scope, targeting missile launch sites and Iranian boats “attempting to emplace mines” in the Strait of Hormuz.
But the attack came as President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been projecting confidence that a framework agreement to end the war could be reached within days. Under the proposed deal, Iran would restore the strait to its prewar status as a free and open international waterway, while both sides entered 60 days of negotiations over the removal of Iran’s nuclear stockpile.
Laying mines in the strait in the 11th hour of the negotiations could signal to the Trump administration that Iran is not serious about reopening traffic there. But the Iranians said Tuesday that renewed U.S. strikes suggest it is Washington that is unprepared to commit to peace.
Iran’s Foreign Mministry condemned what it called “aggressive actions” by the United States, describing them in a statement as a violation of the ceasefire agreement.
“The commission of these aggressive acts — occurring concurrently with the ongoing diplomatic track mediated by Pakistan — has once again exposed the hostile nature and perfidy of the ruling establishment in the United States,” the statement said.
Iran “will not leave any hostile act unanswered,” the ministry added.
Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s elusive supreme leader, declared in a scheduled speech that U.S. allies throughout the Middle East “will no longer serve as a shield” for the American military, suggesting retaliatory strikes against U.S. assets in the region could be imminent.
Prospects for a diplomatic breakthrough were already dim. Over the last week, U.S. and Iranian officials projected optimism while outlining seemingly incompatible visions of a deal.
Trump has repeatedly said Iran would not receive any sanctions relief until its stockpile of fissile material is removed and destroyed. But Iranian officials reiterated Tuesday that unfreezing the country’s overseas assets remains a precondition for continued negotiations.
And it is unclear whether Iran would agree to a peace deal with the United States that does not also restrict the actions of Israel, whose leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has expressed deep skepticism about the diplomatic process.
Netanyahu said in recent days that Israel would not be bound by any nuclear pact, and that his government would continue military action against targets throughout the region — including in Lebanon — as it views necessary.
Israel’s continued assault on Lebanon nearly jeopardized the ceasefire between Iran and the United States before Trump brokered a separate, temporary halt to the fighting there. Since then, however, Israeli strikes have resumed, and Netanyahu vowed to intensify his campaign against Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group.
“We are not removing our foot from the pedal,” Netanyahu said in a video address Monday. “On the contrary, I said to step on the pedal even more.”
Israel’s military ramped up its operations Tuesday, attacking what it said were more than 100 Hezbollah sites across southern and eastern Lebanon, while extending ground incursions deeper into Lebanese territory.
The overnight strikes struck weapons storage facilities, command centers, observation posts and infrastructure sites, according to an Israeli military statement.
Israeli media also reported that Israeli troops were operating beyond a 6.2-mile zone they occupy in southern Lebanon, in what many fear may be a prelude to a wider invasion.
Those fears were further stoked Tuesday by fresh Israeli evacuation orders for the entirety of Nabatiyeh, southern Lebanon’s second-largest city.
Hezbollah upped its campaign as well, peppering Israeli troops in southern Lebanon and areas of northern Israel with drones and rocket attacks, according to statements from the group. Hezbollah-affiliated media reported the group’s fighters clashing with Israeli troops to prevent their advance.
In recent weeks, Hezbollah has increasingly relied on fiber-optic drones — which are both low-cost and impervious to jamming — to harass Israeli positions.
On Sunday, an Israeli soldier was killed and another wounded when a Hezbollah kamikaze drone hit their armored personnel carrier, according to the Israeli military; 23 Israeli soldiers and a civilian defense contractor have been killed in the current conflagration between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel’s military says.
The latest bout of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel began March 2, when the Iran-backed group launched attacks on Israel to avenge the killing of Iran’s ayatollah, Ali Khamenei.
So far, Israeli strikes have killed 3,213 people, wounded more than triple that number, and left more than a million displaced, according to Lebanese health authorities.
A ceasefire signed April 17 sidelined the capital, Beirut, from strikes but has done little to stop the fighting otherwise, with Hezbollah and Israel continuing attacks despite unprecedented direct negotiations taking place between the Israeli and Lebanese governments.
It was unclear whether Netanyahu’s warning meant Beirut would be targeted once more. Israeli drones buzzed throughout the day over the capital and the Hezbollah-dominated southern suburbs Tuesday.
Hezbollah opposes direct negotiations and insists it will keep fighting until Israel withdraws from Lebanon and stops attacks. Israel has demanded the Lebanese government do more to disarm Hezbollah and to move toward a peace deal.
Bulos reported from Beirut.
Politics
Thomas blasts SCOTUS for decision on Florida lawsuit over illegal immigrant truckers with blue-state licenses
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Justice Clarence Thomas accused California and Washington of undermining federal immigration and trucking safety standards after a deadly Florida highway crash, blasting the Supreme Court on Tuesday for refusing to hear a case Florida had “nowhere else to bring.”
Florida alleged the two blue states improperly issued commercial driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants in violation of federal standards requiring English proficiency and lawful immigration status for certain commercial drivers, arguing the policies created a public safety threat on American roads.
Thomas, joined by Justice Samuel Alito, said the Supreme Court had a constitutional obligation to hear the dispute because lawsuits between states can only be brought before the high court.
“If this Court does not exercise jurisdiction over a controversy between two States, then the complaining State has no judicial forum in which to seek relief,” Thomas wrote.
FLORIDA AG ANNOUNCES PROBE OF SANCTUARY JURISDICTIONS THAT GIVE TRUCKING LICENSES TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas speaks during a special lecture at the University of Texas in Austin on April 15, 2026, celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. (Jay Janner/The Austin American-Statesman)
Thomas argued that Florida’s allegations against Washington and California were serious because failing to follow federal commercial licensing laws can create dangerous road conditions and, he said, has contributed to deadly crashes.
Thomas pointed to the fatal Florida highway crash involving truck driver Harjinder Singh, who he said “could not read the road signs,” and argued Florida deserved a chance to pursue its claims.
Singh received CDLs from both California and Washington.
EXCLUSIVE: CAMERAS CAPTURE TRUCKERS UNABLE TO READ ROAD SIGNS, ANSWER BASIC QUESTIONS DURING FLORIDA CRACKDOWN
Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito is pictured in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 7, 2022. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“An illegal alien who cannot read English road signs cannot drive an 80,000-pound tractor-trailer,” Thomas wrote. “Federal law and regulations prohibit States from providing commercial driver’s licenses to applicants unless they pass a driver’s test, sufficiently understand the English language, and show appropriate immigration status.”
Florida filed the lawsuit directly with the Supreme Court under the Court’s original jurisdiction, which gives the justices the sole authority to hear disputes between states.
Thomas said that while the court may be able to exercise discretion in ordinary appeals, lawsuits between states are different because the Constitution gives the Supreme Court exclusive jurisdiction over them.
FLORIDA AG ASKS SUPREME COURT TO ALLOW IT TO CONTINUE ENFORCING CONTROVERSIAL IMMIGRATION LAW
“We have no more right to decline the exercise of jurisdiction which is given, than to usurp that which is not given,” Thomas wrote.
Thomas accused the Supreme Court of failing to abide by the Constitution when it declines to hear disputes between states.
Firefighters respond to a fatal crash in Florida involving Harjinder Singh’s truck, and Singh is shown being cited for speeding in New Mexico on July 3, 2025. (St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office; New Mexico State Police)
“This Court has adopted a discretionary approach to its exclusive original jurisdiction based on policy judgments that are in conflict with the policy choices that Congress made in the statutory text,” Thomas wrote.
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He argued that if Florida, California and Washington were separate countries instead of U.S. states, a dispute over one government allegedly allowing dangerous drivers into another’s territory could create serious diplomatic tension and would likely be handled through international courts or other government action.
“By entering the Union, States agree to instead have such disputes resolved by this Court.”
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