Why California’s most important political party is the one that isn’t | Opinion
.JPG "No Party Preference congressional candidate Kevin Kiley addresses supporters at Fourscore Coffee in Roseville on primary election night, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. Voters with no party preference disproportionately skipped the election.")
In California politics, the most important political party can be the one that isn’t.
While Republicans and Democrats fought it out in the June 2nd election over which candidates advance to the November general election, Californians who affiliate with neither party disproportionately stayed home.
The 5.3 million Californians registered as No Party Preference nearly rival the Republican Party and its 5.8 million faithful. Yet the vast NPP electorate is banished to a form of political steerage, orphans in a society increasingly dominated by bitter and ever-deepening partisanship.
That’s frankly too bad. No Party Preference voters can be the mysterious middle of California politics. They are notoriously fickle on any given ballot yet powerful enough to sway the outcome if so moved.
The two dominant parties will never grant NPP voters equal status, leaving the nation stuck in a political duopoly. Meanwhile, California’s pundit class keeps wringing its hands over whether our primary system should always produce one Republican and one Democrat in the runoff, while millions of voters who could serve as the state’s moderating force are left out of the conversation.
“They always have lower turnout,” said Paul Mitchell, the election consultant who helped Democrats redraw the congressional maps that California voters approved in November via Proposition 50. “It’s probably a function of their age.”
Of the ballots cast by NPP voters as of Tuesday, about 24% of NPP voters in California had theirs counted. Meanwhile, election offices have counted 40% of Republican ballots and 39% of Democratic ballots.
The NPP crowd “really doesn’t think that the primaries are for them,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell is right in that those without a party skew somewhat younger. According to a review by the Public Policy Institute of California, 23% of NPP Californians are under age 35 compared to 21% of all likely voters.
Preferring no party is the only thing these NPP voters have in common. “They’re not a monolith,” Mitchell said.
These go-it-alone folks do have their extremes. About 29% self-identify as liberal, 21% as conservative. That leaves a majority, 51% identifying as moderates. And this is what sets this bloc of voters apart in polarized California.
Only 22% of Republicans, by contrast, describe themselves as moderates. Slightly more Democrats, 31%, identify in the middle.
When Californians speak decisively in an election, it’s because those without a party find their voice. That’s undoubtedly what happened, for example, when about 70% of California voters wanted stiffer penalties for repeat petty thefts, and treatment for fentanyl users as an option instead of a longer time in jail, the guts of Proposition 36 in 2024.
Our current primary system rewards the top two vote-getters heading to the November runoff regardless of party affiliation. That is why in the 6th Congressional District in Yolo, Sacramento and Placer counties, NPP candidate Kevin Kiley of Rocklin (formerly a Republican) will face Democrat Richard Pan in the November runoff. Likewise, all signs are that two Democrats, incumbent Doris Matsui and challenger Mai Vang, will face one another come November to represent the 7th Congressional District.
If NPP voters sat out the June 2 election because the parties produced underwhelming candidates, who can blame them? But any democracy works best when its citizens participate. Our millions of voters without a party can help us find that lonely political center when they decide to show up.
This story was originally published June 10, 2026 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Why California’s most important political party is the one that isn’t | Opinion."