As we reported, it’s pretty astonishing to see two Republicans at the top of the polling for the California governor’s race.
CALIFORNIA POLL – Governor (top two advance)
🟥 Chad Bianco: 16%
🟥 Steve Hilton: 15
🟦 Eric Swalwell: 14%
🟦 Katie Porter: 13%
🟦 Tom Steyer: 8%
🟦 Matt Mahan: 3%RBI Strat. for Labor Union (Dem) | 1/25-29 pic.twitter.com/el0LneznD4
— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) February 13, 2026
That’s a Democrat-aligned poll. Other polling had the Republicans up as well, with a lot undecided.
READ MORE: California Could Do the Funniest Thing: GOP Leading 2026 Governor Polls
Now, part of that is Democrats have done such a bad job, and many are just tired of it.
Another part is that the Democratic vote is split across the various Democrats, with the top Democrats appealing to various factions in their party. Right now, it looks like they’d rather fight than come together on a consolidated candidate.
One good example of that was the attack ad that billionaire Tom Steyer posted about Rep. Eric Swalwell (CA-15).
Call me old-fashioned, but you typically need to show up to work to get a promotion. pic.twitter.com/Ol2U8OTO41
— Tom Steyer (@TomSteyer) February 13, 2026
“Call me old-fashioned, but you typically need to show up to work to get a promotion,” Steyer jabbed. The video included clips of Swalwell swimming and lifting weights during the summer recess of 2025, saying he should be working. But it also noted how he’d missed 95 votes.
“In 2025, Eric Swalwell missed 95 votes. That’s more than Rep. Raul Grijalva missed. Rep. Grijalva died in March of 2025. Since declaring for governor, Eric Swalwell has missed 68 percent of the votes it’s his job to take. He hasn’t been showing up to work, and now he’s asking for a promotion.”
It’s actually even worse than Steyer says.
Data from the nonpartisan Congress-tracking website GovTrack shows that Swalwell missed 102 of 139, or 73 percent, of roll call votes between Sept. 19, 2025, and Feb. 9, 2026.
So that’s a good point. We’ve actually reported on that before.
READ MORE: Swalwell Tries to Challenge Greg Gutfeld for Poking Fun at Lame Gym Videos, Embarrasses Himself Instead
Those facts, though, ticked off some of the other Democrats, including Rep. Jimmy Gomez (CA-34), who called Steyer “angry,” and an “old-timer.”
I’m starting to see a pattern. Every time a new poll drops, old-timer Tom gets angry. pic.twitter.com/0Nf7PTagAa
— Jimmy Gomez (@JimmyGomezCA) February 13, 2026
Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), who had been Swalwell’s national campaign chairman during his failed 2020 presidential campaign, was not a happy camper.
Tom, while you were sitting in your $30 million house on Jan 6, Eric Swalwell was with me on the floor of the House – fighting to save our Democracy from a mob.
If you want to know why people don’t like Billionaires, it’s crap like this. https://t.co/ll0DkZV0bB
— Ruben Gallego (@RubenGallego) February 13, 2026
“Tom, while you were sitting in your $30 million house on Jan 6, Eric Swalwell was with me on the floor of the House — fighting to save our Democracy from a mob,” Gallego retorted. “If you want to know why people don’t like Billionaires, it’s crap like this.”
“Fighting to save our democracy?” What were they doing, holding people off at the door? What a bizarre comment. Of course, it doesn’t answer the basic problem that Steyer pointed out, about voting and Swalwell not doing his job.
The best response to Gallego was this one, depicting Gallego and Swalwell, shirtless on camels together during a trip to Qatar in 2021.
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) February 13, 2026
Gotta love Democrats fighting each other and proving how they’re not worthy of the job.
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