Editorial: In California, many voters see no party worth rooting for

According to the most recent statistics, nearly 5.3 million voters in California declined to state a party preference. That 23% of Golden State voters have made official their disdain for both the GOP and Democratic brands is no surprise. For Californians whose decisions aren't dictated by their lifelong allegiance to one party or the other - who judge politicians by their accomplishments - it's often hard to find many office-seekers or incumbents to root for.

Few prominent California Republicans can bring themselves to acknowledge the reckless, erratic way that President Trump governs. They downplay his imperiling public health by putting people in power who somehow think vaccinations - which have saved billions of lives - do more harm than good. They look away from the fact that in his five-plus years as president, he's never honored his 2016 promises to bring down the federal deficit that threatens ruin. And not nearly enough admit that his clumsy, inept war with Iran goes against his years of vowing to keep America out of still more Mideast conflicts.

But outside of San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former Bay Area state Sen. Steve Glazer, few prominent California Democrats can bring themselves to acknowledge this fact: Since their party consolidated control of state and big-city governments over the last 20 years, life in the Golden State has gotten worse for most residents.

Instead, many Democrats reflexively depict criticism of the state as reflecting MAGA disdain for a proudly progressive state.

The easiest way to show the dishonesty of this framing is to look at studies of state performance in K-12 education. The comprehensive overview by U.S. News & World Report shows California does the worst job of any of the 15 most populated states in preparing K-12 students for college.

Which states do the best? Progressive, affluent, diverse states with much in common with the Golden State. New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Illinois are four of the five highest ranked.

What did their elected leaders do that ours didn't? They passed laws that mandated careful attention to student performance. They emphasized accountability - for students, teachers, principals and schools alike.

In 2017, the state debuted the California School Dashboard, billed as a one-stop online shop for parents who wanted to know more about local schools. But independent evaluations of the Dashboard - starting with those done by journalists and researchers at EdSource, LA School Report and Education Trust-West - found it was far less helpful in gauging school quality than the Academic Performance Index it replaced.

That this was by design should infuriate any Californian. That it doesn't seem to infuriate many Democrats is telling. So long as most incumbents espouse the right values about reproductive rights, immigrants, diversity and the environment, that's good enough. But the far superior performance of schools in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Illinois shows that it shouldn't be. Low expectations beget poor results.

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This story was originally published June 22, 2026 at 12:40 PM.