Somebody's Panicking: Bipartisan Effort to Reform CA’s Top-Two Primary System Underway

A bipartisan effort to reform California’s “jungle primary” system, in which the top two vote-getters in the primary advance to the November general election regardless of party affiliation, is underway amid concerns the process can leave candidates from an entire political party shut out of the general election.

Veteran Sacramento-based Democratic strategist Steven Maviglio has teamed with former California Republican Party Chair Ron Nehring to launch the “Undo the Top Two” campaign, with the goal of getting an initiative onto the November 2028 ballot to reform the system.

California’s way of determining which two candidates get to move on to the general election — the result of Proposition 14 in 2010 — is uncommon. Voters that year approved changes, which were pushed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, in an attempt to give moderate candidates in each party a greater chance of advancing to the general election.

But Maviglio, who opposed the jungle primary concept from the start, said the intended effect never panned out, and this year’s gubernatorial race has put a spotlight on its flaws.

The crowded field of Democratic candidates for governor in 2026 raised concerns among some party insiders that Democrats might split the vote enough that two Republicans would end up in the top spots and advance to the runoff while Democrats get shut out of the November election.