It's March 24th, and do you know what that means?!
IT'S CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR DEBATE NIGHT, SQUEEE!!!!!
Wait...whut?
There's no debate? But we've all so been looking forward to it!
Okay. I lied. There's no way I want to see Swalwell and Katie Porter onstage together - that's too barftastic even for a 1.5l bottle to handle.
But I could probably get into some lowlights of them and whoever else made it up there afterwards for pure comedy and ick factor.
I don't understand what happened, but what did happen is so totally California that it would only happen there.
They canceled the University of Southern California gubernatorial debate with less than 24 hours to go because there were no candidates of color invited.
Seriously.
A planned California gubernatorial debate for Tuesday night was abruptly canceled less than 24 hours before the event, amid controversy that no candidates of color were among those invited to participate.
In a statement released late Monday night, a USC spokesperson said it will “look for other opportunities to educate voters on the candidates and issues.” But the debate planned with ABC for Tuesday evening was nixed.
In theory, there were going to be the six most viable candidate bodies onstage...
...The six candidates invited to participate were Republicans Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton, along with Democrats Matt Mahan, Katie Porter, Tom Steyer and Eric Swalwell.
...all chosen by one of those complicated formulas the political science-types use and a blind scoring method.
Polling percentage and fundraising were used to determine a candidate’s viability formula, according to the methodology. The polling percentage was determined by the most recent Public Policy Institute of California survey, and the fundraising component took the total amount raised divided by the number of days a candidate was in the race. Polling, though, was weighted more than fundraising because that “is a snapshot measure of actual voters’ opinions,” the methodology said.
And that formula for scoring candidates, Grose said, was done blindly — meaning it was put together without looking at actual figures and how candidates would score.
Setting the number at 6 naturally meant someone got no invitation to the party and the WAAHS! started for boycotts, etc., from legislators, to chairs of various ethnic organizations, and caucuses.
...That meant, former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former state Controller Betty Yee were not invited to participate.
To their credit, the academics pushed back against the excluded candidates' inclusion tantrums for the math, but to no avail over #HurtFeelingz.
...“Substantive disagreement over scholarship is the lifeblood of the university,” the letter said.
“All of us expect and welcome critical engagement from inside and outside the academy. What Professor Grose has faced, however, is not substantive or methodological debate. Attacks and insinuations from members of the political classes include completely baseless allegations of election-rigging, inconsistency, bias and data manipulation. These are harmful character assassinations, not substantive debate. They are of a piece with other attempts to strong-arm or malign scholars that have become all too common in America.”
“Whatever their intent, the effect of these attacks is to diminish academic freedom and chill scholarly willingness to add their voices to the public square. It is imperative that universities defend their faculties’ integrity when it is unfairly attacked.”
USC was forced to cancel the debate by the party in power.
— Michael Jester (@MichaelJester) March 24, 2026
The party in power had a racist tantrum and used the power of the legislature to shut down the entire exercise.
‼️Shocking to cancel tonight’s Governor’s debate
— Elizabeth Barcohana (@E_Barcohana) March 24, 2026
California voters deserve to hear from the candidates directly; hiding from us is disrespectful to the electorate and the democratic process.
Debate hosts regularly set criteria to qualify, including polling and fundraising… https://t.co/rNmxTpLOs0
Debate hosts regularly set criteria to qualify, including polling and fundraising minimums. USC did nothing unusual.
Making race a criteria is racist.
This is election interference by the @CA_Dem Legislature pressuring USC.
Now no one can debate.
Like children having a tantrum.
Or...were they really that worried about not having a Hispanic or the strange Chinese lady onstage?
Maybe it was something else entirely.
.@USC, my alma mater, cancels the gubernatorial debate planned for tonight amid complaints that “candidates of color” were left out, + the two GOP candidates could emerge from the primary. @TeamSteveHilton, the leading candidate is calling on Trump to defund USC over it. pic.twitter.com/tzlOXqONiK
— Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) March 24, 2026
Who's to say for sure?
Might have been something to do with deplatforming the two front-running Republicans, and the low-polling Dems were a good woke excuse to scream about pulling the plug.
🚨 California Democrat incompetence strikes again:
— Mike Netter (@nettermike) March 24, 2026
From @SteveHiltonx @TeamSteveHilton
Heading to LA for tonight's debate - which has just been CANCELED because LPDs (Low Polling Democrats) whined about being excluded. Democrats ALWAYS put the political insiders ahead of the… pic.twitter.com/wUePyw7W4X
In any event, the event is off, not to be reattempted, the math formula is trashed, and no one's going to see anybody live.
It does seem like a desperation move, and shameless CA Dems, who had the most to lose up on that stage, are just the ones to virtue-signal as they yank everyone off of it.
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