There’s been some major movement less than one month before the primary elections in California, and it has Democrats worried.

The California Secretary of State’s office has released the official report on the number of ballots returned so far in the June primary.

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The data shows that Republicans are surging so far, stoking fear among Democrats ahead of the June 2 primaries in the deep blue state.

The report shows the Republican share of “early” voters in California has spiked and is running more than 9 percent above voter registration.

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The report also shows that Democratic turnout is way down. Below is a breakdown of the numbers:

‍–Democrat Share of Early Ballot Returns

41% (down 7% from 2022)

–Republican Share of Early Ballot Returns

34% (up 8% from 2022)

–Independent Share of Early Ballot Returns

25% (up 2% from 2022)

Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, a San Diego Republican, cautioned against over-interpreting the numbers but said the trend is encouraging for conservatives.

“When you take a look at the numbers, both in comparison to the numbers four years ago and voter registration, Democrats are way down and Republicans are up in early voting,” DeMaio told The Post.

“It may mean that many Democrats are taking longer to decide on the governor’s race and who ultimately they want to lead,” DeMaio added.

Paul Mitchell with Political Data Inc. noted that it’s still early in the election period.

“The early days part is important because some of what we’re seeing is which counties are quicker at returning the data to us,” Mitchell said.

While that is true, older, conservative voters and landlords who are Republicans have voted more than any other party.

4.3% of people aged 65 and up went to the polls. People aged 50 to 64 made up 2%, people aged 35 to 49 made up 1.1%, and people aged 18 to 34 made up 0.7%.

“It’s kind of typical of a low-turnout election that these are the people that always vote in every election. They probably almost always vote early, and they’re getting their ballots in right away,” Mitchell said.

The tracker shows that 2.6% of votes were white, making them the most common racial group. 2.3% were Asian, 1.6% were Black, and 1.2% were Latino.

Mitchell said that the patterns seen in early voting don’t always hold up at the end of the voting process.

“We see these patterns where some voters still want to vote at the polls,” he said, noting older Latinos in particular.

Mitchell said that in the past, older voters were some of the first to use mail-in ballots, and a lot of those early users were Republicans.

“We did see some stuff in 2020 when Republicans and the Trump administration said ‘Don’t vote by mail,’ where that started to drop off. But it seems like it might be returning,” he said.

Mitchell also said that the primary races for governor are usually the ones with the fewest voters. He said that most people turn in their ballots at the end of the election term.

For people in rural areas who want to make sure their ballots are stamped in time to be counted, the Postal Service tells them to vote at least a week before they mail them back.

People are paying close attention to the race for governor.

For the Democrats, former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, progressive billionaire Tom Steyer, and former Orange County congresswoman Katie Porter are at the top of the field. In recent weeks, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa have been more negative.

Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host, seems to have a strong lead over Chad Bianco for sheriff of Riverside County on the Republican side.

Most polls show that Becerra and Hilton are the most likely candidates to make it out of the state’s “jungle” primary system.

This system doesn’t care about party membership and has made people on both sides of the political spectrum nervous about not making it to the November runoff.

Acting AG Blanche Fires Back at Obama’s DOJ Criticism

Posted July 21, 2026

Former President Barack Obama sharply criticized the Trump administration this week over what he described as growing political influence inside the United States Department of Justice, prompting an aggressive response from Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche defending both the administration’s prosecutions and President Donald Trump’s authority over the executive branch.

The escalating public dispute comes as the Justice Department faces mounting scrutiny over a series of criminal investigations and indictments involving several longtime Trump critics and political adversaries, including former FBI Director James Comey.

Obama raised the issue during an interview with Stephen Colbert on CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert that aired Monday night.

“The White House shouldn’t be able to direct the attorney general to go around prosecuting whoever,” Obama said during the interview. “The idea is that the attorney general is the people’s lawyer. It’s not the president’s consigliere.”

Obama suggested the principle of DOJ independence may ultimately need to be codified into law by Congress, arguing that the justice system risks becoming politicized if presidents are perceived as directly targeting political opponents through federal prosecutions.

The comments immediately triggered pushback from the Trump administration.

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson accused Obama of hypocrisy, arguing that his administration played a central role in the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation.

“Barack Hussein Obama is the king of weaponization,” Jackson said in a statement, referencing declassified documents related to the FBI’s Russia probe.

But the administration’s most extensive response came Wednesday from Blanche during an interview with CBS News in Phoenix.

Blanche forcefully rejected accusations that the DOJ is engaged in political retaliation and defended the president’s constitutional authority over the executive branch.

“Article Two says, ‘the executive power shall be vested in the President of the United States of America,’” Blanche said while holding a pocket copy of the Constitution during the interview. “It does not say that the Attorney General stands off to the side.”

Blanche emphasized that the attorney general serves within the executive branch and argued that presidents are fully entitled to direct priorities involving law enforcement, immigration, drugs, and national security.

“To the extent that President Trump calls me and says that he thinks we have a problem in this country, whether it’s the scourge of drugs, illegal immigration, every American wants him to do that,” Blanche said. “And he should.”

The acting attorney general also dismissed accusations that the DOJ is pursuing politically motivated cases against Trump critics.

“We are absolutely doing nothing but what we should be doing at the Department of Justice,” Blanche said. “I wake up with a very clean conscience every morning.”

The public clash comes amid multiple high-profile investigations involving Trump adversaries.

Most notably, Comey was recently indicted after prosecutors alleged a 2025 Instagram post featuring seashells arranged to form the numbers “86 47” constituted a threat against Trump, the 47th president. Prosecutors argue “86” is commonly understood slang meaning “to eliminate” or “get rid of.”

Blanche defended the case, arguing threats against the president must be treated seriously given recent assassination attempts and escalating political extremism.

Last year, Trump publicly urged then-Attorney General Pam Bondi to pursue prosecutions against Comey, James, and Sen. Adam Schiff, writing on social media that “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED.”

Blanche declined to discuss private conversations with Trump when asked whether the president personally directed prosecutions.

“But rest assured,” Blanche said, “he has much better, bigger and important things to do than to worry about me doing my job.”

Blanche also turned Democrats’ criticism back against them by pointing to the multiple criminal prosecutions Trump himself faced before returning to office, including cases brought by state prosecutors in New York and Georgia as well as federal investigations overseen by Special Counsel Jack Smith.

“So I welcome criticism. Let’s go,” Blanche said. “But if you’re sitting in a glass house, you ought not throw stones.”