Democrat Kamala Harris holds stunning 25 point lead in Senate race in California [View all]

By Daily News Bin | June 28, 2016 |

The 2016 Senate race in California has been an unusual one, both in the sense that it’s the first time a Senate seat has been vacated in the state in decades with the retirement of democrat Barbara Boxer, and in that the the top two contenders to succeed her both happen to democrats as well. California Attorney General Kamala Harris and Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez were the top to vote getters in the Senate primary race, and now it turns out Harris has a staggeringly large lead heading into the general election.

The state of California uses an uncommon format which stipulates that the top two vote getters in the Senate primary race will face each other in the general election, regardless of party. That means all the republican candidates have already been eliminated from the race, and that the seat is guaranteed to remain in the hands of the Democratic Party once the votes are tallied in November. Still, there has been some debate as to whether the more liberal Harris or the more moderate Sanchez might have the edge in a head to head matchup; some had speculated that republican voters in the state might turn out for Sanchez just to try to keep things from veering left.

However, the first post-primary polling suggests that there is no such trend underway. Kamala Harris is polling at 47% statewide, while Loretta Sanchez is polling at just 22%, according to Los Angeles Times polling this month. Another 26% of registered voters, most of them republicans, say they don’t plan to participate in the choice between the two democratic candidates at all, with just 5% listing themselves as undecided.

That gives Kamala Harris a stunning twenty-five point lead, suggesting she could enter the United States Senate with one of the larger blowout wins in recent memory. Still, there are four months until voting day, and there may be time for Loretta Sanchez to find a way to close what is essentially a two-to-one gap in the polls. But Harris is clearly in the drivers seat for now.

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