Record-setting outside money pouring into California governor's race

• Outside groups have poured $79.6 million into the California governor’s race ahead of the June 2 primary, shattering past spending records.

• Billionaire Tom Steyer is the prime target, facing $32.3 million in attacks in the face of the $212 million he has donated to his campaign. Former Biden Cabinet member Xavier Becerra has seen growing outside support.

• Independent expenditure committees, supercharged after the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, let big donors donate unlimited amounts of money to efforts to shape messaging and negative ads while skirting direct coordination limits with campaigns.

Corporations, labor unions, tech titans, Native American tribes and other special interests have donated a record-shattering $79.6 million to independent committees focused on swaying the volatile California governor’s race ahead of the June 2 primary.

Many of the largest backers to these committees will have significant business interests in front of the state’s next governor and state agencies, with hopes of either strengthening a candidate aligned with their political priorities or undercutting those who oppose them.

“This is the first time I’ve ever seen IEs [or independent expenditures] have this kind of an impact on a governor’s race,” said veteran GOP strategist Martin Wilson, who has worked on every California gubernatorial contest since 1978 and worked on an outside effort backing San José Mayor Matt Mahan’s 2026 bid for governor. “It’s totally unprecedented.”

Election laws bar independent expenditure committees from communicating or coordinating with campaigns, allowing candidates to emphasize that they have no control over the money that pours into these outside groups. The wall between the two has long been viewed as performative and penetrable.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-05-26/record-setting-outside-money-pouring-into-california-governors-race