Voters in California and Iowa are headed to the polls on Tuesday for some key primary races, including the buzzworthy Los Angeles mayoral race. CBS News' Julie Watts and Lana Zak have more. Several states across the country are holding primary elections today.
This includes Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota, Iowa, New Jersey, and of course, California. Polls are going to open soon for voters to cast ballots in a series of competitive and expensive open primary races. Let's bring in CBS News correspondent Julie Watts.
So, Julie, I want to start with California's race for governor. Which two candidates in what's a very crowded contest, do you think, is going to advance to November and why? Because this is a jungle primary, if memory serves.
Yes, so you don't have to have a Democrat or Republican. And if I knew which two, I would be a rich woman. Right now, the betting markets, they're favoring Xavier Becerra, President Biden's former HHS Secretary, and Steve Hilton, former Fox News commentator and former advisor to a British prime minister.
But the latest polls show billionaire investor Tom Steyer is surging. And that race is pretty close. So we really, realistically, could see any of those three in the top two.
Now, I do want to note President Trump is urging Californians to vote for Hilton today on Truth Social, saying that he would work with his administration to bring federal resources. Hilton has been voicing concern over the last couple of days that too many Republicans might actually vote for the other top polling Republican in the race, Chad Bianco. He's a Riverside sheriff.
And he's afraid that we may end up with two Democrats in those two top spots. So he's really urging Republicans to get out and vote. And clearly, President Trump is urging folks to vote for Hilton as well, so that they don't see two Democrats in those two top spots.
So let's talk about the Los Angeles mayor's race, Julie. I was talking to my colleagues at CBS Mornings, Gayle King and Nate Burleson. And I was saying that although it seems surprising that somebody who has no executive management experience like Spencer Pratt, but could ride a populist wave to the mayor's office, is not all that different.
I mean, it's happened before in California. We saw Clint Eastwood– people forget Clint Eastwood was the mayor of Carmel, right? Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor.
You had even– I reminded Gayle that Ronald Reagan, before he became governor, was president of the Screen Actors Guild. He hadn't really done anything. So it's not uncommon.
What are his chances? Again, prediction markets. It depends on who you ask.
I think he thinks he'll definitely advance. Prediction markets right now give incumbent mayor and former congressmember Karen Bass a significant edge. But that reality TV personality Spencer Pratt and the Los Angeles City Council member Nithya Raman both competing pretty closely there.
Recent polls show, frankly, all three of them separated by just a few percentage points. So again, betting markets have Bass way ahead, but the polling shows all three are very close together. And to hear Spencer Pratt tell it, he's going to get more than 50% of the vote.
Take a listen. SPENCER PRATT: I'm confident I'm probably going to win with 51% on June 2 because I don't do a political message, I don't do national politics, I don't do tribal politics, I don't talk about other states. I just want to fix our streets, get the lights on.
I want people to feel safe. My message isn't political. It's common sense.
So honestly, guys, I think, really, we're probably not going to know today or even tomorrow in either of these races because they are so close. And frankly, California is a mostly mail-in ballot state, and most of those ballots are still out. A lot of folks holding onto those ballots until the very end.
So it could be interesting, and it could be a long few days for California to figure out who our next governor and who the next LA mayor is– or, well, actually, let me rephrase it– who the top two candidates to be the next governor and LA mayor are. KELLY O'GRADY: Yeah, Julia, he's definitely run a very interesting and buzzworthy campaign on social media. So I'm very curious to see how this all sifts out today.
All right, Julie Watts, thank you so much. And a reminder, you can stream CBS News California's coverage of that state's primaries later tonight. That begins at 11: 00 PM Eastern, 8: 00 Pacific, right here on CBS News 24/7.
And CBS News national correspondent Lana Zak is following today's primaries in Iowa. So, Lana, walk us through the key races that are happening there today. Well, it's going to be a very interesting opening move for Democrats when we see who Iowa Democrats– excuse me– ultimately decide should represent them in this uncontested Senate race.
For the first time, there's not going to be an incumbent because Joni Ernst is stepping aside. So we're going to be looking to see who Iowa Dems are choosing as the next definition of Democrats from the Midwest, whether it is going to be Josh Turek, who represents more of the working class voters and has really been appealing to the difficulties from his own personal narrative that he has experienced. He's running more as a moderate.
Chuck Schumer and other Democrats have said, on a national level, they think that he is the best chance for Democrats to recapture that seat. They haven't held that in Republican Iowa for a very long time. He's running against Zach Wahls, who is a progressive.
Zach Wahls is also running on a lot of those affordability issues. He has taken the interesting position, however, of opposing Chuck Schumer. So he's trying to run against him on that front.
So we'll see what Democrats decide on that. That person is going to go up against the Republican. That's largely uncontested.
But when we're talking about the Republican races in the primary, where it becomes very interesting is going to be who they choose in the governor's race. What I'm really watching is Randy Feenstra. He has received Trump's nomination just in the last hour.
He's up against Zach Lahn, who has been surging in the polls here recently. Lahn is more of a conservative. He has received a lot of endorsements from people who are traditionally in the MAGA base, including Turning Point USA.
That's Charlie Kirk's organization. And even today, he's still running on those MAGA ideals, even though he has not received President Trump's endorsement. So we're going to see, with Feenstra, how that plays out, given that he's gotten President Trump's endorsement, but has been really criticized for not showing up to any of these debates.
Another interesting thing, guys, we might not know the answer to that because 35% of voters have to endorse one of those primary candidates. Otherwise, it's going to be settled at the convention. Lana, you spoke to some Iowa residents recently.
What are some of the top issues on their mind? Well, Vlad, whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, what you're going to try and appeal to voters in the Midwest, particularly in Iowa, is going to be on those economic issues. I'm going to play you a little bit of sound from Helen Hill.
She is a grandmother who is dining with Katharine Cummings, her granddaughter, at the Hambergen. Katharine is just at the age where she's going to start voting. Here's what they have to say.
HELEN HILL: I'm a little nervous now. Things are expensive. You have to think twice about what you're doing.
I'm concerned about gas prices for sure. Being in Iowa, we don't have a lot of transportation options. And so gas is something that I know a lot of people rely on to get around to go places.
And seeing that be amplified for so many people in my life has been kind of a– – So those gas prices, that's really hurting President Trump and cutting into his base. That's where moderates think they may have the advantage. We'll see if voters agree after they vote in this primary.
Guys, I'll send it back to you. All right, Lana, thank you very much.