Republican James Bradley in ‘Striking Distance’ of California Senate Slot

Republican James Bradley is within “striking distance” of second place in the California primary for U.S. Senate, according to the latest University of California Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies (IGS) poll.

According to the poll, which was released June 1, incumbent Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is comfortably in first place with 36% of support from likely voters. State Sen. Kevin de Léon is second, with 11%, while Bradley is in third place, with 7% — behind De Léon by a margin that is just outside the poll’s 3.5% margin of error.

Fully 25% of the voters are still undecided, and there are a large number of other Republican and Democratic candidates who split the rest of the vote between them.

Bradley, a political outsider and veteran, also polled near second place in a Berkeley IGS poll in April. His repeat performance proves that the first poll was not a fluke — but he will need to finish strong to qualify for the general election.

Under the rules of California’s “top two” or “jungle” primary system, all voters — regardless of party registration — vote for all candidates in a common pool. The top two finishers advance to the general election, regardless of party. There is a chance for an all-Democrat final, but if Bradley — or another Republican — can catch De Léon, the general election will resemble a more traditional Democrat-versus-Republican race.

Breitbart News Tonight spoke to Bradley in April:

Republicans hope that at least one of their members qualifies for the November ballot in a statewide race, because that could bring more Republican voters to the polls, which would help save several vulnerable congressional seats.

That, in turn, would help keep Congress in Republican hands, and keep Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) out of the Speaker’s chair.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named to Forward’s 50 “most influential” Jews in 2017. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.