Revenge of the Normie Libs

Xavier Becerra
Xavier Becerra in California, April 2026. Photo: Leon Bennett/Getty Images for CBS Television Stations
Peter Hamby
June 3, 2026

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For all the talk of anti-establishment fervor inside the Democratic Party—calls for generational change, pitchfork mobs coming for Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, insurgent populists muscling aside moderates—California’s primaries this week were a triumph of machine politics and a sign that Democratic voters were more interested in pragmatism than big promises.