California’s Weird Senate Race Has Republicans Rooting for a Democrat

A dozen Republicans are competing to succeed U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, whose retirement is opening one of California’s two seats for the first time since 1992. But prominent GOP consultants are talking up a Democrat: Representative Loretta Sanchez, a 10-term congresswoman from Orange County, a longtime Republican stronghold.

In 2012, California began holding open primaries. The top two finishers proceed to a November runoff, regardless of their party affiliation. Sanchez has consistently trailed her fellow Democrat, Attorney General Kamala Harris, who’s been endorsed by Governor Jerry Brown and other party leaders. None of the Republican candidates has polled higher than 9 percent, though almost a third of likely voters, including 46 percent of Republicans, remained undecided two weeks before the election, according to the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.