Former Rep. Katie Porter is leading other candidates for California governor, but the contest is still anyone’s game with nearly half of surveyed voters undecided, according to the latest independent poll Tuesday of the nascent race to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2026.

The newly-released survey of nearly 5,000 registered voters throughout California by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies echoes several other polls that have found enthusiasm for Porter, a former Orange County congresswoman who left Congress in January after she ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate last year.

Porter received 17% of the voters’ first picks. Trailing her were Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican, at 10%, and former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, a Demo

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