Replacing a veteran U.S. Senator won’t be simple in the Golden State.

On January 8th the veteran California Democratic Senator, Barbara Boxer, announced that she would not be seeking re-election in 2016, sparking intense speculation over potential candidates for her replacement. Renée Van Vechten writes that as a highly contested ballot, the election to replace Boxer is likely to be very expensive. In addition, while California leans heavily Democratic, 2016’s top-two or ‘jungle primary’ could be disrupted by a strong Republican candidate splitting Democratic votes. With this in mind, she argues that the current front-runner, Attorney General Kamala Harris, may face an uphill battle to win one of the two top spots on the 2016 ballot.