Xavier Becerra Wins California Governor’s Race
Xavier Becerra, a Democrat whose deep experience and steady demeanor helped him navigate a tumultuous primary and chart a safe course in the general election, will be California’s next governor.
The Associated Press called a victory for Becerra over Republican Steve Hilton a minute after polls closed. He will be the first Latino person elected to serve as California governor.
Taking the stage at his election night party in Sacramento on Tuesday night to chants of “Sí, se puede,” Becerra delivered triumphant remarks amid a Democratic surge in races nationwide.
“What a great night to be a Californian,” Becerra said. “What a great night to be an American. To be the son of immigrants from a union household. To be standing in victory with all of you. Now, I’m not going to sugarcoat it. These past two years have been tough. Higher prices, more wars, corruption, and lawlessness. But we hung in there, fought back.”
Becerra is a familiar face in state politics, having represented Los Angeles in Congress for years before serving as California attorney general and the U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services under former President Joe Biden.
Hilton, by contrast, was a political outsider. Born in Britain, he served as an adviser to former U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron and hosted a show on Fox News after moving to the U.S.
An endorsement from President Donald Trump rallied the Republican vote around Hilton in the June primary and boosted him into the general election. He campaigned tirelessly through the summer and fall, holding regular events and media appearances and running ads that made direct appeals to Californians who disliked the president.
It made little difference in a state where 3 in 4 voters disapprove of Trump and where Republicans have not won a statewide office in two decades.
In the lone debate between the candidates, hosted by CNN, Becerra relentlessly reminded viewers of Trump’s endorsement, while Hilton took few steps to decisively break from the president.
It was perhaps the only high-profile moment of an otherwise sleepy general election. Becerra largely stayed out of sight until the final weeks of the race, when he barnstormed the state and promised to look at changes to the tax code or tax increases in order to offset federal health cuts.
“There are breaks that we give people who have money, who know how to come up with these loopholes,” Becerra told KQED’s Political Breakdown. “We have to take a look because right now we have a whole bunch of Californians, millions of Californians, who may lose their healthcare.”
Becerra’s plan for governing the nation’s largest state remains somewhat of an enigma.
He kept a low profile for much of the primary election, when his campaign lagged in single digits, and some party leaders pressured him to drop out of the race.
After then-Rep. Eric Swalwell ended his campaign in the face of sexual assault allegations, leaving the race without its emerging front-runner, Becerra vaulted up the polls.
He eventually edged out his top Democratic rival, investor Tom Steyer.
In the months since, he has revealed only a handful of specific plans for his governorship, including a free daily hour of electricity for low-income residents and a boost in state funding to fireproof homes.
But big issues await him in Sacramento.
The Legislature adjourned without resolving a debate over how utilities and insurance companies should share the cost of destructive wildfires. And Becerra’s administration faces a March deadline to present options for having corporations shoulder more of the cost of Medi-Cal, the state’s healthcare safety net program that was slashed by the federal government last year.
“Despite all our fortune, economic security is slipping out of reach for too many of our families. Despite our shared values, not everyone who builds and harvests the Californian success story gets to enjoy its fruit,” Becerra said at his election night party. “As governor, my mission is straightforward, but not simple. Deliver a California we can afford, and defend a California that we can’t afford to lose.”
Becerra’s election signifies “an extraordinary demographic change and transformation,” said political strategist Mike Madrid.
The governor-elect will take office alongside a Latina president pro tem of the state Senate, Sen. Monique Limon, and a Latino speaker of the state Assembly, Robert Rivas.
“All of this changes the perspective and I believe the priorities — a focus more on blue-collar, economic issues that have always taken a back seat in the last 30 years in California,” Madrid said.