LOS ANGELES — Xavier Becerra, former President Joe Biden’s health and human services secretary, advanced to November’s general election in California’s gubernatorial race on Friday.
With roughly 66% of the vote counted, Becerra emerged from a crowded field of more than 60 candidates with about 26.7%, according to the Associated Press, inking the first spot for the general. Hot on his heels is Republican Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host, while Democrat Tom Steyer is currently in third, with 26.4% and 21%, respectively. Should that result hold, Hilton would advance to November.
California uses an all-party primary system. If no candidate clears 50%, the top two finishers, regardless of party, advance to a Nov. 3 runoff. It had been a nightmare scenario for Democrats, who feared for weeks that a fractured field could allow two Republicans to claim both spots in the deep-blue state. Democrats make up nearly 45% of registered voters, while Republicans are just over 25%, effectively relegating the GOP to third-party status in a state where independents make up about 30% of the electorate.
California’s last Republican governor was Arnold Schwarzenegger, who left office in 2011. The candidates are competing to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), who is term-limited and widely expected to launch a 2028 presidential bid.
Becerra, who had been polling in the single digits less than two months ago, surged to the top after Eric Swalwell collapsed politically following allegations of sexual misconduct and assault. Swalwell resigned from Congress and exited the gubernatorial race, in which he had been the leading Democratic contender. Since then, Becerra has risen in a contest defined by political newcomers, controversy, and chaos.
The 68-year-old Sacramento resident brings decades of public service to the race. His resume includes a stint in the California Assembly, 24 years representing Los Angeles in Congress, being the state attorney general, and holding a Cabinet role in the Biden administration.
Hilton, a onetime adviser to former British Prime Minister David Cameron, has ranked in the top two in nearly every poll conducted this year. He has campaigned across every region of California, boasts the largest number of individual donors, and ranks third in fundraising behind Steyer, a billionaire who poured millions into his own campaign, and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, who drew support from wealthy Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs.
Hilton’s campaign stops have often been crowded and energetic. He has argued that 16 years of Democratic control in California has eroded the quality of life across the state. His campaign has centered on homelessness, drugs, crime, human trafficking, free healthcare for undocumented immigrants, and soaring gas prices as evidence of what he describes as the state’s decline.
Steyer, who pledged to be the “billionaire who can take on the billionaires,” has the backing of progressive groups and figures such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich.
Steyer’s wealth, how he became rich, and his ties to the fossil fuel industry have become focal points in the race, as voters are concerned about the growing influence of billionaires in California. Steyer, who was the chief executive of Farallon Capital, one of the nation’s largest hedge funds, left the firm in 2012 to “focus full-time on fighting climate change.”
Despite his comments that he made a hard pivot, financial records show he never fully cut ties with the firm he founded, even as it became a major lender to the coal industry after mainstream banks faced pressure to stop funding coal mining.
His tax returns from 2021 to 2024, which collectively totaled more than 5,100 pages, showed that he was still invested in several of the firm’s funds. His campaign said that his holdings in Farallon were now worth $34.7 million.
“He remains a passive investor,” the campaign said in a statement.
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President Donald Trump has already endorsed Hilton, writing on social media that he has known the London-born conservative commentator for years and describing him as “a truly fine man” capable of turning around a state burdened by notoriously high taxes. California, Trump wrote, “has gone to hell.” He also pointed to many of the state’s problems and blamed Newsom for them. Newsom has rejected those criticisms, saying Trump needs to update his talking points.
Newsom declined to endorse a candidate in the primary, despite pressure from Democrats to intervene or at least bring order to the race. He is widely expected to support Becerra in the general election.
