A crowded field of seven would-be California governors gathered on Tuesday night in the Bayview for the first debate of the season.
But speaking to a crowd of 300 people at the Bayview Opera House, the six Democrats struggled to differentiate themselves.
Tony Thurmond, California state superintendent, said he would work to abolish Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. Local billionaire and climate activist Tom Steyer, who ran for president in 2020, emphasized affordability. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said he would focus on government transparency.
Former mayor of Los Angeles and speaker of the California assembly Antonio Villaraigosa mentioned his past as a Civil Rights leader and past president of the ACLU. Former state Attorney General Xavier Becerra said that he’d sued President Donald Trump 120 times. Former state controller Betty Yee played to the local audience by repeatedly defining herself as a born-and-raised San Franciscan.
Several candidates mentioned growing up in poverty, and coming from an immigrant family.
“I want to say to our immigrant communities: I see you, I know you, and I hear you,” said Yee. “We’re going to do everything we can to keep you safe. We’re going to be sure that our communities are standing up for you.”
“If you’re a hard-working immigrant, we welcome you,” said Becerra. “That was my parents. They came to this state with $12 in their pocket.”
As far as the crowd was concerned, Becerra was a frontrunner. His answers were often met with cheers, as when he committed to protect California immigrants from ICE. “Tell me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are,” he said, translating a common Spanish phrase.
Xavier Becerra, former United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, greets constituents following the California Gubernatorial Debate at the Bayview Opera House on Feb. 3, 2026. Photo by Mariana Garcia.
The lone Republican, Steve Hilton, did not have to try nearly as hard to stand out.
When the other candidates decried the Trump administration’s deployment of ICE agents, uninvited, to U.S. cities, Hilton picked on current California Gov. Gavin Newsom instead. Newsom’s record on homelessness was “shameful” Hilton said, and his handling of the Palisades fires “outrageous.”
The event was hosted by the Black Action Alliance, an Oakland-based political group co-founded a year ago by venture capitalist Malcolm Goodwin. It was held at the historic Ruth Williams Opera House in Bayview and televised on local Fox stations across the state, reaching around eight million California residents.
Notable candidates who did not appear at the debate included former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, MAGA supporter and Riverside County sheriff Chad Bianco, and former state assemblymember Ian Calderon.
Much of the night was civil and focused on the issues, particularly immigration, education and the high cost of living. The Democratic candidates appeared to speak from the same talking points: They promised, if elected, to deliver more government accountability, to tackle the housing crisis, and to support immigrant communities in the state from federal overreach.
As an immigrant himself, Hilton agreed with the Democrats on the importance of immigrant labor for the state’s economy. But, he added, “We have to enforce the law in California.” Both Hilton and Mahan said that the state needed a better legal path to immigration but also a stronger border.
Mayor Matt Mahan of San Jose, third from left, addresses the crowd at the 2026 California Gubernatorial Debate at the Bayview Opera House on Feb. 3, 2026. Photo by Mariana Garcia.
“It makes sense to have a secure border and know who and what comes into the country — to have orderly immigration,” Mahan told the audience. “But we should not be demonizing people who are here to do the most American thing, which is work hard and create a better future for their kids.”
Hilton criticized prison closure programs, saying they release “tens of thousands of dangerous violent criminals into the community or transferred to county jails that are completely overwhelmed.” This last statement led to boos from the crowd.
Not so, said Steyer. “We come from a place of mass incarceration.” Since 1965, Steyer said, the state built 24 state prisons, and only four new public universities. “We’re coming back from a place where we were absolutely in the wrong.”
The overlap between candidates began to fall apart as the conversation moved on to the high cost of living.
Hilton and Villaraigosa found common ground on their platform that California needs to stop importing gas from countries like Iraq and Ecuador to decrease the price for consumers and decrease carbon emissions. Others disagreed, citing environmental issues. Yee and Thurmond said that the state needed to continue its shift away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy.
Steyer, who is a critic of PG&E, had a different plan.
“We need to import gasoline either from neighboring states like Washington, or we need to buy it, regardless of what Mr. Hilton says, from Asia and have them ship, refine it there and ship it to us.”
All agreed that housing affordability is California voter’s main concern. Yee vowed to speed up approval processes for new housing. Steyer vowed to audit the state’s utilities. “I’m going to go after the electric monopolies that charge us twice as much for electricity as the average in the United States of America,” he said. Thurmond specifically pledged to build at least 2 million new homes in California by 2030.
From left: Tom Steyer, Tony Thurmond, Antonio Villaraigosa and Betty Yee participate in the California Gubernatorial Debate at the Bayview Opera House on Feb. 3, 2026. Photo by Mariana Garcia.
Steyer pledged to allocate at least $15 billion from the state budget every year for healthcare, child care and education.
“California on a cost-adjusted basis spends the 31st most out of the 50 U.S. states,” said Steyer. “And lo and behold, we’re about the 31st best state in terms of education. And that is not nearly good enough.”
According to Fox polls shown on screens in the venue, those watching the debate on TV overwhelmingly supported Hilton — not a huge surprise, given the conservative audience and Hilton’s past as a Fox personality. In the opera house itself, several attendees said they were undecided for now.
“If there were a conglomerate of three candidates, I would vote for them,” said one. “But you can’t do that.”