Democratic candidates for governor offered their solutions to the affordability crisis in California on Friday, Feb. 20, 2026, at the state party convention in San Francisco. This rally was in January at the state Capitol in support of Assembly Bill 1157, which would cap rental rate increases to a maximum of 5%.
NATHANIEL LEVINE
nlevine@sacbee.com
San Francisco
The nine major Democratic candidates running for governor spoke about how they would tackle “affordability,” a shorthand term for tackling California’s ever-increasing rents, mortgages, utility prices and other topics as party faithful gathered for the state Democratic Party convention in San Francisco.
The candidates spoke at a fireside chat on Friday at the Commonwealth Club in the Embarcadero neighborhood, moderated by local Democratic Party chair Nancy Tung. Most voters remain undecided, even as the filing deadline looms in early March, making it unlikely that any one candidate will secure the party endorsement this weekend.
Some fear that the state’s jungle primary system, which allows the two top vote getters regardless of party affiliation to proceed to the general election, would mean the next matchup could be between two Republicans. With Democrats outnumbering Republicans almost 2-1, the scenario is unlikely but not impossible, according to experts like political data scientist Paul Mitchell, who created a primary simulation model.
That leaves the candidates — all of whom are polling between single digits and mid-teens — to pitch themselves as a successor to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is termed out of office next January. Whoever wins will face a multibillion dollar state budget deficit, stubbornly high homelessness, massive federal funding cuts, and a race to find alternative fuel as several oil refineries are set to close.
Insurance crisis, utility prices and a tax on billionaires
Former Rep. Katie Porter said restoring trust in agencies like the California Public Utility Commission would be “critical” for the next governor, who will need to address the state’s insurance crisis and tackle utility prices, which are the highest of any state after Hawaii.
Porter, a consumer attorney advocate, made a name for herself taking on corporate executives and said she would apply the same energy to restructuring “predatory” home mortgage policies, which she blamed for middle-class people’s inability to afford homes.
“I spent my career fighting those loans, but then we jumped to things like a 20% down payment,” she said. “We also need to think about things like long-term leases, so that people who are raising kids but are also renters, can stay in the same neighborhood, can stay near their child care providers, can stay in the same elementary school.”
Xavier Becerra, a former state attorney general and member of former President Joe Biden’s Cabinet, echoed similar sentiments about lowering utility costs. He pointed to his past role as Health and Human Services secretary and role in negotiating lower drug prices for seniors as an example. He contrasted it with Americans’ declining approval of President Donald Trump, who won in 2024 after promising to lower the cost of living.
“You don’t want someone who you elected because of the inflated promises. You want someone who actually knows how to land that plane during these turbulent times,” he said.
Tom Steyer, a progressive hedge fund executive turned climate activist, pitched himself as the populist candidate as anger at California’s high cost of living and billionaires’ recent forays into politics has reached a fever pitch.
“I see this crisis as a crisis as a very straightforward struggle and fight between what I think of as extraordinarily rich special interests and working people,” he said. “Working people have been getting screwed for 45 years.”
Steyer has proposed a 2027 special election if elected to close tax loopholes and reassess commercial properties at market rate and use that money to backfill federal budget cuts affecting local governments. He said he disagreed with a union proposal to levy a one-time 5% tax on billionaires, saying it was a theoretical temporary solution to a long-term problem, and he would work with a coalition of interests to come up with revenue.
Affordable housing, homelessness and public safety
State Superintendent Tony Thurmond, another progressive, has become the loudest proponent of that billionaire tax proposal. As governor, he said he would tap state-owned land to build two million units of housing, building on Steyer’s proposal for one million units.
“The good news is it will not require any additional permitting, and I think with just a little bit of support…we get to 2.3 million units of housing by the year 2030,” he said. “It’s something that we can do now.”
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, a late entrant who has major backing from Silicon Valley, said he jumped in as the “problem solver” candidate, citing his city’s inroads on homelessness and public safety. He listed his top priority as governor as restoring trust in government as public opinion has plummeted.
“I believe our democracy is at risk from rising populism on the right and the left,” he said. He listed “picking up a few foundational things” like reducing unsheltered homelessness and tackling public crime as antidotes that have led to a rise in people’s trust in city hall.
Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Dublin, cited his experience as a prosecutor as an asset for becoming the next governor as he promised to work with and lean on parties from developers to builders to spur housing.
He also cited his tenure in Congress, saying he would tap his connections to foreign heads of state and business leaders to encourage trade in California and make up for the federal funding cuts instituted by H.R. 1, the congressional tax bill that gut funds for public assistance.
“We’re going to go to Asia, to Europe, the capital markets, who will invest in California, to deploy that revenue into California companies,” he said. “And the revenue that comes back….we can use to expand education, child care, health care, and bring down utility costs.”
The freshness of youth vs. the voice of experience
Ian Calderon, who served as the youngest Assembly Majority Leader in state history and at 40 is the youngest candidate running for governor, stressed his youth relative to the rest of the field as an asset. He pointed to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s recent victory over Andrew Cuomo and resentment over millennials’ and Generation Z’s anger at being shut out of homeownership as a liability.
Part of that he blamed on inland communities’ absorption of most housing construction, as coastal communities have been more resistant to development. If elected, he said he would overhaul housing policy by allowing the governor to declare a housing “emergency” to spur development and amend rules to fit each community, rather than requiring local governments to all abide by the same covenants.
“The state needs to a stop doing one-size-fits-all policies so that every region has to play by the same rules, because the same rules do not exist up and down the state,” he said. “What works in San Francisco or in L.A. or in San Diego is not going to work in these small communities.”
Incumbent politicians like former State Comptroller Betty Yee, Becerra and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa emphasized their experience in state government, with the latter calling himself “the grown up” candidate. At 72, he’s the oldest candidate.
“People are just worn out. They’re tired,” Yee said. “They want to see government really deliver for them in a meaningful way….We’re the fourth-largest economy. We should be able to do business with any part of the world, and we should act like it in terms of elevating our ambition by incentivizing and really attracting private capital to a lot more of what we do.”
Villaraigosa said that as the former executive of the state’s largest city, he was primed to immediately return to Sacramento as state leader and “get results.” He said Democrats’ failure to find alternative fuels punished them at the ballot box as gas prices rose, a major theme in the 2024 election.
“I tell people, anybody that says we’re going to get rid of oil and gas in the next few years, they’re smoking pot. It’s just not true,” he said. “Norway is one of the greenest countries in the world. They produce oil and gas. That’s how they pay for the greening of Norway. We need an all-of-the-above strategy.”
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Lia Russell covers California’s governor for The Sacramento Bee’s Capitol Bureau. Originally from San Francisco, Lia previously worked for The Baltimore Sun and the Bangor Daily News in Maine.