From left: Matt Mahan, Xavier Becerra, Chad Bianco, Steve Hilton, Tom Steyer and Katie Porter take part in a debate on April 22, 2026, in San Francisco.
Jason Henry/Associated Press
The departure of ex-Rep. Eric Swalwell from the California governor’s race has inspired some of the remaining candidates to reshape their campaigns in ways that were visible Wednesday night in the first major debate since his exit.
Swalwell left the race on April 12 after the Chronicle reported sexual assault allegations against him. He resigned from Congress days later.
Many eyes were trained throughout the 90-minute debate on the candidate who’s emerged as Democrats’ Next Great Hope: former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, who has surged in the polls since Swalwell’s departure. His campaign says 20,000 donations have poured in over the past 10 days, 97% of them from first-time donors. Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, the Latino Legislative Caucus and a host of state legislators have endorsed Becerra in recent days.
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As Wednesday’s debate, Becerra echoed a line from his newest ad — “the governor’s office is no place for on-the-job training” — a remark aimed at billionaire Tom Steyer, who is tied with Becerra in the most recent California Democratic Party poll and who has never held elective office.
Becerra also emphasized several times that he is a “fighter,” an echo of Swalwell’s now cringey promise to be a “fighter and protector” for the state.
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Becerra pointed out that he sued the Trump administration 122 times when he served as attorney general during Trump’s first term. He parried an attack from former Fox News host Steve Hilton by saying, “It’s interesting to watch someone who has served as a talking head on a Fox News program telling us how government should run when he never has run any government in his life.”
But Becerra fumbled a question about a comment he made during a recent CNN interview, in which he acknowledged “many of us heard the rumors” about Swalwell. He declined to answer what the rumors were.
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“You hear rumors all the time about all sorts of things. Rumors are not facts and the … Democratic caucus is not a place that adjudicates those things. It’s law enforcement that does. If someone had come forward, we could then have investigations,” Becerra said.
A couple of times, Becerra wasn’t ready for his close-up. When talking about the price of gasoline, he misspoke, calling the Iran War “the war in Iraq that Donald Trump started.”
Former Rep. Katie Porter, who also is hoping to move up in the polls with Swalwell’s departure, similarly tried to take up the mantle of the biggest fighter in the race. She obliquely referred to Becerra by saying “another candidate for nearly 40 years cashed corporate checks and lacked the courage to take them on. I’m not like them. I have never taken corporate money.”
Then she pointed out that she is the only female candidate remaining. “That’s why I have always stood firm against Donald Trump and special interests. I’m like you, a mom fighting for a better future for California,” she said.
Porter railed on the lack of specificity in Becerra’s plans. “Mr. Becerra, you have all these lovely plans, but there are never any numbers, any revenue plan, any details, anything that pushes on the status quo.”
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Becerra countered that it was “very rich to hear from someone who’s never had to actually run a government. I have had to balance four budgets over the course of my time as secretary of Health and Human Services.” Porter served three terms in the House.
All of the Democrats present took shots at Steyer, who has spent $127 million on his campaign and has been gobbling up endorsements from progressive institutions — including the nurses and teachers unions, the Bernie Sanders-inspired Our Revolution and Assembly Member Alex Lee, D-San Jose, chair of the Legislative Progressive Caucus.
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan mocked Steyer’s housing plan.
“The only housing Tom Steyer has built have been private prisons and ICE detention centers,” he said, a reference to the investments that enriched Steyer when he was a hedge fund manager.
Steyer, meanwhile, saved most of his attacks for Trump, saying that while he may be the only billionaire in the race, his candidacy is opposed by powerful interests. “The billionaires and corporations are spending big in this race to oppose me and to support the other people on this stage,” he said. (Steyer is correct; billionaires have largely united behind Mahan, and are pouring money into his campaign.)
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Two other Democrats in the race, Tony Thurmond and Antonio Villaraigosa, did not meet the polling threshold to be included. All the Democrats still have to climb over the two Republicans ahead of them in the polls: Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.
Both men repeated a similar refrain all night: that all of California’s problems are rooted in the fact that for the last two decades, California has been run by Democrats.
Perhaps the dishiest moment of the debate came during the streaming-only portion of the program, when the candidates were asked to name the last TV program they streamed. Steyer picked “Marshals.” Porter said, “I took a lot of heat from my kids for this, but I was watching ‘Heated Rivalry.’” Hilton cited “Reacher” and Mahan picked “The Diplomat.” Becerra said he isn’t much of a TV watcher. Bianco was more definitive: “I don’t stream and I don’t watch TV.”