The last time I spoke to Xavier Becerra in person, it was January 2025, his time as the nation’s health secretary was running out, and his next steps were beginning to take shape.
We sat in the conference room attached to Becerra’s office in the hulking, notoriously ugly Hubert H. Humphrey building — a concrete fortress against the blustery, chilly Washington weather outside. Becerra was flanked by his chief of staff and other aides as we did a wide-ranging exit interview on his achievements and regrets in four years as America’s top health official.
I was particularly curious how Becerra thought his team had worked to shore up Americans’ trust in public health, particularly given that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — who capitalized on widespread pandemic frustrations — was looming as Becerra’s potential replacement.
“We just have to be more transparent,” Becerra said, as the interview wrapped up.
“Well, in terms of being transparent — are you running for California governor?” I asked him, referencing recent reports.
Becerra laughed.
“I absolutely want to be transparent, but by law … until you get rid of the Hatch Act, I’ll have to defer that question” until leaving office, he replied.
Becerra did end up running for California governor — and after being stuck in the middle or even back of the crowded pack, he’s recently surged to become the favorite. Recent polls show him at around 25 percent support, up from 5 percent just two months ago.
Californians on Tuesday will vote to advance two candidates to a general election.
I’ve spoken to Becerra a few times since his campaign began, and I wrote about his prospects in The Washington Post over the weekend. If Becerra survives the primary and faces off against a Republican in the general election, he’ll likely win, given the state’s political dynamics.
I’ve only watched the California race from afar. I have no special insight into any candidate beyond Becerra. Polls can be misleading, and this post could be moot in two days if he’s boxed out.
But after spending four years covering Becerra in Washington, there are a few things that stuck out to me about the potential next governor of the nation’s most populous state.
1) Becerra’s rise in California has reminded me, a bit, of how he ended up as the nation’s health secretary.
He wasn’t on anyone’s radar in 2020, until he suddenly was. Other candidates — governors like Gina Raimondo for the job six years ago, and former congressmen like Eric Swalwell now — were far more favored at first.
Given that Becerra has billed himself as ready to lead on Day 1 in California, it’s worth noting that his arrival at HHS wasn’t the smoothest transition six years ago, either.
Biden and his people didn’t seem to really know him; the incoming president made a pretty bad flub when he first announced his selection.
Howard Mortman@HowardMortman
“Xavier Becerra was a surprise pick to be Joe Biden’s health secretary…The California Democrat was so unfamiliar to the incoming president that Biden badly mispronounced his name at introductory news conference.”
— @ddiamond
washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/…
Here’s the 12/8/2020 video:
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Yes, Becerra had been a congressman and California attorney general. But several health officials told me at the time: this guy is a cipher to us, and we think he’s going to face some big challenges taking the reins of this giant department. Even someone like Alex Azar — Trump’s last health secretary — was a more known commodity when he got tapped by Trump because he had spent years working at HHS in the Bush administration and had then gone into the pharmaceutical industry.
Some of the awkwardness was likely exacerbated by the pandemic, with many Biden officials working remotely for months. (More on that in a moment.)
Becerra’s nomination also became a major fight in the Senate, delaying his confirmation until mid-March. By the time Becerra was sworn in, Biden and his deputies were already wrestling with some big issues, such as a surge of migrant children in HHS custody.
I’ve asked Becerra a few times over the years about his start at HHS and whether he faced a learning curve. Becerra says he knew what he wanted to do on Day 1, but has acknowledged the huge scope of his new job.
“I didn’t know all the personnel, I didn’t realize how vast this agency’s jurisdiction is and the magnitude, as much as I thought I did,” he told me last year.
2) The frustrations with him during the Biden administration were real.
There have been stories in a bunch of outlets recently about Biden officials being befuddled or even unhappy about Becerra’s rise in California, arguing he was a mediocre Cabinet secretary who would be a disappointment as governor.
Rival candidates like Tom Steyer have reached back to Becerra’s time as HHS secretary to pluck headlines and quotes from years earlier — including from a story that I did in 2022 alongside Yasmeen Abutaleb and Tyler Pager, a pair of terrific reporters.
If you’d like to read more on this, I got into some detail on the complaints and Becerra’s rebuttals in our story this weekend:
Having written about Becerra at the time, I know that those years-old frustrations were real, issued by credible people.
For instance, White House officials and others felt that Becerra wasn’t doing enough to lead on the pandemic response, despite serving as the nation’s health secretary. I also heard complaints about Becerra, or at least his chief of staff, not always being on top of key issues and managing internal frustrations.
Meanwhile, the New York Times ran a series of stories by Hannah Dreier in 2023 that detailed HHS’s lapses in tracking and care for migrant children. That sparked a serious policy and political crisis for Becerra, who has maintained that his role in those decisions was limited and that his agency got the problems under control.
3) Some of the frustrations with Becerra have receded over time.
I spoke the other day with a Biden official who had often criticized Becerra’s public health leadership to me a few years ago. That person now conceded — maybe Becerra wasn’t so bad after all.
Plus, their differences suddenly felt small in a world where President Trump is cutting public-health programs, questioning vaccines and remaking government, the person said.
A few people also pointed out to me: There may be non-political factors here, too. Remote work, the stakes of the public-health crisis, and the general stress level of the country amplified frustrations and workplace fights at HHS (and frankly, in many organizations) circa 2021 and 2022.
It’s worth noting that many of Becerra’s closest Biden colleagues have gone on the record to tout his leadership. I’ve heard stories about his firm, steady decision-making during the pandemic, or his willingness to be a good soldier even as the Biden White House took aim at him in public.
Neera Tanden, Ron Klain and other key leaders during the Biden administration have vouched for Becerra in public with me and other reporters. David Kessler, who helped oversee the Biden administration’s vaccine work, said he witnessed Becerra effectively lead in ways that would transfer to the governor’s office.
“He would drive the group to the right answer,” said Kessler, the former dean of the UCSF School of Medicine.
And yes, he can be boring, Becerra’s allies acknowledge — but that’s a feature, not a bug. He’s reliable and will deliver for California, they insist.
We’ll find out Tuesday if he’ll get an opportunity to prove it.