{"id":235785,"date":"2026-03-25T12:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T12:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/235785\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T12:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T12:56:13","slug":"governor-debate-canceled-after-criticism-from-candidates-of-color-lawmakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/235785\/","title":{"rendered":"Governor debate canceled after criticism from candidates of color, lawmakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Antonio<\/a>Antonio Villaraigosa speaks to members of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce in 2018. (File photo by Chris Jennewein)<\/p>\n

The University of Southern California canceled a gubernatorial debate planned for Tuesday after candidates of color who would have been excluded accused the school of discrimination.<\/p>\n

Republicans Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco, and Democrats Tom Steyer, Katie Porter, Eric Swalwell and Matt Mahan, who are all white, were slated to participate in the debate hosted by the University of Southern California\u2019s Dornsife Center for the Political Future and KABC-TV. But four established Democratic candidates of color, Antonio Villaraigosa, Xavier Becerra, Betty Yee and Tony Thurmond, didn\u2019t meet the criteria to participate.<\/p>\n

No clear front-runner has emerged in\u00a0the crowded race<\/a>\u00a0ahead of the June 2 primary. Ballots will go out in early May.<\/p>\n

The university has defended a formula used to select the participants and denied allegations of bias. A public policy professor independently developed the criteria based on candidates\u2019 polling and fundraising, the university said in a statement Friday.<\/p>\n

A group of 50 public policy and social science scholars from across the country defended the professor in a letter to the university\u2019s president on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe urge USC to stand firm in rejecting all efforts to apply political pressure on its faculty and its overall academic mission,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n

But the university reversed course Monday night, saying that the debate co-hosts couldn\u2019t agree on a solution.<\/p>\n

The \u201cdata-driven candidate viability formula is based on extensive research and enjoys broad academic support,\u201d it said in a statement. \u201cAt the same time, we recognize that concerns about the selection criteria for tomorrow\u2019s gubernatorial debate have created a significant distraction from the issues that matter to voters.\u201d<\/p>\n

The debate cancellation comes weeks after state Democratic Party Chair Rusty Hicks\u00a0urged candidates to drop out of the race<\/a>\u00a0if their campaigns were no longer viable, citing the possibility that the two leading Republicans could advance to the general election. The all-GOP general election is possible under California\u2019s unusual top-two primary system, which puts all candidates on one ballot and only the top two vote-getters advance to November, regardless of party.<\/p>\n

Hicks on Tuesday unveiled the results of a poll commissioned by the party that shows Hilton, Porter, Bianco, Swalwell and Steyer in close competition, and the other candidates trailing behind them. It\u2019s consistent with other recent polling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese results confirm the possibility, albeit a low one \u2014 the possibility of Democrats being locked out of the general election,\u201d Hicks said. \u201cMore importantly, it\u2019s yet another reminder of the undeniable fact that all candidates must honestly assess their viable path to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of the criticism is targeted at Mahan\u2019s inclusion over other candidates. Mahan, the San Jose mayor,\u00a0joined the race<\/a>\u00a0months after his competitors, but has outraised some of them thanks in part to contributions from ultrawealthy donors in Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n

He said he was disappointed the debate was canceled and that the other established candidates should have been allowed to participate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best way to promote democracy is to have every voice included and have forums like this for debate,\u201d he said in an interview.<\/p>\n

The controversy escalated Monday when legislative leaders, including chairs of the Black and Latino caucuses, called on organizers to open up the debate to more candidates.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf USC does not do the right thing, we call on California voters to boycott this debate,\u201d they wrote. \u201cIf the university will not give voters a fair shot at evaluating everyone running for governor, voters should find other ways to learn about the candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Villaraigosa, a former Los Angeles mayor who is Latino, celebrated the university\u2019s decision to cancel the debate.<\/p>\n

\u201cUSC made the right call, even if it came late and under pressure,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Antonio Villaraigosa speaks to members of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce in 2018. (File photo by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[3702,2926,28687,74,76,75,17382,3707],"class_list":{"0":"post-235785","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-antonio-villaraigosa","9":"tag-california-governor","10":"tag-chad-bianco","11":"tag-san-diego","12":"tag-san-diego-headlines","13":"tag-san-diego-news","14":"tag-steve-hilton","15":"tag-xavier-becerra"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}