{"id":239692,"date":"2026-03-27T19:55:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T19:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/239692\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T19:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T19:55:08","slug":"fresno-to-host-gubernatorial-candidate-debate-on-april-1st","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/239692\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno to host gubernatorial candidate debate on April 1st"},"content":{"rendered":"

FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 The Bipartisan California Gubernatorial Candidate Forum is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, April 1st, in Fresno.<\/p>\n

The debate will be held from 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Student Union on the Fresno State campus.<\/p>\n

FOX26 News will stream the debate online as well as on Facebook and YouTube.<\/p>\n

Those scheduled to take part in the debate are:<\/p>\n

Republican Steve Hilton, author and contributor, Fox News ChannelRepublican Chad Bianco, sheriff of Riverside CountyDemocrat Katie Porter, a former member of the U.S. House of RepresentativesDemocrat Xavier Becerra, attorney and former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human ServicesDemocrat Antonio Villaraigosa, former mayor of Los AngelesDemocrat Matt Mahan, mayor of San Jose<\/p>\n

Invitations have been issued to all candidates who reached above the 3 percent polling threshold in the March 1st average of polls conducted by RealClearPolitics<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The RealClearPolitics <\/a>poll has Hilton leading with 14.7%, followed by Swalwell with 13.7%, and Bianco with 13%.<\/p>\n

Democrat entrepreneur Tom Steyer and U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Castro Valley) received invitations, but both declined to attend.<\/p>\n

The forum will be moderated by former California Assembly Minority Leader Kristin Olsen-Cate and Fresno County Supervisor Buddy Mendes. <\/p>\n

Each candidate will have two minutes for opening statements, followed by one hour of moderator-led questions and discussion. <\/p>\n

Each candidate will then receive an additional two minutes for closing statements.<\/p>\n

The Open Primary will be held on June 2nd, with the top two candidates moving on, regardless of party affiliation.<\/p>\n

That means two Republicans or two Democrats could face off in the general election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 The Bipartisan California Gubernatorial Candidate Forum is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, April…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":{"0":"post-239692","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-fresno","9":"tag-fresno-headlines","10":"tag-fresno-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239692","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=239692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}