{"id":271838,"date":"2026-04-17T02:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T02:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/271838\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T02:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T02:21:08","slug":"xavier-becerra-gains-ground-in-california-governor-race-as-his-hhs-record-draws-scrutiny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/271838\/","title":{"rendered":"Xavier Becerra gains ground in California governor race as his HHS record draws scrutiny"},"content":{"rendered":"

California gubernatorial hopeful Xavier Becerra is riding a polling bump after the implosion of former Rep. Eric Swalwell\u2019s campaign<\/a>, but fresh scrutiny is now zeroing in on his record as Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

The Democrat jumped to 10% support in new polling released Thursday<\/a>, up from the low single digits of around 4 to 5 percent, after Swalwell\u2019s exit from the race amid sexual misconduct allegations.<\/p>\n

Becerra, 67, a former California attorney general and Biden\u2019s HHS chief, has leaned heavily on his federal experience, telling supporters in a recent campaign text that \u201cmore than ever, Californians need a governor who they can trust to lead on day one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Xavier Becerra speaks during a gubernatorial candidate forum on Latino and immigrant communities in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday, April 14, 2026 AP<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve run one of the largest federal agencies in the U.S.,\u201d he said, adding he had \u201cbalanced a budget larger than the budget of the state of California,\u201d while touting the department\u2019s COVID-19 response and vaccine rollout.<\/p>\n

Throughout his campaign, Becerra has run as the experienced candidate, but critics say his tenure at HHS was marked by major missteps.<\/p>\n

In his first year, Becerra was notably absent from White House COVID briefings<\/a> and kept a low public profile, a stance that drew criticism again during the 2022 monkeypox outbreak.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly from a public profile point of view he\u2019s been a major disappointment,\u201d Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University public health law professor, told STAT News at the time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A person poses with a dose of Novavax Nuvaxovid COVID-19 vaccine. REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was very silent during those crises and when he did speak, he didn\u2019t seem to have a good, enormous grasp of the medical and scientific and public health issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Bustamante, an advisor to the Becerra campaign, told the Post that the candidate delivered on free vaccines and had results.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are two kinds of people in this world, show horses and work horses. Secretary Becerra is a workhorse that delivered to the people of the United States while he was health secretary, and we\u2019ll deliver the same kind of results,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

During the monkeypox response, Becerra said the federal government had done its job and suggested local officials needed to step up, remarks that sparked backlash from public health experts, with Politico reporting at the time<\/a> on speculation he could be pushed out.<\/p>\n

Bustamante refuted the criticism.<\/p>\n

\u201cSimilar to his quick and decisive action around covid 19 vaccines, that same kind of response was delivered to all 50 states around monkeypox. There were no one, no state was left wanting in terms of the vaccine,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Becerra\u2019s most heavily criticized episode came in 2023, when HHS lost contact with more than 85,000 unaccompanied migrant children<\/a>, prompting reports that Biden \u201clashed out\u201d at Becerra <\/a>over the handling of the crisis.<\/p>\n

The issue has since become a flashpoint in the governor\u2019s race, with rival Antonio Villaraigosa launching attack ads branding Becerra \u201cnot fit to be governor.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ads highlight the missing children report and include lawmakers\u2019 reactions describing the situation as \u201chorrendous,\u201d \u201cdisturbing\u201d and \u201cexploited,\u201d with one telling Becerra: \u201cThe buck stops with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

His campaign previously told The Sacramento Bee <\/a>that such attacks rely on \u201cdiscredited MAGA talking points.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no one in this race, no one that can say that he didn\u2019t succeed in his administration at the Department of Health,\u201d Bustamante told the Post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California gubernatorial hopeful Xavier Becerra is riding a polling bump after the implosion of former Rep. Eric Swalwell\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,46666,9,8,890,1570,117939,13,59070,3586],"class_list":{"0":"post-271838","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-governor-election-2026","10":"tag-california-headlines","11":"tag-california-news","12":"tag-coronavirus","13":"tag-health","14":"tag-monkeypox","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-us-border","17":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271838","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=271838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}