{"id":281372,"date":"2026-04-23T03:06:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T03:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/281372\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T03:06:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T03:06:28","slug":"as-primary-election-nears-top-candidates-for-california-governor-meet-for-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/281372\/","title":{"rendered":"As primary election nears, top candidates for California governor meet for debate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SAN FRANCISCO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0With the California governor\u2019s race quickly approaching, six candidates faced off Wednesday evening in the first debate since former Rep. Eric Swalwell dropped out<\/a> of the race in the aftermath of sexual assault and misconduct allegations.<\/p>\n

The debate takes place at a critical moment in the turbulent contest to replace termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom. Ballots will start landing in Californians\u2019 mailboxes in less than two weeks, and voters are split by a crowded field of eight prominent candidates. The debate also takes place after former state Controller Betty Yee ended her campaign<\/a> because of a lack of resources and support in the polls.<\/p>\n

Two Republicans \u2014 Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and conservative commentator Steve Hilton \u2014 and four Democrats \u2014 billionaire Tom Steyer, former Biden administration Secretary Xavier Becerra, former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter and San Jos\u00e9 Mayor Matt Mahan \u2014 took the stage at 7 p.m. at Nexstar\u2019s KRON4 studios in San Francisco. Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and state Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, both Democrats, were not invited to participate because of their low polling numbers.<\/p>\n

As the candidates strive to distinguish themselves in the packed field, the debate could include fiery exchanges about the role of money in politics and potential heightened attacks on Becerra, who has surged in the polls<\/a> since Swalwell (D-Dublin) dropped out. With the debate taking place on Earth Day, environmental issues are also likely to be raised.<\/p>\n

The gathering is the first televised debate in the gubernatorial contest since early February<\/a>. Last month, USC canceled a debate<\/a> hours before it was set to begin over mounting criticism that its criteria excluded all major candidates of color.<\/p>\n

The 7 p.m. debate is hosted by Nexstar and will be moderated by KTXL FOX40 anchor Nikki Laurenzo and KTLA anchor Frank Buckley. It can be viewed on KRON4 (San Francisco), KTLA5 (Los Angeles), KSWB\/KUSI (San Diego), KTXL (Sacramento), KGET (Bakersfield) and KSEE (Fresno). NewsNation will also air the debate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0With the California governor\u2019s race quickly approaching, six candidates faced off Wednesday evening in the first debate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,120996,9,8,13540,40574,26532,1751,120997,63,4263,88347,1410,8111,45070,2211,101,81005],"class_list":{"0":"post-281372","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-debate-tonight","10":"tag-california-headlines","11":"tag-california-news","12":"tag-candidate","13":"tag-crowded-field","14":"tag-debate","15":"tag-democrats","16":"tag-kron4-studio","17":"tag-los-angeles-times","18":"tag-money","19":"tag-nexstar","20":"tag-place","21":"tag-poll","22":"tag-primary-election","23":"tag-race","24":"tag-san-francisco","25":"tag-top-candidate"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281372","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=281372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}