{"id":304034,"date":"2026-05-07T09:45:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T09:45:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/304034\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T09:45:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T09:45:26","slug":"5-highlights-from-california-gubernatorial-debate-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/304034\/","title":{"rendered":"5 highlights from California gubernatorial debate \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

No clear front-runner has yet to emerge in the election to replace California<\/a> Gov. Gavin Newsom. <\/p>\n

Even as early voting has started ahead of the June 2 primary election, a gubernatorial debate with the top seven candidates, according to recent polling, took place on Tuesday night and was televised by CNN. <\/p>\n

Among the Democrats were former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, former Rep. Katie Porter, billionaire Tom Steyer, and former Speaker of the California State Assembly and Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. <\/p>\n

The polls suggest the top two Democrats are Becerra and Steyer, with the former health secretary\u2019s high ratings making him a target during the debate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everyone\u2019s invoking my name,\u201d Becerra said toward the end. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to hear my name.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since it\u2019s a nonpartisan primary race where candidates across party affiliations run on the same ballot, the debate also included the leading Republicans: Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and former TV news host Steve Hilton.<\/p>\n

According to SurveyUSA poll conducted April 28-May 1, Hilton has most support overall in the open primary with 20% support, enjoying a two-point lead over Steyer. <\/p>\n

Here are five highlights from the debate:<\/p>\n

Tax on billionaires <\/p>\n

Only one candidate \u2014 Steyer \u2014 fully supported a one-time wealth tax on billionaires, a proposal that is likely going to be on the ballot in November. The tax revenue would go toward supporting the health care system. <\/p>\n

Porter opposed the policy, saying the one-time tax doesn\u2019t address ongoing revenue concerns and that it also excludes millionaires. <\/p>\n

Both Steyer and Porter advocated for other programs to also receive these newly created streams of revenue. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t go to education and teachers and students, which is a critical need in the state of California,\u201d Steyer said, as The New York Times reported<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Katie Porter and her temperament<\/p>\n

Porter\u2019s campaign released a TV ad<\/a> that addressed a 2021 incident in a lighthearted way. At the time, Porter curtly asked a staffer to get out of her shot while she taped a promotional video. She says the same line \u2014 \u201cplease get out of my shot\u201d \u2014 in a more polite way in her latest ad.<\/p>\n

She also faced scrutiny over another incident<\/a> where she lashed out at a journalist during an interview before threatening to walk out. <\/p>\n

Porter repeatedly stated she has apologized for the incident, while shifting the attention to her opponents and their squabbling on stage. <\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t believe that on a stage with 30 minutes of interrupting and bickering and name-calling and shouting and disrespect \u2026 that anyone wants to talk about my temperament,\u201d said Porter.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornians can decide for themselves about my temperament based on what they\u2019ve seen here tonight.\u201d <\/p>\n

Other Democrats test Becerra <\/p>\n

Mahan, the youngest candidate on stage, attacked Becerra, calling him \u201ca career politician\u201d who didn\u2019t produce results while in office. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t need MAGA values, but we also don\u2019t need more of the same,\u201d Mahan said. \u201cBut we should be honest, the experience we hear from Secretary Becerra didn\u2019t lead to better outcomes. It led to 85,000 migrant children who were lost, more fraud in our healthcare system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from receiving criticism for his record while serving as California\u2019s attorney general and Health secretary, Steyer, Porter and Mahan also challenged Becerra for supporting a single-payer health care system, also referred to as \u201cMedicare for All.\u201d <\/p>\n

His opponents questioned whether Beceraa could successfully implement such a system. <\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornians don\u2019t care what you call it so long as they have affordable health care that they can use to take their child to the doctor or the hospital,\u201d Becerra responded in defense of his position. <\/p>\n

What about immigration?<\/p>\n

Overall, most Democrats vowed to protect sanctuary city laws and migrants who live in the country without proper authorization. Others went so far as to propose disbanding federal enforcement of immigration policies in California.<\/p>\n

Steyer said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is breaking the law and should be abolished but Biano countered saying that isn\u2019t true. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo one\u2019s broken the law in California,\u201d Bianco said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When Porter suggested immigrants contribute to the economy in significant ways, she earned criticism from Hilton. <\/p>\n

Porter fired back: \u201cGiven that you\u2019re an immigrant, and you added to our population, and we\u2019re all having to live with the consequences of that decision,\u201d Porter said,<\/p>\n

Hilton, in his response, pointed out to Porter the difference between legal and illegal immigration. <\/p>\n

What do these candidates think about Newsom\u2019s job performance?<\/p>\n

All the candidates were asked to pick a word to describe Newsom\u2019s tenure in office. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what the candidates said. <\/p>\n

Becerra used the word \u201cgame-changing.\u201d Porter describe it as \u201cbold.\u201d Steyer viewed Newsom\u2019s time in office as \u201cprogressive.\u201dMahan called it \u201cincomplete.\u201d Villaraigosa described the tenure as \u201cperformative.\u201dMeanwhile, the two GOP candidates had similar ideas. Where Bianco said \u201cfailure,\u201d Hilton said \u201cfailed\u201d as they exchanged a smile. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No clear front-runner has yet to emerge in the election to replace California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Even as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,11547],"class_list":["post-304034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-news-feed-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304034","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=304034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}