FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 The race for California governor is heating up, and the Central Valley is taking center stage.<\/p>\n
Gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra stopped in Fresno Saturday afternoon, making his final pitch to voters just 10 days before Californians head to the polls. Speaking to a packed crowd, Becerra focused on issues he says are critical to the region, including agriculture, water reliability, and the state\u2019s controversial high-speed rail project.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really did feel like I was in a family reunion,\u201d Becerra said. \u201cAnd it almost was like a family reunion, because a good portion of that audience was family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Becerra leaned heavily on his San Joaquin Valley roots throughout the event, emphasizing his personal connection to the region and promising Valley concerns would not be overlooked in Sacramento.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe heartbeat of much of California is here in the Central Valley as it is anywhere else,\u201d Becerra said. \u201cSo I\u2019m not going to forget the Valley. It is my home. I was raised in the Valley myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
California State Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas also attended the event, offering his endorsement and support for the candidate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it comes to his values, who he is, and his experience, it\u2019s someone that I trust,\u201d Rivas said.<\/p>\n
From endorsements to infrastructure, Becerra also addressed California\u2019s ongoing high-speed rail project, which has faced years of criticism over delays and rising costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to scrap the current configuration, and I\u2019m going to make sure we finish,\u201d Becerra said. \u201cBut we\u2019ve got to do it on budget and on time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Water policy also took center stage during the discussion. When asked how he would balance water reliability for agriculture with California\u2019s environmental goals, Becerra acknowledged there is no simple solution.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a sweet spot, and everyone has to recognize you don\u2019t get everything you want,\u201d Becerra said. \u201cWhether it\u2019s the ag community, the environmental community, or the developer community, we all have to recognize that water is a precious resource.\u201d<\/p>\n
Becerra admitted he does not yet have a final answer on how to allocate water resources moving forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do we allocate it? Let\u2019s sit down,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to say to you right now I have the answer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toward the end of the interview, Becerra defended his qualifications to lead the state, pointing to decades of experience in both state and federal government.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, if I don\u2019t have enough experience,\u201d Becerra said, \u201cthen every one of the other candidates who\u2019s running today has got to spend about another 20 years catching up to me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 The race for California governor is heating up, and the Central Valley is taking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-332177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332177","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=332177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}