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Left to right, California gubernatorial candidates former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio\u00a0Villaraigosa, former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), businessman Tom Steyer, businessman Steve Hilton, Riverside Sheriff Chad Bianco and former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra look on during a CNN California governor primary debate at East Los Angeles College on May 5, 2026, in Monterey Park, Calif.<\/p>\n
Justin Sullivan\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
The\u00a0latest poll of the California governor\u2019s race just days before the primary election shows Democrat Xavier Becerra widening his late lead<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n A sprawling survey published Wednesday<\/a> by the Public Policy Institute of California asked nearly 40 questions on California and national issues and gauged voters\u2019 preferences in the governor\u2019s race.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Becerra, who has climbed in recent polls, is the leading candidate with 23% support among likely voters in PPIC\u2019s poll, despite heavy scrutiny<\/a> from his opponents in the last gubernatorial debate. Democrats attacked Becerra from all sides<\/a> at the May 14 event: about a former staffer, Dana Williamson, pleading guilty<\/a> to three charges including conspiracy to commit bank fraud; about his record serving as health secretary in the Biden administration; about how he will pay for his campaign promises.<\/p>\n The poll results show the momentum continues that Becerra built after former Rep. Eric Swalwell, who was a leading Democratic candidate, abruptly left the race<\/a> over sexual assault allegations.<\/p>\n Just behind Becerra in the recent poll is Republican and former Fox News host Steve Hilton, with 20% support. Hilton has consistently fared well in the polls and received an endorsement<\/a> from President Donald Trump. Hilton also made a point of correcting Becerra<\/a> at the May 14 debate, after Becerra said he\u2019d taken \u201cthe lead in the polls.\u201d Hilton retorted that he is still ahead of Becerra in some polls.\u00a0<\/p>\n While Becerra and Hilton appear to be the leaders ahead of the primary, billionaire and Democratic candidate Tom Steyer is next behind the\u00a0front-runners in the PPIC poll\u00a0with 15% support.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Steyer, a climate activist, has been using the promise that he wants to tax other billionaires as one of his big selling points<\/a>. Steyer has been criticized<\/a> for his frequent TV advertisements,<\/a> which together broke a record as \u201cthe most expensive political advertising campaign in the country this year,\u201d per AP. He was also a familiar face after he spent millions of his own fortune\u00a0running for president in the 2020 election<\/a>.<\/p>\n The other candidates are falling behind: Chad Bianco, the Republican sheriff of Riverside County, had 13% support in PPIC\u2019s poll, followed by former Orange County congresswoman Katie Porter<\/a> with 12% support.\u00a0<\/p>\n Democratic candidate and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, who has been backed<\/a> with millions of dollars from Silicon Valley tech leaders, didn\u2019t make the cut for the top five in PPIC\u2019s poll, reaching just 7% support.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mark Baldassare, the poll director, told SFGATE by phone that a large percentage of likely voters have been paying attention to this year\u2019s election. According to the survey, 7 in 10 likely voters either have been very closely following (23%) or fairly closely following (48%) the governor\u2019s race.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThere have been just so many twists and turns and no clear front-runner for so long. That\u2019s just been very engaging for voters,\u201d Baldassare said.\u00a0<\/p>\n In addition to asking respondents about their preferred governor candidates, the poll gauged broader sentiment about state and national issues as well as Trump and\u00a0Gov. Gavin Newsom.<\/p>\n Baldassare said one of the most interesting takeaways from the survey was the \u201cmood\u201d of the likely voters going into the primary election.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a time when people are really concerned about the state of affairs, particularly with the nation, but also with California,\u201d Baldassare said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The institute saw \u201crecord-high numbers,\u201d he said, of people in California who feel the country is \u201cgoing in the wrong direction.\u201d<\/p>\n Baldassare said the election results could take up to a week for Californians because of a \u201cwild card.\u201d That wild card, he said, is undecided voters who could shake up the crowded race.<\/p>\n According to the survey,\u00a02% of likely voters don\u2019t know who they\u2019ll vote for on Election Day.<\/p>\n Stay informed, and entertained.<\/p>\n By signing up, you agree to our Terms Of Use<\/a> and acknowledge that your information will be used as described in our Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cCalifornians are telling us that they\u2019re enthusiastic about voting this year, but we do know from what we\u2019re seeing is that a lot of people are holding back, they\u2019re not quite sure who to vote for, and over the course of the next few days they\u2019ll be trying to figure it out,\u201d Baldassare said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The poll surveyed 1,707 residents across the state from May 14 to 18, narrowing the results down to 986 likely voters, and was commissioned by the Arjay R. and Frances F. Miller Foundation. The margin of error was +\/- 3.2% for all adults and +\/- 4.1% for likely voters. The survey took respondents about an average of 15.5 minutes and it was conducted online in both English and Spanish.\u00a0<\/p>\n California voters will decide which two candidates are to move on to the general election in a June 2 vote. The general election is scheduled to be held Nov. 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Left to right, California gubernatorial candidates former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio\u00a0Villaraigosa, former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), businessman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,1692,3100],"class_list":["post-337822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-sfgnews","tag-sfgpolitics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337822","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=337822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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