{"id":348813,"date":"2026-06-06T00:27:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T00:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/348813\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T00:27:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T00:27:10","slug":"xavier-becerra-advances-in-california-governor-race-to-replace-newsom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/348813\/","title":{"rendered":"Xavier Becerra advances in California governor race to replace Newsom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Xavier Becerra will advance to the general election in California\u2019s gubernatorial race.<\/p>\n<p>The Democrat emerged as a front-runner on Friday, three days after Tuesday\u2019s primary in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ms.now\/news\/california-governor-race-2026-primary-steyer-becerra-hilton-project-47\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">crowded field of around 60 candidates<\/a> remained too close to call. <\/p>\n<p>Becerra previously served as the Health and Human Services secretary under President Joe Biden, was California attorney general from 2017 to 2021 and was a member of Congress for more than 20 years. He <a href=\"https:\/\/escholarship.org\/uc\/item\/5s8858hd\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">made a late-in-the-race surge<\/a> in polling at 25% in late May, after coming in at 5% in early March.<\/p>\n<p>The race to succeed term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom became wide open after former Vice President and California Sen. Kamala Harris and the state\u2019s senior senator, Alex Padilla, chose not to run. The race was further shaken when some candidates who were gaining popularity became embroiled in scandals. Former Rep. Eric Swalwell, viewed as a potential front-runner, dropped out after facing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ms.now\/news\/house-ethics-committee-to-investigate-rep-eric-swalwell\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">sexual misconduct allegations<\/a>, while former Rep. Katie Porter came under scrutiny over allegations that she bullied staffers.<\/p>\n<p>The candidate to challenge Becerra in the general election has yet to be determined. <\/p>\n<p>\tRecommended<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ms.now\/author\/julianne-mcshane\" aria-label=\"View posts by Julianne McShane\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"96\" height=\"96\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_3075.jpg\" class=\"avatar avatar-96 photo byline__author_image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-transform:capitalize;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0\" class=\"wp-elements-3d9e3a01226009cccaa3bc823fe8058e wp-block-rkv-person-info has-text-color has-grey-60-color has-fs-0875-font-size has-monospace-font-family\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ms.now\/author\/julianne-mcshane\" aria-label=\"View posts by Julianne McShane\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tJulianne McShane<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-transform:none;margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--100);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--50)\" class=\"wp-elements-a8f0e7d8e089f8e68172c1c387616c89 wp-block-rkv-person-info has-text-color has-grey-60-color has-fs-0750-font-size has-merriweather-font-family\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tJulianne McShane is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW who also covers the politics of abortion and reproductive rights. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at jmcshane.19 or follow her on X or Bluesky.\t\t<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"662\" width=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/MS_NOW_ICON_WHITE-3-1-1.png\" alt=\"MS NOW\" class=\"wp-image-1059956\" style=\"width:40px\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-e5526a3af79f5efe35aea76477c36d52\" style=\"color:#ffffff80\">\u00a9\u00a02026 Versant Media, LLC<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"145\" width=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/MS_NOW_PRIMARY_LOGO_WHITE_RGB-2-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1059965\" style=\"width:106px\"  \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Xavier Becerra will advance to the general election in California\u2019s gubernatorial race. The Democrat emerged as a front-runner&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-348813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348813","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=348813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}