Xavier Becerra, a Democrat who was practically an afterthought until the final weeks of the California governor campaign, will advance to the November election after a top-two finish in this week\u2019s primary, The Associated Press determined on Friday.<\/p>\n
Steve Hilton, a Republican former Fox News host, and Tom Steyer, a Democrat and former hedge fund manager, remain locked in a close race for the second spot as election officials continue counting millions of ballots. In California\u2019s nonpartisan primary, the top two finishers, regardless of party, advance to the November election.<\/p>\n
Mr. Becerra\u2019s primary performance caps his extraordinary come-from-behind surge in the tumultuous race and positions him to become California\u2019s first Latino governor in the modern era if he wins in November. In interviews, voters said they appreciated his long career in government, which distinguished him from a sprawling field of less experienced competitors.<\/p>\n
Mr. Hilton led in initial returns this week, but he was the beneficiary of Republican voters who turned in their ballots early. Many Democrats said they waited until the final week of voting because they found it difficult to choose among their party\u2019s candidates and wanted to see how the race evolved up to Election Day.<\/p>\n
The race was called on Friday when Mr. Becerra passed Mr. Hilton and moved into first place in returns. It remained to be seen whether Mr. Hilton could stave off Mr. Steyer, who has gained ground since Election Day but may remain stuck in third.<\/p>\n
Mr. Becerra said that his victory reflected the demographic transformation in California, where Latinos comprise the largest share of the population, as well as his campaign\u2019s focus on working people. His campaign began promoting him as the first Latino to win a California governor primary.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people of the great state of California, in the greatest nation on earth, have spoken \u2014 loudly and proudly,\u201d Mr. Becerra said in a statement. \u201cWe will not be bought. We will not be bullied. And we are never backing down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Becerra, 68, would be an overwhelming favorite if he were to face Mr. Hilton in the general election. No Republican has won a statewide office in California since 2006, and Mr. Hilton would be further hamstrung by his endorsement from President Trump, who remains deeply unpopular in California.<\/p>\n
If Mr. Becerra were to face Mr. Steyer, he would endure a blistering intraparty fight over the next few months. Mr. Steyer, a billionaire who ran a hedge fund, spent $216 million of his personal fortune in the primary, and he has shown no indication that he would slow down in a general election. His spending helped make California\u2019s primary the most expensive governor\u2019s race in American history, according to an analysis by AdImpact, an ad tracking firm.<\/p>\n
In the final stretch of the primary, Mr. Steyer attacked Mr. Becerra with negative ads. One suggested that Mr. Becerra could be indicted by the Trump administration because two of his aides pleaded guilty in the past year to corruption charges for siphoning off Mr. Becerra\u2019s own campaign funds. Mr. Becerra has said he was unaware of the transfers, and federal prosecutors described him as the victim of his aides\u2019 crimes.<\/p>\n
Other attacks portrayed Mr. Becerra as beholden to special interests because the California Chamber of Commerce and other business interests put about $54 million into campaigns opposing Mr. Steyer and supporting Mr. Becerra.<\/p>\n
Mr. Becerra\u2019s low-key persona and moderate positions made him an unlikely winner in a political climate that rewards brash moments that are shared widely on social media. But he emphasized his working-class roots and his decades of experience, as a congressman, California attorney general and health secretary to President Joseph R. Biden Jr. That combination helped him appeal to Democratic voters as well as political insiders whose financial backing propelled his rise.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is deliberate, he\u2019s experienced, and his personal style, I think, really helped to sustain the interest in him and have him scale up that support,\u201d said Fernando Guerra, a political science professor at Loyola Marymount University.<\/p>\n
He added that Mr. Becerra had most likely benefited from being more centrist compared with liberal candidates like Mr. Steyer and Katie Porter, a former congresswoman.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly in California would his positions be considered moderate,\u201d he said. \u201cHe is a liberal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Becerra had been ignored and dismissed by political insiders, and was urged by his own party chairman to consider leaving the race in March. But the abrupt departure of Eric Swalwell amid sexual harassment accusations created a surprise path for a Democrat with much experience in government.<\/p>\n
Still, many Californians were uncertain about whom to back for governor and waited until the last minute to cast their ballots, which was expected to slow the tally of final results. The initial results reflect ballots that were cast early in the voting period. Republicans returned ballots at a faster pace than Democrats did, so the early results were expected to favor Republican candidates.<\/p>\n
Maravilla Hernandez-Perez, 25, who recently moved to Los Angeles and is studying to become a paralegal, said she voted strategically when she cast her ballot in South Los Angeles on Tuesday night, just before polls closed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a struggle for me to choose today,\u201d she said. \u201cI ended up going with Becerra ultimately because it looked like he had a slightly stronger chance of winning. I really don\u2019t want California to turn Republican, that is my main concern.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rachel Parsons contributed reporting from Los Angeles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Xavier Becerra, a Democrat who was practically an afterthought until the final weeks of the California governor campaign,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[29238,7,9,8,1525,989,4594,12139,8642,142828,86842,15180,128092,38107,129245,4510,128093],"class_list":["post-348989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-becerra","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-democratic-party","tag-elections","tag-governors","tag-governors-us","tag-hilton","tag-live-detached","tag-midterm-elections-2026","tag-republican-party","tag-steve-1969","tag-steyer","tag-thomas-f","tag-united-states-politics-and-government","tag-xavier"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348989","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=348989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}