{"id":350028,"date":"2026-06-06T23:56:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T23:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/350028\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T23:56:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T23:56:14","slug":"xavier-bercerra-advances-in-governors-race-whats-next-for-california-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/350028\/","title":{"rendered":"Xavier Bercerra advances in governor’s race. What’s next for California elections?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Democrat Xavier Becerra, who served as Health and Human Services secretary under the Biden Administration, nabbed one of two spots in the California governor\u2019s race Friday evening, according to The Associated Press<\/a> and Decision Desk.<\/a><\/p>\n

But right now, it\u2019s still not known who he will face in the general election, as ballots are still being counted<\/a>. The way California elections work is that the two candidates who gain the most votes in the primary move on to the general election, no matter what party they\u2019re in. <\/p>\n

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Currently, Republican Steve Hilton and Democrat Tom Steyer are in the lead for who will be in the general with Becerra.<\/p>\n

Cal Matters<\/a> reports that Becerra is heavily favored to win if Hilton advances, as Democrats in California outnumber Republicans by about two-to-one, and Hilton has President Donald Trump\u2019s endorsement. Steyer winning, though, would make things much more competitive, the local news outlet said.<\/p>\n

Up until recently, Becerra hadn\u2019t been as much of a force in the governor\u2019s race. Then, former senator Eric Swalwell<\/a>, seen as the frontrunner, dropped out amid sexual misconduct and assault allegations made against him. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just getting started. On to November,\u201d Becerra said on X<\/a> Friday.
<\/a>
Meanwhile, Hilton told supporters that \u201cchange is coming,\u201d USA Today reported.<\/a> <\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the day of the California primary election, Steyer vowed to finish strong.<\/a><\/p>\n

According to AdImpact,<\/a> the California gubernatorial primary is the most expensive governor\u2019s race on record in the U.S., as well as the fifth-most expensive non-presidential race. <\/p>\n

Steyer, AdImpact said, is the \u201cchief driver of spending,\u201d with his campaign shelling out $201.2 million on ads, which accounts for 64% of every dollar spent in the primary. Becerra has garnered $24.4 million in total ad support, through his campaign as well as outside groups such as Working Families for Healthy Communities, Supporting Becerra for Governor and Latinos United for Xavier Becerra.<\/p>\n

A growing trend AdImpact has noticed is that ads for the candidates are getting more negative. <\/p>\n

\u201cThrough March, nearly all broadcast airings targeting the race were positive,\u201d AdImpact said. \u201cSince then, 33% of broadcast airings have been either contrast or negative ads.\u201d<\/p>\n

Should Becerra win the election, he would be the first Latino to be elected governor in California.<\/p>\n

Per the AP, other candidates heading to the general election<\/a> in their races are: Fiona Ma, a Democrat for lieutenant governor in California; Democrat Tessa Hodge, in the U.S. House in California\u2019s 23rd congressional district; and Republican Joe Males for the U.S. House in California\u2019s 25th congressional district.<\/p>\n

Ballots still being counted<\/p>\n

As Straight Arrow has reported, California is notoriously slow to post election numbers, and the latest primary races are no different. This has led Trump to, without evidence, claim that Democrats are attempting to steal elections. He pointed<\/a> to the \u201cthe very late and massive numbers of MAIL IN BALLOTS.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli said his office has \u201cmultiple election fraud investigations underway\u201d in coordination with the FBI\u2019s Los Angeles Bureau.<\/p>\n

His office, Essayli said, is also working with Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon on an audit of California\u2019s voter rolls. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy office will not look the other way,\u201d Essayli said. \u201cWe will investigate and prosecute. Every legal vote deserves to be counted. Every illegal vote cancels one out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Experts and organizations like the Brookings Institution<\/a> have said voter fraud, including with mail-in voting, is rare.<\/p>\n

California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Saturday denied accusations of voter fraud in an appearance on MS Now<\/a>. He said in an interview on \u201cThe Weekend\u201d that \u201cthere are no details, there is no specifics, there is no specific allegation of any individualized act of voter fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery count, recount, hand count, court case and audit has shown time and time again \u2014 not just in California, but throughout this country \u2014\u00a0that there is no widespread voter fraud,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Bonta went on to say claims of voter fraud are \u201conly a figment of the imagination of Trump and others who follow that conspiracy theory.\u201d <\/p>\n

During the COVID-19 pandemic, California tried to make it easier for people to vote by mail. As long as mail-in ballots in California are postmarked by Election Day and reach the registrar\u2019s office within seven days of the election, they are considered valid.<\/p>\n

Experts Straight Arrow spoke to said the delay in California isn\u2019t due to counting ballots, but verifying signatures.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegistrars have literally millions of ballots up and down the state,\u201d Thad Kousser, professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego, previously told Straight Arrow. \u201cThey have to check their signatures against voter registration forms in California, and that is part of the reason why it takes several days for California to report enough votes to make close calls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Round out your reading<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Democrat Xavier Becerra, who served as Health and Human Services secretary under the Biden Administration, nabbed one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-350028","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\/350028","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=350028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}