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Candidate Xavier Becerra has secured the most votes in the California governor primary. (photo courtesy of Xavier Becerra)<\/p>\n
Former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services and Democrat Xavier Becerra will take on television personality and Republican Steve Hilton in the November general election for governor of California. While Democratic philanthropist Tom Steyer improved as late mail and drop box votes were tabulated in the days following the June 2 primary election, it was not enough to overcome Hilton to secure a spot in the runoff.<\/p>\n
Nearly 10 million voters are expected to have participated in the primary, and as of June 10 roughly 8,710,017 votes have been counted. With 27.9% of the vote, Becerra has 2,400,768, while Hilton has 24.9% and 2,143,534 votes. Steyer is at 22.5% and 1,937,388 votes, respectively. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco is the only other candidate to secure over 10% of the vote, capturing 876,494 votes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so humbled and honored to be moving on to the general election, to become your next governor,\u201d Becerra said in a video posted to social media. \u201cCalifornia has spoken, loudly and proudly. We want a working-class governor who cannot be bought, cannot be bullied and will never back down. California, we\u2019re just getting started.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery single person in California who wants change will now have the chance to vote for it,\u201d Hilton said in a video posted to social media. \u201cI want you to know that I\u2019m running for governor to be of service to you, to make sure that our government gets the basics right, so that you can live your dreams, follow your dream. That\u2019s what California is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a concession statement, Steyer thanked his supporters, celebrated his campaign and pivoted to an endorsement of Becerra.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor now, we must stay focused,\u201d he wrote. \u201cDonald Trump is the embodiment of the corporations\u2019 craven, soulless, profit-first model of politics, and it is absolutely essential that his handpicked candidate does not hold the keys to California. It would be a travesty for Steve Hilton to win the governorship, and Californians must unite behind Xavier Becerra to ensure he does not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other Democratic candidates from the crowded primary field released similar statements.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving spent time with Xavier Becerra on the campaign trail, I know he will stand strong against Donald Trump and look out for Californians across the state,\u201d wrote former Rep. Katie Porter in a statement. \u201cCalifornians deserve a governor who will fight for our values and bring down costs, not bend the knee to MAGA extremism that will take our state backwards. I look forward to working with my fellow Democratic candidates to elect Xavier Becerra in November.\u201d<\/p>\n
In California\u2019s unique jungle primary system, two candidates advance to a general election runoff, regardless of party preference. Historically, Becerra would have an advantage over Hilton due to the state\u2019s longtime Democratic hold. California has not voted in a Republican governor since Arnold Schwarzenegger left office in 2011. Schwarzenegger was also the last Republican to hold a statewide elected office, and there has not been a Republican representing the state in the U.S. Senate since 1992. A GOP presidential candidate has not won California\u2019s electoral votes since 1988.<\/p>\n
Still, Hilton, who previously served as the director of strategy for U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron from 2010-12, has the backing of President Donald Trump. The British-born Hilton became an American citizen in 2021 and has since renounced his British citizenship. He is largely known in the United States for his contributions to cable news networks such as Fox News, including his series \u201cThe Next Revolution.\u201d He has also promoted several conspiracy theories regarding COVID-19 during the pandemic.<\/p>\n
Becerra, in addition to his tenure in President Joe Biden\u2019s administration, was attorney general of California from 2017-21, succeeding Kamala Harris, who was elected U.S. senator and later chosen as vice president. Becerra previously served from 1993-2017 as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, where he represented Eastern Los Angeles. He started his political career as California state assemblyman in 1990.<\/p>\n
In races for Los Angeles representation in state houses, Assemblyman Rick Chavez Zbur has secured over half of the 51st District\u2019s votes and will face digital communications strategist and fellow Democrat Colin D. Hernandez, who had received 22% of the district\u2019s votes as of press time on June 10, in the November election. While Los Angeles city and county elections avoid runoffs if a primary candidate receives over 50% of the vote, statewide offices still hold a general election with the candidate that receives the second most votes.<\/p>\n
West Hollywood Councilman John Erickson has been called to advance to the runoff for the 24th District\u2019s state senate seat. So far, Erickson, who is a Democrat, has over 20% of the vote and is likely to face Democratic strategist Brian Goldsmith, who has over 18% of the vote compared to Republican G. Rick Marshall\u2019s 17.5%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Candidate Xavier Becerra has secured the most votes in the California governor primary. (photo courtesy of Xavier Becerra)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-355614","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\/355614","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=355614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}