{"id":357576,"date":"2026-06-12T08:33:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T08:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/357576\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T08:33:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T08:33:21","slug":"poll-shows-becerra-with-big-early-advantage-over-hilton-in-california-governors-race-the-mercury-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/357576\/","title":{"rendered":"Poll shows Becerra with big early advantage over Hilton in California governor\u2019s race \u2013 The Mercury News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Republican Steve Hilton advanced this week to California\u2019s November governor\u2019s race<\/a>, but the first public look at his matchup with Democrat Xavier Becerra shows the former political commentator starting the general election at a steep disadvantage.<\/p>\n

The poll by the Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies<\/a>, conducted May 19-24 before voting was completed in the June 2 primary election and the matchup became clear, found 52% of the state\u2019s registered voters support Becerra, while Hilton was the choice of 31% and 17% were undecided. Becerra led Hilton among both men and women, all age groups and races, and in every region of the state except the North Coast and the Sierra.<\/p>\n

Berkeley IGS noted that Becerra\u2019s 20-point lead over Hilton reflects the fact that \u201cDemocratic registrants outnumber GOP voters in this state by 20 percentage points, giving Democratic candidates a huge advantage in general elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cXavier Becerra\u2019s lead makes it increasingly likely that California will elect its first Latino Governor in November,\u201d said IGS Co-Director G. Cristina Mora. \u201cIn a state with a long-standing Latino plurality whose electoral and financial power is only recently becoming more widely recognized, the potential election of Becerra reflects in part decades of Latino organizing that has built coalitions across communities, not just mobilized one constituency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Becerra would not be the first Latino to serve as California governor. Romualdo Pacheco,<\/a> a Republican born in Santa Barbara and of Mexican ancestry, was elected lieutenant governor and served as governor for about 10 months in 1875 after Gov. Newton Booth left office for the U.S. Senate. But Becerra would be the first Latino elected directly to the office.<\/p>\n

The poll surveyed 8,578 registered California voters, 5,472 of whom were considered likely primary voters. The margin of error was plus or minus 2 percentage points.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump\u2019s endorsement of Hilton, which helped boost him over fellow Republican Chad Bianco in the primary, may weigh on the Republican in November, the poll suggested. While the president remains popular among the state\u2019s Republicans, the poll found only 29% of California registered voters overall approve of Trump\u2019s job performance and 69% disapprove.<\/p>\n

The Berkeley poll found that both Becerra and Hilton are popular with registered voters of their own parties, with more than four in five showing support. But among voters who register with no party preference or other parties, Becerra led Hilton 43% to 28%, with 29% undecided.<\/p>\n

The results suggest Hilton will have to broaden his coalition and compete for voters who\u2019ve historically tended to vote Democratic. Hilton was in Los Angeles on Thursday with Gloria Romero, a Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor who advanced this week to the November election, where she will face Democrat Fiona Ma<\/a>. The pair were at a Hispanic-community event focused on affordability and other issues, according to his campaign.<\/p>\n

In a statement Tuesday, after The Associated Press projected Hilton, a former political commentator, had edged out billionaire progressive Democrat Tom Steyer to advance to the November election against Becerra, Hilton said it is \u201can incredible honor to be chosen by Californians to lead the movement for change in the greatest state in the greatest nation on earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t wait to get started on the most high-energy campaign this state has ever seen,\u201d Hilton said of his bid to become the first Republican elected statewide since 2006 when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was reelected.<\/p>\n

Hilton campaign spokesman Hector Barajas said in a statement about Thursday\u2019s poll that \u201cXavier Becerra is the last person who should be asking for a promotion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more voters learn about his record, the more they\u2019ll see that Becerra isn\u2019t the answer to California\u2019s problems,\u201d Barajas said. \u201cHe\u2019s one of the reasons we have them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Becerra, who served as health secretary in the Biden administration and as a California attorney general, congressional representative and state lawmaker, said in a social media post Tuesday, \u201cthe challenges facing California won\u2019t wait, and neither will we. Let\u2019s carry this momentum all the way to November.\u201d<\/p>\n

The poll also found the same percentage of likely primary voters held unfavorable views of Becerra as\u00a0did of Hilton, 38%. But 44% held favorable views of Becerra compared with 31% who held favorable views of Hilton.<\/p>\n

Steyer, a former hedge fund founder who left his company to pursue environmental activism and politics, was viewed favorably by 39% of voters but unfavorably by 43%, the poll found.<\/p>\n

Becerra signaled in a social media post Thursday the president\u2019s unpopularity will be a point he\u2019ll stress in the November campaign, suggesting his opponent will \u201chand Sacramento to Donald Trump.\u201d On Wednesday, Becerra shared a Hilton post thanking Trump for his support in the primary campaign, and said: \u201cAll you need to know.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Republican Steve Hilton advanced this week to California\u2019s November governor\u2019s race, but the first public look at his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6036,138720,145594,7,145592,145591,115468,9,8,400,90820,133100,58578,67249,145595,145593,145596,17382,145597,3707],"class_list":["post-357576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-bay-area-news","tag-berkeley-igs-poll","tag-ca-governor-candidate","tag-california","tag-california-election-runoff","tag-california-governor-poll","tag-california-governor-race-2026","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-california-politics","tag-california-primary-election","tag-donald-trump-endorsement","tag-fiona-ma","tag-gloria-romero","tag-latino-governor-california","tag-mercury-news-politics","tag-republican-vs-democrat-california","tag-steve-hilton","tag-voter-registration-advantage-california","tag-xavier-becerra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357576","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=357576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}