{"id":517980,"date":"2026-11-04T06:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T06:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/517980\/"},"modified":"2026-11-04T06:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T06:30:10","slug":"xavier-becerra-defeats-steve-hilton-for-california-governor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/517980\/","title":{"rendered":"Xavier Becerra Defeats Steve Hilton for California Governor"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDemocrat Xavier Becerra<\/a> will be the next California<\/a> governor, according to the Associated Press, defeating Republican Steve Hilton<\/a> to become the state\u2019s first Latino governor in more than 150 years.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe AP called the race just after the polls closed in the Golden State at 8 p.m. on Tuesday. As of 9:30 p.m., with 49 percent of ballots counted, Becerra had a substantial lead<\/a> over Hilton.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat a great night to be a Californian. What a great night to be an American,\u201d Becerra said<\/a> in his victory speech. \u201cTo be the son of immigrants from a union household to be standing in victory with all of you. Now, I\u2019m not gonna sugarcoat it. These past two years have been tough: higher prices, more wars, corruption and lawlessness. But we hung in there; fought back. It felt like Mission: Impossible. We knew it was mission necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe added, \u201cAnd tonight, sisters and brothers, because of your tireless work, we can proudly utter the inspiring battle cry of our beloved and departed sister and warrior Dolores Huerta: \u2018S\u00ed, se puede.\u2019 Yes, we can! Yes, we did! We fought and we won!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHeading into election<\/a> night, the odds were already against Britain-born Hilton, as California hasn\u2019t elected a Republican to any statewide office in two decades. The last Republican to lead the Golden State was Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose term ended in 2011.<\/p>\n

\n\tGiven that registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by 4.6 million voters in the state, any Republican starts at a disadvantage. For Hilton specifically, receiving an endorsement from Donald Trump also likely didn\u2019t help, as the Republican president is widely loathed outside his conservative base in a state he often criticizes (Most recently, Trump was slammed<\/a> in October for suggesting Iran could \u201ctake out\u201d Los Angeles and San Diego if it were allowed to develop a nuclear weapon.)<\/p>\n

\n\tIn attempts to win over California voters, Hilton, a former Fox News host, also leveraged his media-savvy background with some headline-making campaign ads, specifically his \u201cJust Try It, California\u201d ad that featured <\/a>two young women making sexual innuendos and his viral \u201cBarstow street taco\u201d blunder from his video outside the original Del Taco location.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen it came to policies, while Hilton focused his campaign on targeting government waste, high living costs, education reform and public safety \u2014 such as wanting to eliminate state income tax on the first $150,000 earned by residents, lower gas prices to $3 per gallon, implement statewide homeless encampment bans and propose a film tax credit as high as 60 percent<\/a> to save Hollywood \u2014 it ultimately wasn\u2019t enough to overcome Becerra. <\/p>\n

\n\tOn Tuesday night, Hilton conceded to Becerra. \u201cMaybe this isn\u2019t the best year to be running for office as a Republican. Well, when we see what\u2019s going on around the country,\u201d he said in a speech<\/a> following his loss. \u201cBut I tell you what, this is the best place to be running for office as a Republican, because there is nowhere better than California. This is the greatest place in the greatest nation on earth. And it has been an honor and a joy to travel this beautiful state of ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI just want to tell you right now, the change we hoped for may be delayed, but the change is coming,\u201d Hilton added. \u201cOur fight goes on, and I\u2019ll be there with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Sacramento-born Becerra, who previously served as California\u2019s attorney general and the 25th U.S. secretary of health and human services under President Joe Biden, had a slow start early in his primary campaign. But after Democratic contender Eric Swalwell suspended his campaign amid sexual misconduct allegations, Becerra consolidated support and utilized a seven-figure ad blitz to surge past Democratic rivals like Tom Steyer just weeks ahead of the primary election in June. <\/p>\n

\n\tWhile his campaign centered on lowering the cost of living, expanding healthcare and investing in state infrastructure, he now has his work cut out for him to deliver for Californians, who have expressed concerns surrounding affordability, housing and homelessness. Specifically, Becerra aims to double the rate of home building in the state, work toward a universal single-payer health care system and propose a tax on the state\u2019s highest earners.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for Hollywood, which has faced a significant production exodus<\/a> in the state, Becerra wants to propose <\/a>a law that studios\/streamers must provide performance data to everyone and expand entertainment tax credits based on specific areas \u201cwhere we are losing work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBecerra is set to be sworn into office on Jan. 5, 2027, succeeding Gov. Gavin Newsom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Democrat Xavier Becerra will be the next California governor, according to the Associated Press, defeating Republican Steve Hilton…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,204,989,198665,13,17382,3707],"class_list":["post-517980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-election","tag-elections","tag-midterms-2026","tag-politics","tag-steve-hilton","tag-xavier-becerra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517980","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=517980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}