Affordable housing, homelessness, adapting the health care system to combat actions by the federal government and creating more economic opportunity are the immediate needs that California gubernatorial candidate Betty Yee plans to tackle if elected in 2026. <\/p>\n
Yee, a Democrat, was elected twice statewide as controller and previously served on the State Board of Equalization. She is running in a crowded field, hoping to succeed Governor Gavin Newsom, who is term-limited. <\/p>\n
In an exclusive interview with Annenberg Media, she said she would be open to a single-payer healthcare system in California. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest barrier to moving to that system, aside from just the transition itself, is people who have health coverage now and don\u2019t know how their health coverage is going to look after we transition to a single payer system,\u201d Yee said.<\/p>\n
She said she thinks \u201cthere might be an ability to pilot this as we look at how we rebuild our Medi-Cal program here in California and I would like the opportunity to pilot that so we can see what it means to have a single unifying finance system.\u201d <\/p>\n
When asked what she would do differently from Governor Newsom, she pointed to accounting for every public dollar. <\/p>\n
\u201cStarting new programs that may not necessarily be able to be sustained with dollars I think without really sunsetting some of the old programs, or at least to think about whether those still have value, I think to me is one of the areas of governance that we\u2019ve not done well,\u201d Yee said. <\/p>\n
She said that when delivering services, the right place in government needs to be held accountable for the outcomes. <\/p>\n
Yee said that she agrees \u201cwholeheartedly\u201d with Newsom in his response to President Donald Trump over his proposed Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education. <\/p>\n
Newsom said that if USC signed the Compact, they would lose state funding, in response to the Trump administration\u2019s federal funding threat if they refused to sign the agreement. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou look at institutions of public higher education, this is where academic freedom and frankly, free speech and liberalism is born and to try to put a quash on that by threats of pulling out funding, we\u2019re all fighting for our democracy and that\u2019s at the core of what really our democracy is about,\u201d Yee said.<\/p>\n
Yee said that homelessness is not because people are not working but because the cost of rent is too high. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have working families who are unhoused, people who work, who just can\u2019t afford to pay the rent,\u201d Yee said. \u201cI would rather think about rent stabilization type programs and rent subsidy programs before we actually have them become unhoused so then we are paying more to just try to get them through the spiral of homelessness and being able to be in supportive housing.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked about Senate Bill 79, a new law to build more housing by transit corridors, she said her feelings were mixed. <\/p>\n
\u201cI support transit-oriented development but I also support being sure that the accountability for what happens with housing resides with the right level of government,\u201d Yee said. <\/p>\n
SB 79 was signed into law by Governor Newsom on October 10 and rezones the entire state to allow for multifamily homes up to seven stories high near transit corridors. The legislation was opposed in a resolution by the Los Angeles City Council in an 8-5 vote and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass argued the law circumvents local governments. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have an urgency with respect to the demand but at the same time I think the best accountability is making sure all those responsibilities are residing at the right level of government,\u201d Yee said. \u201cSo it remains to be seen whether that\u2019s gonna actually expedite the building of more affordable housing and units close to work or whether other factors are going to actually come to play that is gonna slow down building such as the lengthy permitting processes, the cost of materials, a lot of factors going into housing.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also called on fellow candidate Katie Porter, a former congresswoman from Orange County, to drop out of the race after she almost walked out of an interview with CBS Sacramento and was seen in a leaked video yelling expletives at a member of her staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s so much division and just dissension already among us around us and when I look at behavior like that\u2026 we all look bad, people lump us all together,\u201d Yee said. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd frankly, the rest of my colleagues who are running for office, haven\u2019t shown that kind of a demeanor and I just really do think that it\u2019s not appropriate for a gubernatorial candidate, which is why I asked her to exit the race and that\u2019s my own personal opinion,\u201d Yee continued. \u201cI think we have to conduct ourselves in ways that model being respectful and being open to different points of view.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond the viral moments, Yee pointed to the content of her response in that CBS Sacramento interview, indicating that she did not need Republican votes as another disqualifier. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis dismissal that she doesn\u2019t need certain people\u2019s votes,\u201d Yee said. We\u2019re here running for governor of California to represent everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other Democrats in the race include former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former United States Health and Human Services Secretary Xvaier Becerra, California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, former majority leader of the California State Assembly Ian Calderon and businessman Stephen Cloobeck. <\/p>\n
Republicans running include Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and former Fox News host Steve Hilton. <\/p>\n
The primary is scheduled for June 2, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Affordable housing, homelessness, adapting the health care system to combat actions by the federal government and creating more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[232,2975,4933,380,3702,3703,7,9,8,35460,28687,32164,35459,1751,536,383,989,457,1902,1493,35457,35462,35464,146,1755,35458,13,1362,1361,1748,4940,14040,35463,17382,23894,3581,3533,35461],"class_list":["post-57883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-232","tag-2975","tag-2026-midterm-elections","tag-affordable-housing","tag-antonio-villaraigosa","tag-betty-yee","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-california-state-controller","tag-chad-bianco","tag-compact-for-academic-excellence-in-higher-education","tag-controller","tag-democrats","tag-donald-trump","tag-economy","tag-elections","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-healthcare","tag-homelessness","tag-houisng","tag-ian-calderon","tag-june-2","tag-katie-porter","tag-medi-cal","tag-medicare-for-all","tag-politics","tag-prop-50","tag-proposition-50","tag-republicans","tag-senate-bill-79","tag-single-payer-healthcare","tag-stephen-cloobeck","tag-steve-hilton","tag-tony-thurmond","tag-university-of-southern-california","tag-usc","tag-xvaier-becerra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57883","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=57883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}