Xavier Becerra has a lengthy political resume, including serving as the attorney general of California and secretary of health and human services under the Biden administration. He hopes his next job is as the governor of the Golden State.

First, he has to increase his name recognition and set himself apart from the other candidates in a crowded field. He sits down with NBC 7 political reporter Joey Safchik on Politically Speaking as he makes his case to voters, answering questions on immigration, homelessness and health care.

The transcript of the interview is below:

Safchik: So this field is already pretty crowded. How do you distinguish yourself, and how do you increase your name recognition?

Becerra: Well, I’m the last one to come in, but now I’m surging. And the recent polls are showing that we are gaining ground. I think that’s because we’re focusing on what Californians really want to see. Someone who knows how to get us out of crises, whether it’s the affordability crisis, this health care crisis, the public safety crisis, as the former attorney general of our state, as someone who has had to fight to pull us out of COVID, as the secretary of health and human services. I think more and more people are crystallizing that. This is not a time to have a governor who’s a novice at the steering wheel.

Safchik: What do you want people to know about you?

Becerra: That I’m a fighter. That I stand for what my parents always did. And that is work hard. My dad used to say when I was growing up, he’d tell me, ‘Mijo, if I can get up and go to work tomorrow, it’s going to be a good day.’ And, you know, by saying, ‘Son, if I can just go out and do work,’ what he was saying, it’s not just going to be a good day because it’s a good day. It’s a good day because he can put food on the table. When you live paycheck to paycheck, you really have to have a lot of good days. Well, I get to say the same thing. If I get up and go to work, it’s going to be a good day. But now I get to make a big difference for people like my parents, a construction worker and a clerical worker.

Safchik: What single issue do you want people to associate you with?

Becerra: I’d say fighter. I had to fight. I’m the first in my family to get a university degree. I’m the first to get elected to office. I’m the first Latino to serve as attorney general for California. First Latino to serve as the secretary of health and human services. You have to fight to get through that door. My parents had to fight through, get through those doors. My dad would tell me the stories that when he was a young man, the signs right outside the establishment. ‘No dogs, negros or Mexicans allowed.’ You have to fight to get where you want to go. I hope to be able to fight for Californians, who want to be able to buy that house, send their kids to college, retire in dignity, and you’re going to need someone who knows how to fight, who knows how to win. When I was attorney general, during Trump’s first term, I ended up defending our state to the tune of having to sue Donald Trump 100 and more than 120 times to defend the people of California, defend our values, defend our resources.

Safchik: What did you learn taking the first Trump administration to court 122 times?

Becerra: That we can win, that we just have to know how to fight, that we have to be smart, that while I’m fighting the Trump administration, same time I’m working with the Trump administration, the same time I was fighting to stop ICE immigration raids, where they were trying to get our state law enforcement officers to do the immigration raids with them. And we were able to stop them in court. At the same time, I’m working hand in hand with them to do the drug interdiction, to do the organized crime, takedowns, to do the sex trafficking takedowns. So you got to know how to work with them, stand up against them. And that’s what I did as AG, and that’s what I’ll do as governor.

Safchik: As AG, the courts are your domain, right? If you’re governor, what other mechanisms do you have at your disposal to push back against the Trump administration?

Becerra: Joey, here’s where I say, that I won most of my cases as attorney general, not so much in the court of law, but in the court of public opinion, because I think the people knew that what we were doing was standing up for them. And as governor, I definitely will use the courts of law where I need to. But here’s where I use the court of public opinion, the people, to try to move an agenda, to try to sway the legislature, to go where the people want to go.

Safchik: Let’s talk about the court of public opinion. Gov. Gavin Newsom is making waves with his social media strategy in recent days, imitating some of the president’s style and tendencies. How is that landing with you?

Becerra: You know, to each his own. I’m going to, I’m going to do what I got to do. I see Gov. Newsom, President Trump, doing what they got to do. So long as you do it within the confines of the law, so long as you’re being respectful to people, do what you got to do. Everyone’s got their style. Use it.

Safchik: Would you take up the mantle or not? Or do you think your approach would be different?

Becerra: You know, I always tell young folks who are looking to be in elected office, if you want to know where a leader is going to take, you know where they’ve come from. I’ve been around a long time. I have a personal story. As the son of immigrants, I have a story in my career in elected office. I’m not going to change that. I’m going to be who I’ve always been. If I’m putting out a tweet or if I’m putting out some kind of post, you’ll have a sense of what I’m going to say because that’s what I’ve been saying for more than three decades.

Safchik: Let’s talk about redistricting. You support this special election. Tell me why.

Becerra: Because when someone tries to rig the system, put their thumb on the scale so that you can’t have your fair share of what you’re sending to the federal government, that’s not fair. And you just can’t let them continue to punch you out without fighting back. And it’s not right that Donald Trump wants to skew the Congress so he doesn’t lose the Congress. Donald Trump fears that in 2026, since he’s been unable to deliver on his promise to lower prices, on his promise to stop the war in Ukraine, on his promise to provide better access to your new home or a new car that he’s trying to distract, and where he can’t distract, he’s going to try to press the scale in his favor. And so he’s trying to distort the Congress by getting Texas to redraw their congressional district lines. So as he said, explicitly, ‘So I can get five more Republican seats in the House of Representatives.’ That’s not fair because that means every other state, including California, with the largest congressional delegation, would lose. We would lose our say, our vote in Congress, if Donald Trump is able to skew the election, tilt the playing field. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to fight back. We’re going to make sure that if Donald Trump is going to play this game and, Gov. Abbott and Republicans in Texas are going to play that game, we’re going to fight back.

Safchik: How do you set yourself apart from the other Democrats in this race? You all have an opportunity to make a name for yourself here.

Becerra: Well, I think it’s going to become clear. I’m the health care governor of the future. I’m going to be someone who, day one, makes it clear in California, if your child needs to go to the hospital, you won’t have to hesitate because you’re not sure you can pay for it in California. If you need to have access nearby to a doctor, that’s going to be what you get. If I’m the governor of California, you will have a governor who is a health care governor. Certainly I could talk about how I could be a public safety governor, because I was the public safety top cop as the attorney general for California. That will be important as well. As the first in my family to get a college degree at a university, I can be the education governor. But I simply want people to know that I can be the champion, the fighter for folks, because I’ve done it. I don’t have to just promise you to do it. I don’t have to just say, I’ll do it. I’ve done it.

Safchik: Secretary of health and human Services under the Biden administration. Speaking of health care, are issues about that, about Medicare, Medi-Cal, getting lost in the noise right now?

Becerra: A bit, because there’s so much going on. But they won’t because the moment you find out you no longer have health insurance and can’t see your doctor, it hits you. The moment you see how families around you are getting sicker because they don’t have their health insurance anymore, it hits you. And so people will begin to see. You cannot hide a $1 trillion cut to the Medicaid program, which is Medi-Cal here in California.

Safchik: How do you balance creating headwinds for the Trump administration, like you’ve talked about, with delivering for Californians on issues like health care, like the cost of living?

Becerra: Yeah. You just have to know how to get work done. You need to know how to fight for something and fight against something. I’ve had to fight for vaccines for every American, regardless of their income, zip code, or status. And we did it. Some 700 million COVID vaccine shots went into the arms of Americans while I was secretary of health and human services, something that had never happened before. At the same time, as attorney general of California, I fought against the attempts of the federal government to deny us our funding for local law enforcement because we wouldn’t do ICE raids with ICE. I fought for women’s right to have access to reproductive care when they needed it. I fought for our ability to keep our young kids, especially young women, from being swept, swept up into this sex trafficking rings that you see throughout the state of California. We could do a lot of things, but you got to know how to fight for and fight against. And someone may say, I am ready to fight for or fight against. But it’s something different to say. That’s what I promised to do because I’ve never done it versus someone like me who’s actually done it as attorney general, as secretary of health and human services, and as a member of Congress and a state legislator.

Safchik: If immigration policy coming from the federal government persists in this direction, by the time, let’s say, you were elected as governor, what would you do about it?

Becerra: Joey, you know, you first have to try to deal with these things up front. I will do everything I can to work with this administration because that’s what you have to do. The federal credit is so important to everything we do in this state. At the same time, we got to let them know that’s off limits. There are red lines and what the federal government can do, red lines, because the U.S. Constitution sets those red lines, not because I say it. And we’re going to make sure that the federal government respects the state of California, respects our people. We deserve to have those trillions of tax dollars that Californians send to the Federal Treasury. No one sends more tax money to the Federal Treasury than does California. We deserve to get it back. We’re going to fight for it. We’ll work with them, but we’ll fight where we must.

Safchik: What about homelessness? Such a huge issue in this state. Something I haven’t heard talked about so much as this election is heating up. Where do you stand on that issue? Gov. Newsom took a lot of heat for being too tough on homelessness. What would your policy look like?

Becerra: No one should be sleeping on the streets. I think we all agree with that. And no one should just walk past someone sleeping on the streets. Here’s I think what’s going on is we are seeing it so much and so often that sometimes it numbs you. You can’t let it numb you because these are human beings. They’re brothers and sisters. And so first and foremost, we have to make sure we don’t become a society that lets you sleep on the streets. So we’re going to provide the support. We provide billions of dollars in support already to our cities and our counties. As governor, I will continue to provide that support. I will expect accountability for that money. And I say that as a former attorney general who would prosecute those who misuse taxpayer dollars. And I say that as the secretary of health and human services, who worked on helping localities pull people off the streets. But here’s, Joey, what I think is different the way I would do this. I say that it is critical that today, today, we start telling people that no one else, when I’m governor, no more Californians, if you’re working hard, no more Californians who are working hard will lose their shelter, will lose their, the roof over their head. My job as governor should be to tell the mayors and the county supervisors, on my watch, I’m not going to increase the number of homelessness. And on my watch, I will work with you with the resources we provide to make sure we pull people off the streets so we don’t grow the homeless population. In fact, we shrink it by working together. But I’m committing to them. I’m not going to let anyone who works hard in California ever lose the roof over their head.

Safchik: That is a lofty goal. How do you make that reality?

Becerra: If you believe it, if you have faith, if you—

Safchik: Policy wise.

Becerra: Policy wise, use the resources that we have to tell people that I’m going to focus on Californians who are currently in a home, renting or owning. If you’re in a home and you’re working, when I’m governor, you’re not losing your home. You may find yourself in difficult straits. We’re going to try to work with you because the last thing I need is for you to become homeless, because it will cost me so much more money to pull you off the streets than keep you in your home.

Safchik: Major issue here. The sewage crisis.

Becerra: Yes.

Safchik: Would you declare a state of emergency?

Becerra: I essentially did when I was secretary of health and human Services because of the health crisis that occurs here as a result of the Tijuana River and the pollution that you constantly see. So, absolutely, we work closely. When I was attorney general, I sued the federal government because they weren’t acting quickly enough to try to clean up the the sewage and contamination that occurs all the time in this area. Absolutely. As governor, I would do the same.

Safchik: Very quickly. On a lighter note, this governor will be leading the state during the 2028 Olympics. What would you want the world to see of California?

Becerra: I want them to see California. I want them to see who we are, what we do, why we’re such a destination point for the world. I want them to see what we have created and why we have become the fourth largest economy in the world. And I hope as we show them all those things, we show them we know how to tackle the affordability crisis. We know how to become the fourth largest economy and let every family feel like they are sharing in their prosperity because they will, like my parents, a construction worker and a clerical worker, somehow figure out how to save enough money to buy their own home, send their kids to college or the military, have their health insurance and then retire in dignity. That’s what I want people to see is California is the destination point. California gets it. California is an economic juggernaut because we get it. Because our strength, our power, comes from the people who work in California, our families.