Becerra and Hilton advance in California governor’s race

A week after polls closed in California’s closely watched open gubernatorial primary last Tuesday—following a slow trickle of votes that fueled unsubstantiated claims of fraud from the president—Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton will advance to the November general election, winnowing down a crowded race to succeed two-term Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has held the position since 2019.

Since 2011, California has had a “jungle primary” system that allows voters to choose any one candidate for statewide offices, like the governor’s seat, regardless of their party—a method that sometimes yields runoffs of two Democrats or two Republicans. Out of the 62 names on the ballot, Becerra, the former state Attorney General and Health and Human Services Secretary under Biden, and Trump-endorsed Republican and former Fox News host Steve Hilton were the top two vote-getters, receiving 27.9 and 25 percent of the vote, respectively, as of Tuesday night. Tom Steyer, a billionaire businessman, climate activist, and 2020 Democratic presidential contender, placed third, with 22.5 percent.

The lead-up to the primary election was marked by the dropping out of then-frontrunner Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell in April, who subsequently resigned from Congress following sexual assault allegations first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. With no clear runner-up on the Democratic side, some worried that votes would be split among the handful of leading Democrats on the ballot, potentially resulting in Republicans taking the top two spots. (A Republican hasn’t won a race for California governor since moderate former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was reelected in 2006.)

With the field wide open, wealthy donors, special interest groups, and large corporations spent a record-breaking amount of money trying to influence the outcome of the primary. After Swalwell dropped out of the race, most of his supporters seemingly consolidated behind Beccerra, the favorite of the state Democratic establishment. Becerra also received significant backing from oil and gas companies, which spent millions of dollars in support of him and against his Democratic rival. Steyer, the former hedge fund manager, who has promised to divest from fossil fuels and vowed not to accept funding from the industry, contributed more than $200 million of his own money to his campaign.

The candidate with the second-most contributions was San Jose’s first-term mayor Matt Mahan, a moderate Democrat representing a key tech stronghold who entered the race late with support from Silicon Valley. Although venture capitalists and executives from Big Tech companies like Google, Amazon, and Palantir donated tens of millions to his campaign, Mahan received less than 4 percent of the vote—behind the roughly 10 percent won by Republican Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who seized more than half a million ballots in last year’s special election in an alleged investigation into ballot count discrepancies, and former Democratic Rep. Katie Porter, who received slightly more than 4 percent. While Porter, the only woman among the top six candidates, was well-known for flipping a Republican-held House seat in 2018 and grilling CEOs during congressional hearings, her campaign suffered after a series of viral setbacks. 

Now, Becerra and Hilton will face off to become the next governor of the Golden State—although any path to the governorship will likely be a struggle for Hilton, given Trump’s unpopularity in the state.