{"id":132052,"date":"2026-06-05T23:27:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T05:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/democrat-xavier-becerra-advances-to-general-election-in-race-for-california-governor\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T23:27:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T05:27:07","slug":"democrat-xavier-becerra-advances-to-general-election-in-race-for-california-governor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/democrat-xavier-becerra-advances-to-general-election-in-race-for-california-governor\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrat Xavier Becerra advances to general election in race for California governor"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"California
California gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra speaks during an election night event Tuesday, June 2, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo\/Jae C. Hong)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Jae C. Hong)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Democrat Xavier Becerra<\/a> advanced to the general election for California governor Friday after pitching himself as an experienced choice to lead the nation\u2019s most populous state and succeed Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.<\/p>\n

Becerra leaned on his more than 35 years in public office, including as state attorney general and U.S. health secretary, to argue that he was the most qualified candidate in a crowded field.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people of the great state of California, in the greatest nation on earth, have spoken \u2014 loudly and proudly,\u201d Becerra said in a statement. \u201cWe are never backing down. November, here we come.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was not yet clear who Becerra would face in the general election. His top rivals came down to Republican Steve Hilton, a former Fox News commentator backed by President Donald Trump, and Democrat Tom Steyer, a billionaire climate activist who poured $215 million of his own money into his campaign.<\/p>\n

Born and raised in Sacramento by Mexican immigrant parents, Becerra has a wife and three daughters. He has said his family\u2019s immigrant background mirrored his \u201cunderdog\u201d gubernatorial campaign, in which he initially failed to garner substantial support before surging in the final months.<\/p>\n

After one of the top Democratic contenders, Rep. Eric Swalwell, was accused of sexual assault and dropped out of the race, Becerra benefited from an opening to coalesce Democratic support. He quickly racked up key endorsements from labor groups and Latino legislative leaders.<\/p>\n

Becerra has vowed to maintain the state\u2019s mantle as a chief antagonist to President Donald Trump. As attorney general, he filed more than 120 legal actions<\/a> against the first Trump administration on everything from immigration to climate policy.<\/p>\n

The president has also been in a spat with the state over its drawn-out vote count. Trump made baseless claims about mass fraud Thursday, and on Friday, federal prosecutors said they opened investigations<\/a> into allegations of election fraud. Hilton called for California to limit mail ballots to those who request them, rather than sending them to all registered voters.<\/p>\n

During the campaign, Becerra\u2019s rivals scrutinized his leadership as health secretary during the COVID-19 pandemic and the unaccompanied migrant children crisis<\/a> in 2021, when Becerra\u2019s Department of Health and Human Services was responsible for shelters where they were housed. Some of them were criticized as having inadequate living conditions<\/a>, and there were also concerns about authorities failing to thoroughly vet sponsors with whom some children were placed.<\/p>\n

If elected, Becerra said, he would declare states of emergency to address high energy costs and housing shortages and to freeze home insurance rates.<\/p>\n

Though California is one of the nation\u2019s most diverse states, Becerra would be the first Latino to hold the office since the late 1800s.<\/p>\n

Newsom was barred by term limits from seeking a third stint in office.<\/p>\n

\"California
California gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton speaks during an election night event Tuesday, June 2, 2026, in Huntington Beach, Calif. (AP Photo\/Gregory Bull)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Gregory Bull)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Democratic
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer speaks during his election night watch party in San Francisco on Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (Santiago Mejia\/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)<\/span>(Santiago Mejia\/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

California gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra speaks during an election night event Tuesday, June 2, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo\/Jae C. Hong)(AP Photo\/Jae C. Hong) SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Democrat Xavier Becerra advanced to the general election for California governor Friday after pitching himself as an experienced choice to lead the nation\u2019s most populous state […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":132053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5734],"tags":[],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-132052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-associated-press"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132052"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=132052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}