Xavier Becerra
Xavier Becerra walked into CNN’s Burbank studio Wednesday night as the heavy favorite to be California’s next governor. He walked out the same way. But anyone expecting the debate to demonstrate why the state’s former attorney general and Biden Cabinet secretary holds such a commanding lead in the race was disappointed.
For 60 minutes, the Democratic Party nominee, and Steve Hilton, his Republican challenger, seemingly fought to a draw in a race in which Becerra has been cruising.
Becerra’s campaign has kept him on a short leash for months, rationing public appearances and agreeing to exactly one general-election debate. Hilton opened the night’s stage by welcoming him to the campaign and thanking CNN “for bringing Xavier out of hiding.”
Given that the expectations for the well-seasoned but lackluster former state attorney general and Biden administration Health and Human Services secretary were low, Becerra cleared them comfortably. Becerra was sharper, quicker, and more articulate than many observers expected, and at times genuinely combative.
One word, 40 times
Becerra’s game plan was simple and predictable. By CNN’s count he said Donald Trump’s name at least 40 times in an hour – and wasn’t shy about tying Hilton to the president.
“He’s your supporter – you chased his endorsement,” Becerra asserted.
Asked about Hilton’s plan to eliminate state income taxes for middle-class Californians, Becerra answered: “You’re going to end up with Trump results if you follow Steve Hilton’s plans.”
Asked about artificial intelligence, Becerra went to the same well: “If you listen closely, you can hear Donald Trump in that response by Steve Hilton.”
On oil drilling, on homelessness, on immigration, on housing, the answer kept circling back to a man who is dominating national political headlines but has rarely campaigned in California and will not be on the California ballot in November.
It’s a predictable tactic in a state where the president is deeply unpopular, but it’s not a governing agenda and some 20 minutes into the debate, Hilton said what many viewers may have been thinking.
“All you ever say is Trump, Trump, Trump, and that’s nothing but an insult to every Californian,” the former Fox News host remarked.
The night’s sharpest contrast came on the issue of employment.
“Who’s been in charge when all those jobs have gone?” Hilton asked, referring to the state’s flagging film industry.
“Donald Trump,” Becerra replied.
“The Democrats,” Hilton shot back.
Both men were sticking to their scripts. Becerra wants voters thinking about Washington. Hilton wants them thinking about Sacramento, where Democrats have held every lever of power for 16 years.
The fourth man on the stage
Trump wasn’t the only absent figure who loomed large in the Burbank studio. Gavin Newsom, term-limited and leaving office in January – and presumably running for president in 2028 – also figured prominently. Becerra spent the night running against the man in the White House while Hilton spent it running against the man in the governor’s office – and against the record Becerra is asking voters to extend.
That’s an awkward spot for Becerra. He was attorney general for the first two years of Newsom’s tenure, and much of what Hilton pressed him on, from affordability and fraud to billions spent vainly on homelessness, is a record the two Democrats share. Every time Becerra pointed to Washington, Hilton pointed back to Sacramento and the governor whose job Becerra wants. Becerra was happy to keep the fight on Trump. He showed little appetite for a fight over Newsom’s record.
Hilton’s hits
When Becerra attacked Hilton’s proposed tax cuts with the old saw that the “definition of insanity” was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, Hilton snapped back: “Like voting Democrat.”
It was an easy opening, and Becerra handed it to him. Hilton then used Becerra’s “insanity” line against him repeatedly. On the issue of whether California has over-regulated everything from business regulations to housing construction, Hilton used it to bash the Democratic supermajority control of Sacramento.
“The definition of insanity is believing that the people who put the red tape in place are somehow going to cut it,” he argued.
Hilton also pressed Becerra with specific questions about his record. When Becerra promised he would “cut red tape” to get more housing built, Hilton challenged him to name a time he had actually done so. The best he offered was his 2019 lawsuit against Huntington Beach for failing to meet state housing requirements, which is enforcing a mandate, not cutting regulations.
On affordability, the issue voters rank first, Hilton was crisp and consistent.
“The quickest way to get more money in people’s pockets is for the government to take less out,” he said.
On housing: “The quickest way to reduce the cost of housing is for the government to stop making it more expensive,” he added.
One can quarrel with the numbers, as Becerra did, arguing Hilton’s tax cuts would mostly help the wealthy and that Hilton’s “math doesn’t add up.” Hilton has said he’d pay for them by cutting high-speed rail, homelessness nonprofits, and 5% from all state departments’ budgets.
Hilton, whose lack of a necktie didn’t diminish his British accent, seems an unlikely populist. But he landed several punches while highlighting Becerra’s role as the Democratic establishment’s default choice.
“Xavier Becerra, you’re the candidate who is supported by the machine in Sacramento – the unions, big business, all these people that, for 16 years, have given us the highest cost of living in the country, made it impossible to build anything, given us the highest unemployment rate, the highest poverty rate.”
Becerra’s best moment
The son of Mexican immigrants, Becerra went after Hilton over federal enforcement raids, which are unpopular in California: “Steve thinks it’s perfect to let ICE mercenaries come on into California, and he welcomes it.”
Hilton responded by criticizing Becerra’s own record at HHS, where the department lost track of thousands of migrant children who had crossed the border alone.
“And you stand here lecturing people about immigration when you treated these most vulnerable children, unaccompanied children, in this way,” Hilton lectured.
He also reminded viewers that, as HHS secretary, Becerra kept a mask mandate in place for 2- and 3-year-olds in Head Start programs. Becerra’s half-hearted response was that he was following the medical experts’ advice at the time and that allowing “politicians” to dictate health policy is a fraught approach.
Becerra was at his most likable defending Hollywood. “We’ve got to keep Hollywood in Hollywood,” he said. “We don’t want it to be in Sydney, Australia. It shouldn’t be SydneyWood.”
Where Hilton came up short
As the underdog, Hilton had to make the most of a debate that will likely be the first and the last less than five weeks before Election Day. Yet, he was flatter than usual for stretches and neglected to highlight some of his interesting policy proposals and campaign promises, including lowering gas prices to $3 a gallon, eliminating taxes for people making less than $150,000, and cutting utility bills in half.
Hilton, who has spent the past year touring all 58 California counties, including Latino-majority cities most Republicans skip, also failed to press Becerra on the question that gave Kamala Harris the most trouble in her failed 2024 presidential campaign: What’s one thing you would do different than your predecessor?
Some of his swings landed hard. He read out former Obama and Biden adviser Susan Rice’s reported description of Becerra as an “idiot” and a “bitch-ass.” Becerra had no real response, simply waving it off: “Since when do I have to respond to politicians?”
That’s an incongruous line from a man who has been a career politician for 30 years, and it left Rice’s harsh verdict sitting there unanswered.
Yet, Hilton seemed surprised by some of the questions. He wandered into the weeds on vaccines, saying he supports vaccines but wants more parental discretion. That’s a defensible, nuanced position, but it’s not the type of punchy one-liner that rallies conservative base voters and wins over independents.
His housing pitch, built around counties bidding to host brand-new communities, is a bold idea that sounds great in a policy paper, but is difficult to convey in a 60-second answer.
Hilton is at his best when he keeps it simple: Costs are too high, Sacramento made them that way, and the people who did it are asking for four more years.
In the end, Hilton never fully shook the Trump label Becerra spent the night stitching onto him. He has said on the trail that “you can be anti-Trump and still vote for me.” He needed to explain why on Wednesday.
Where Becerra faltered
The low blow of the night was Becerra’s. Cornered on immigration, he turned personal and racial, telling Hilton, who emigrated from England: “You seem to welcome immigrants who look like you, but deport immigrants who look like me.” The suggestion that Hilton only wants white legal immigrants was a cheap shot, and Hilton chided his opponent for the racially divisive play.
“What a disgraceful remark that was,” he responded.
The AI exchange went little better. Hilton questioned whether Becerra could be trusted to regulate the industry, asking how much his campaign had taken in campaign contributions from OpenAI and Anthropic. Instead of answering, Becerra rattled off a list of other tech companies he had sued – Meta, Amazon, and Google – which was not the question.
Homelessness produced the night’s biggest surprise. Becerra promised to clear every homeless encampment in the state, a tougher line than any prominent California Democrat has taken. But he offered no specific plan for actually reducing homelessness. He promised to keep up “investments” in homeless services while focusing on addiction and mental illness, which is the same prescription Newsom has been writing for years.
Becerra never explained why that approach would work now. California has spent more than $24 billion on homelessness under Newsom, the problem has barely budged, and the spending has produced some egregious cases of fraud. Hilton cornered him on it, reminding viewers that during the spring primary debates Becerra gave Newsom an “A for effort” on homelessness. Few Californians who step over tents on their way to work would grade it that way.
Becerra never offered anything that sounded like a new idea or an original thought. His campaign refrain, that he is “not running on inflated promises,” is a nice line for a frontrunner, but hardly aspirational. Nearly every answer became another attack on Trump, which is not an answer to California’s problems.
There was some talk about housing, health insurance, and AI in state government. There was no big picture of what California looks like in 2030 under a Becerra administration, or why it would look different from the last 16 years.
One notable moment of agreement: both men oppose the billionaire wealth tax on the November ballot, even though most California Democrats support it.
Will it change anything?
Let’s be honest about the electoral math and the possible impact of one debate. Becerra led 60% to 38% in the latest mid-September Public Policy Institute of California poll, and 58% to 33% in the UC Berkeley IGS late August poll. Mail ballots start landing within days. Partly because Becerra has run a sleepy campaign, voters are mostly tuned out, and this debate did little to draw them in for the final weeks.
Still, despite Becerra’s lead, Hilton is asking the right questions, tapping into a high level of deep dissatisfaction Californians are feeling as costs continue to rise along with distrust in basic government competence. In the latest PPI survey a majority of likely California voters said the state is headed in the wrong direction.
Hilton’s best moments came when he asked the simple question: If you’re unhappy with how California is going, why keep voting for the people who got you here?
Becerra never answered it. Given the huge advantage Democrats enjoy in California, he was banking on the likelihood that doesn’t have to.
This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.
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[ H/T WorldNetDaily ]
