Candidates for California Governor Target Becerra in Testy Debate

Becerra, who has recently climbed in polls following the exit of former Rep. Eric Swalwell amid multiple sexual misconduct allegations, faced pointed questions about his stance on single-payer health care and the oversight of his former chief of staff. Sean McCluskie, former longtime chief of staff to Becerra, has pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy and for bank and wire fraud in a scheme allegedly involving stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from Becerra’s dormant campaign committee.

“I think everyone’s invoking my name,” Becerra said late in the debate. “It’s nice to hear my name quite a bit or at least pronounced as it should be.”

A month out from the June 2 primary, the California governor’s race remains wide open as ballots started arriving in mailboxes over the past few days. Becerra and billionaire Tom Steyer have each failed to pull decisively ahead, and a string of debates has done little to thin the crowded field, which GOP candidate Steve Hilton still leads as Democratic voters remain splintered.

On Tuesday, however, one thing became clear: Becerra is now the candidate everyone else is running against.

Billionaire Tom Steyer, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, and former Rep. Katie Porter challenged Becerra on whether he genuinely supports single-payer health care. Porter pressed Becerra to give a direct yes-or-no answer on single-payer, arguing that simply covering all Californians with some form of health insurance isn’t comparable.

“Covering all Californians with something is not single-payer,” Porter asserted. “It’s not even federal Medicare For All.”

When asked directly whether he supports single-payer, Becerra pushed back on reports that he had walked back his position: “I haven’t changed. And so those reports were inaccurate. I continue to be for Medicare for All.”

He also deflected Porter’s pressure by reframing the debate around outcomes rather than labels.

“Hey Katie, the answer there is that Californians don’t care what you call it so long as they have affordable health care that they can use to take their child to the doctor or the hospital,” he remarked.

Hilton argued that the only way to “deal with health care” in California is to stop spending money on “free health care for illegal immigrants who shouldn’t even be in the country.”

Mahan carved out the middle ground, accusing Becerra of failing to reduce health care costs or curb wasteful spending during his time as Health and Human Services secretary.

Becerra dismissed the criticism as a “MAGA talking point,” while Mahan insisted it was factual.

“All the candidates who are fighting for single-payer don’t know how to pay for it, and they’re not being honest about it,” Mahan said.

Even after the debate, Becerra remained under fire with Biden administration alum and CNN contributor Xochitl Hinojosa, arguing that Becerra “was not effective” as HHS secretary, comments that appeared to stun Democratic commentator Van Jones.

“If you ask any [Biden] Cabinet secretary, they would tell you the same thing,” Hinojosa said, arguing it’s one reason Becerra has failed to establish a solid frontrunner status.

Both Republican former Fox News host Steve Hilton and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa raised McCluskie’s guilty plea with Hilton accusing Becerra of being “mired, personally, in a corruption scandal.”

Hilton specifically accused Becerra of helping to orchestrate a scheme to illegally pay his indicted chief of staff to come to D.C. with him by siphoning money from Becerra’s campaign committee to augment his salary.

Becerra responded by saying he wasn’t named in the indictment and was not involved in it.

Hilton, however, did not back down, arguing that it was in his interest for his chief of staff to receive more compensation no matter where he received it.

“You wanted him. You wanted this guy by your side,” Hilton argued. “And the reason that the money was transferred is because the salary wasn’t high enough. That’s why you engaged in this scheme, which is illegal under state law.”

Becerra countered that he was not named or charged in the indictment and was not involved or implicated.

California uses a nonpartisan “top-two” primary system, meaning the two candidates with the most votes advance to the general election regardless of party affiliation.

Recent polling shows a competitive race. A CBS News/YouGov survey put Republican Steve Hilton at 16% and Steyer at 15%, with Becerra and Republican Chad Bianco also in double digits. A California Democratic Party poll released ahead of the debate showed Becerra and Hilton tied at 18%, followed by Bianco at 14% and Steyer at 12%.

The debate’s fault lines were predictable but sharp. Republicans made the case that California’s struggles – high costs, homelessness, crime – are the product of one-party rule, while Democrats argued the state’s problems trace back to Washington and Trump, especially when it comes to ICE targeting of California illegal immigrants.

The candidates arrived with their best lines ready. Hilton warned that a Steyer governorship would mean higher taxes, higher gas prices, and “higher everything.”

“With Steyer, everything’s higher,” Hilton aid.  

Steyer tried to fight back, saying he thinks it’s “rich” to hear someone talking about $3 gas who’s “owned by Trump.”

Hilton then interjected with a smile: “Not as rich as you.”

Porter, still dogged by a video of her berating a staffer, bristled at questions about her temperament amid what she called a stage full of “interrupting and bickering.” Seconds after lecturing the candidates about name-calling, however, she labeled Republican Sheriff Chad Bianco a “cowboy cupcake.”

Becerra dismissed Hilton as Trump’s handpicked candidate, again referring to Trump as his “daddy.” And Mahan summed up California’s high-speed rail debacle by quipping it shouldn’t cost more to reach Modesto than the moon.

When it came to the partisan but pressing question on what each candidate would do about ICE raids of illegal immigrants, Hilton had the most nuanced response, avoiding a commitment to backing mass deportations of illegal immigrants regardless of criminal status.

CNN moderator Kaitlan Collins put the question to Hilton directly, framing it around California’s agricultural economy: “President Trump is enacting a policy of mass deportation. As you know, roughly half of California farm workers, which are an essential part of this state’s economy, are undocumented. As governor, would you push to deport them?”

Hilton’s response was careful, stopping short of directly endorsing mass deportations while signaling support for federal enforcement.

“I’ve made it very clear, although it is the federal government’s responsibility to determine and implement immigration policy, I think it’s important that all the laws are peacefully enforced,” he said.

Collins pressed him further, asking specifically whether he would support deporting undocumented farm workers. Hilton again deflected to federal authority.

“The governor of California, as you know, doesn’t make that decision,” he said. “It is the president of the United States elected by the country.”

Bianco was the most aggressive on immigration, invoking a specific case to attack sanctuary policies.

“I want Mr. Villaraigosa to tell the mother of the 14-year-old in my county that is dead because of an illegal immigrant that had been deported three times because of DUIs, that sanctuary state policy keeps us safe,” he asserted.

Steyer took the most hardline opposing position, describing ICE in stark terms.

“ICE, to me, is a criminal operation,” he stated.

Becerra pointed to his record as attorney general fighting Trump-era immigration enforcement while Mahan tried to thread the needle between resistance and results.

“We’ve prohibited ICE from using city property as a staging area,” he said. “But I will also never forget that the best resistance is delivering results, showing that California’s progressive values work in practice.”

Toward the end of the debate, a question about Gov. Newsom cut through the debate’s noise and drew a revealing snapshot of the field. When asked to sum up Newsom’s tenure in a single word, the candidates’ answers revealed as much about themselves as about the governor. Republicans Bianco and Hilton didn’t mince words, each reaching for a variation of “failure.”

But the more telling answers came from the Democrats, where a split emerged between those willing to gently distance themselves from the incumbent – Villaraigosa’s “performative” and Mahan’s “incomplete” – and those happy to embrace his legacy, like Steyer’s “progressive” and Porter’s “bold.”

The same seven candidates are scheduled to participate in another debate Wednesday, hosted by NBC News and Telemundo.