The frontrunner in the California gubernatorial race, former state attorney general and Biden-era HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, has been taking a page from Biden’s strategy book and running a “basement campaign” — meaning that he barely bothers to show his face or speak to the electorate.
Why would he? The Golden State is so left-leaning that the “D” by his name almost guarantees a win. As LA Mayor Karen Bass proclaimed, “Our governor’s name is Xavier Becerra. You don’t need an election on November 3. A Republican cannot win in this state.”
Then she put on her xenophobic, anti-legal immigrant hat and added, “And yet, a Republican with a British accent?!”
Becerra’s opponent, GOP businessman and former Fox host Steve Hilton, meanwhile, has been ubiquitous, hosting campaign stop after campaign stop all across the Golden State. That didn’t seem to be helping him, though, as Becerra maintained a solid lead in the polling with various surveys showing his edge at anywhere from 18 to 25 percent.
According to one new poll, however, that big lead took a hit following the debate between the two contenders on Wednesday:
David Wolfson poll | 10/1-10/2 LV California Governor 2026 🟦Xavier Becerra 45.7% 🟥Steve Hilton 40.1% (Steve Hilton internal) https://t.co/xxqKjEhub2
— Politics & Poll Tracker 📡 (@PollTracker2024) October 5, 2026
Skeptics might note that this outcome came from a Hilton-commissioned poll. Note, however, that another recent survey he authorized in September before the debate showed Becerra with a commanding 52 to 37 percent advantage.
Those of you who were able to stomach the April 28 gubernatorial debate, which featured multiple candidates who were still in the running at the time, you probably noticed that Becerra was about as exciting as drying paint while Hilton was dynamic and brought actual solutions instead of just tired progressive talking points. I don’t say this strictly as a partisan; I honestly believe I’d have noticed the same thing even if I were a Democrat.
Becerra is just like Joe Biden: the candidate exactly nobody is enthused about, but one who Democrats believe they can hold their nose and agree on since there was nobody better.
479,000 unaccompanied children came through HHS on Xavier Becerra’s watch — he dismantled the vetting, told staff to run it “like a production line,” and kids were sent to a container lot and to MS-13, what Bobby Kennedy called the largest child trafficking operation in history. Protecting children is the first job of government, and this should disqualify him: ballots are going out, California — vote for CHANGE.
— Steve Hilton (@SteveHiltonx) October 4, 2026
479,000 unaccompanied children came through HHS on Xavier Becerra’s watch — he dismantled the vetting, told staff to run it “like a production line,” and kids were sent to a container lot and to MS-13, what Bobby Kennedy called the largest child trafficking operation in history.
Protecting children is the first job of government, and this should disqualify him: ballots are going out, California — vote for CHANGE.
I’ve lived in California long enough not to get my hopes up, and I’m not going to tell you Hilton is suddenly in a great position to win, because the reality is that the hill is still steep and the well-oiled Progressive Machine will do anything to stop him. What I do note, however, is that Becerra showed a side of himself that I hadn’t seen previously: in addition to bringing a joyless vision for California, he’s a mean dude who will resort to immigrant bashing and race hustling in a heartbeat.
Mr. I Love Immigration must only mean that he’s for it when it’s illegal immigration, because he repeatedly used lines like, “That was before you were an American, Steve,” and “You weren’t even in California at that time,” etc. He’s clearly telling voters, “I believe in immigration when it suits me, but when I come up against an actual legal immigrant who’s a productive member of society, I will repeatedly [figuratively] bludgeon him with the fact that he wasn’t born here.”
The hypocrisy is off the charts.
In a hateful line that the mainstream media will completely ignore, he dropped this disgusting, unsupported allegation:
Xavier Becerra: “Here’s the problem I have with your policies — you seem to welcome immigrants who look like you, but deport immigrants who look like me. We need to have a governor who will protect everyone who works hard.“ https://t.co/2Rs4h1P4us
— Vince D. Monroy (@vincedmonroy) October 1, 2026
Hilton called the line “disgraceful,” because it absolutely was.
Meanwhile, Becerra’s apparently made-up CNN-ready, Kleenex-worthy backstory has been exposed by independent journalist Anthony Cabassa; see the coverage by RedState’s Jennifer Oliver O’Connell: There Are Big Holes in Xavier Becerra's Carefully Crafted Origin Story, and CA Press Has Been MIA.
Becerra still holds a good chance of walking away with the governorship in November, but in his few appearances he has proven that he’s far more than just a lackluster, gray cog in the machine; he’s in reality a race-baiting apparent fabulist with a terrible record of refusing to protect the children of illegal aliens from sex and drug traffickers.
What on earth will it take for Californians to see the light and vote different?
