In what could be their only face-to-face matchup before Election Day, California gubernatorial candidates Xavier Becerra and Steve Hilton took to the debate stage Wednesday night, Sept. 30, mere days before most voters will receive their ballots in the mail.
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Given that it’s the only general election debate scheduled so far in the governor’s race — and potentially the only opportunity for the candidates to put themselves in front of voters, at least in this format — Wednesday’s showdown was a high-stakes moment for the campaigns.
While sparks flew throughout the evening, there was little in the way of surprises as both men largely stuck to their usual talking points.
For Becerra, that meant attacking Hilton as President Donald Trump‘s endorsed candidate while reminding voters that he — the only Democrat in the race — would stand up to Trump. Becerra has previously noted that he sued the first Trump administration over 120 times when he was California’s attorney general.
Becerra — who’s also held elected office in the California Legislature and served as U.S. health and human services secretary under the Biden administration — also framed himself as the candidate most prepared to govern, saying he’s worked on tax cut policies and balanced large budgets.
“We fight to keep the ‘California dream,’ but you can’t do it with someone who’s never served, who’s never balanced a budget the size of California, who’s never been there to defend people against the tyrant like Donald Trump,” Becerra said. “You can’t expect a guy who has never been in office like this to go in there and do the right job. … There aren’t training wheels in the governor’s office.”
Hilton, a former Fox News host and once a senior adviser to U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, in turn criticized his opponent’s track record as health secretary – particularly his handling of migrant children – and tied Becerra to the Democratic establishment.
Seeking to appeal to independent and moderate Democrats, Hilton continued to cast himself as a vote for change. For months, he’s been campaigning on the message that one doesn’t need to support Trump, or even be a member of the GOP, to vote for him if they want something different in California.
While Becerra blamed California’s woes on Trump policies, Hilton spent the evening blaming the Democratic Party for the state’s problems and urged voters to vote for him to end the status quo.
“They (Democrats) take you for granted, and I just want to ask every Californian: Aren’t you tired of that? It’s time to try something different instead of the same thing over and over again,” Hilton said.
Wednesday’s hourlong debate — moderated by CNN anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash and broadcast from the network’s studio in Burbank — covered topics ranging from California’s affordability and housing crises and regulating the artificial intelligence industry to immigration and healthcare policies and how to keep the film and television industry in California.
On housing, Hilton said that he would cap government and regulation fees for the construction of a home at $50,000, a savings of $150,000 off the current average cost of building a new home, he said.
Becerra said he would enforce laws requiring local governments to build their fair share of new homes, as he did when he was attorney general, noting that he successfully sued the city of Huntington Beach.
On the issue of immigration, Hilton noted that his parents emigrated from Hungary to England, and that he himself moved from the U.K. to California.
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“I want to make sure that we protect our legal immigrant communities, and we enforce the law. Everybody agrees that we need secure borders, and then we’ve got to make sure that people who are in this country illegally who’ve committed dangerous crimes should be removed,” Hilton said.
He accused current California leaders of “playing politics with the issue.”
That prompted Becerra, whose parents immigrated to California, to once again tie Hilton to Trump.
“Steve, you’re running for governor of California, and you’ll enforce Trump’s laws at the federal level, but you won’t enforce state laws at our level,” Becerra said.
Hilton, in turn, accused his opponent of bringing up Trump in every answer because he couldn’t offer solutions to issues plaguing California.
By most accounts, Becerra had greater momentum heading into the debate. Several recent independent polls had him ahead of Hilton by 18 to 25 percentage points among likely voters.
And in a deep blue state like California, where registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by nearly 2-1, and where it’s been two decades since voters last elected a Republican as governor, the odds are strongly in Becerra’s favor.
Hilton, meanwhile, lamented what he called 16 years of one-party rule in the state.
As Election Day draws closer, Hilton has been busy on the campaign trail, holding rallies and unveiling proposals such as giving cities more control to regulate street vendors so that they don’t hurt brick-and-mortar small businesses; abolishing the California Department of Motor Vehicles and reducing annual vehicle registration fees to $73; and requiring schools to discourage smartphone use until high school.
Becerra, meanwhile, recently met with Altadena community leaders and survivors of last year’s Eaton fire before unveiling his plan to address wildfire preparedness. He’s also scheduled to speak at a campaign event Friday for Clarissa Cervantes, a Riverside City Council member and a Democrat seeking to flip an Assembly seat this November.
Becerra and Hilton were the top two vote-getters to emerge from a crowded field of candidates in the primary election. The winner will succeed termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom and become California’s 41st governor.
Whether Wednesday’s debate moved the needle for either candidate will be dissected by analysts in the days ahead.
In the meantime, local election offices are preparing to mail out ballots to all registered voters. The L.A. County registrar’s office will send out ballots beginning Thursday, Oct. 1. By law, all local election offices in the state must begin sending them out by Monday.
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Voters have through Nov. 3 to cast their ballots.