Six candidates sparred over wealth, experience, and race in a fiery televised debate at KRON4's San Francisco studios on Wednesday, , the first major gubernatorial clash since former Rep. Eric Swalwell dropped out of the race earlier this month. Ballots begin arriving in California mailboxes in less than two weeks. The June 2 primary is the decisive round under California's top-two system, and Republicans Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton are leading the polls in a state where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly 2 to 1.
That gap, between Democratic voter registration and Republican polling strength, is the structural story of the race. If the June 2 vote splits Democrats across six candidates and consolidates Republicans behind two, the November general election could lock out both parties' preferred nominees in the nation's largest blue state. Wednesday's debate was the first real look at how the six remaining viable candidates intend to prevent that outcome.
Who Was Actually on the Stage
The lineup: Republicans Chad Bianco (Riverside County sheriff) and Steve Hilton (former conservative commentator); Democrats Tom Steyer (billionaire hedge fund founder turned climate activist), Xavier Becerra (former U.S. Health and Human Services secretary), Katie Porter (former Orange County congresswoman), and Matt Mahan (San José mayor). Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond were not invited because of low polling numbers.
The two-candidate Republican polling lead belongs to Bianco and Hilton. Bianco is running as a law-and-order sheriff with a following in Southern California's exurbs. Hilton is positioned as a Trump-aligned reformer from the tech-cultural right. Both avoided attacking each other throughout the 90-minute debate, a tactical choice consistent with a top-two primary system in which both Republicans could realistically make the November ballot.
"Steyer or Porter would move the state to the left, Mahan to the center, and Hilton or Bianco to the right. Becerra would keep things right where they are. Becerra was the least impressive presence on the stage, but he may have won the debate by reassuring Sacramento that he is the candidate who won't change anything."
Dan Schnur, politics professor at USC, UC Berkeley, and Pepperdine
The Steyer Attacks
Tom Steyer took the most sustained fire. The billionaire has contributed $133 million of his own money to his gubernatorial bid, which has insulated his campaign from the fundraising cycle but made him the standing target of every other candidate's opening statement. The attacks focused on the hedge fund he founded before leaving in 2012, which profited from investments in private prisons and fossil fuel companies before Steyer's climate pivot.
"The only housing Tom Steyer built has been private prisons and ICE detention centers," Mahan said during an exchange about housing affordability. Steyer responded by highlighting a nonprofit bank he and his wife founded that has financed more than 17,000 low-income housing units. "We have made sure that every loan is measured only for its impact on the community, either in terms of economic growth or environmental sustainability," Steyer said. "And we don't make a dime out of it, and we absolutely never will."
Steyer also turned the billionaire framing back on his opponents. "The billionaires and corporations are spending big in this race to oppose me and to support the other people on this stage," he said, noting that oil companies dropped $5 million against him on Wednesday, which happens to be Earth Day. "I'm the billionaire who wants to tax other billionaires. I'm the billionaire who's taking on the electric monopolies and trying to break up their power."
The Becerra Surge
Xavier Becerra arrived at the debate as the Democratic candidate who has gained the most ground since Swalwell's exit. He is a longtime California politician with 24 years in Congress before serving as Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Biden. He is also, by his own framing at the debate, the candidate who would change the least about California state government.
Becerra took multiple attacks over his longtime-insider credentials. Porter hit him on housing. "Mr. Becerra, you have all these lovely plans, but there are never any numbers, any revenue plan, any details, anything that pushes on the status quo," Porter said. "But the how, the why and how much, it's all missing." Becerra shot back with unusual edge for a politician known for his mild demeanor: "That's very rich to hear from someone who's never had to actually run a government. I balanced four federal Health and Human Services budgets that were larger than the budget of the state of California."
Becerra also made an on-camera mistake that Republican opponents will cite for weeks. While discussing the U.S. war with Iran, Becerra said "Iraq." The gaffe was minor in substance but memorable in form, and it will end up in campaign ads from his opponents before ballots arrive.
The Swalwell Question
Becerra was chair of the Democratic Caucus when Swalwell was elected to Congress, and moderators asked him directly about his recent public comments that many in the Democratic Caucus had heard rumors about Swalwell's behavior. Becerra's response was careful and politically calibrated.
"You hear rumors all the time about all sorts of things. Rumors are not facts. And the caucus, the Democratic Caucus, is not a place that adjudicates those things. It's law enforcement that does," Becerra said. He pointed to his track record prosecuting sex traffickers as California attorney general. "If someone had come forward, we could then have investigations."
Swalwell dropped out on April 12 after sexual assault and misconduct allegations became public. Former state Controller Betty Yee dropped out two days before the Wednesday debate, citing a lack of resources and polling support. Both Swalwell and Yee will still appear on the June 2 ballot under California election procedures.
The Race-and-Policing Flashpoint
The sharpest moment of the debate came during an exchange about California Highway Patrol officers reportedly administering English proficiency tests to truck drivers. Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff, offered a defense. "Let's stop with this whole racism thing and racial profiling and all of this is garbage. We have to get over this. You either violated the law or you didn't."
Porter seized on the comment. "I'm stunned that Mr. Bianco would say to Black and brown Californians and immigrants who are being terrorized and racially profiled that you have to get over racism. It's not something that you get over, it's something that you fight. And if he doesn't understand the importance of that, he has no business representing a state with the diversity of California."
Bianco rejected the framing. "That's not even close to what I said," he said, adding that he works with people of all races in his job as a law enforcement official. "Californians are absolutely sick and tired of our politicians making race the basis of everything. It is not, and this racial divide that they are pushing between law enforcement and the public or Democrat and Republican absolutely has to stop."
The Democratic Coordination Problem
The Democratic field is structurally fractured in a way that creates real risk of being shut out of November. Steyer represents the progressive wing. Porter occupies the consumer-protection left flank. Mahan positions as a pragmatic-center mayor. Becerra is the party-establishment continuity candidate. None of the four has been willing to consolidate behind a single standard-bearer, and the party's official machinery has not coordinated.
| Candidate | Party | Policy direction |
|---|---|---|
| Tom Steyer | Democrat | Move state left |
| Katie Porter | Democrat | Move state left (consumer-protection focus) |
| Matt Mahan | Democrat | Move state center |
| Xavier Becerra | Democrat | Keep state status quo |
| Steve Hilton | Republican | Move state right |
| Chad Bianco | Republican | Move state right (law and order) |
That fracture opens the door for Bianco and Hilton, who are pulling consolidated Republican primary support while Democrats split. In most gubernatorial cycles, California's voter math would make a two-Republican general election almost impossible. In 2026, with Trump-era polarization, billionaire money in the race, and no clear Democratic frontrunner, it is a live scenario.
What to Watch
The Nexstar debate will not be the last one. Moderators Nikki Laurenzo of KTXL FOX40 and Frank Buckley of KTLA landed clean hits, but much of the field wants additional televised events. A scheduled USC debate in March was canceled hours before it was set to begin over criticism that its criteria excluded candidates of color.
The data point to watch between now and the June 2 primary is whether any Democratic candidate breaks out or whether party donors, particularly Sacramento-based labor and business interests, coalesce behind one. Becerra's "won't change anything" positioning may turn out to be the most effective Democratic pitch in a cycle where voters are exhausted by policy turbulence at the federal level. Porter's consumer-protection brand and Steyer's self-funded reach both have structural advantages. Mahan has the Silicon Valley tech money behind his independent expenditure group.
For related coverage, see our reporting on the Hormuz and energy price dynamics shaping the political environment, on the NBC poll showing Trump approval at 37 percent, and on the labor-market backdrop for the California electorate.
Sources
- Top candidates for California governor spar over wealth, experience and race - Los Angeles Times
- 5 takeaways from first major California governor's debate - The Hill
- Becerra sees momentum, money and movement in the polls - Los Angeles Times
- Former state controller Betty Yee drops out of governor's race - Los Angeles Times
