Becerra faces – In what CBS called the last major showdown before California’s June 2 primary, Xavier Becerra battled a wave of attacks over his former campaign manager’s federal corruption guilty plea and faced questions about his record on healthcare, unemployment fraud and
SAN FRANCISCO — The stage at the Julia Morgan Ballroom went from polished to pointed quickly, as rival Democrats and Republicans swarmed former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra during what many candidates treated as their final chance to reach voters before the June 2 primary.
With nearly 200 people watching in the Financial District and CBS moderators Ryan Yamamoto. Tom Wait and San Francisco Examiner Editor-in-Chief Schuyler Hudak Prionas keeping time through a tense 90-minute debate. Becerra’s fast rise among Democrats became a magnet for criticism.. He was also dealing with a fresh political problem: a guilty plea by his former campaign manager. Dana Williamson. in federal corruption charges just hours before the clash.
“I get it. So they have to try to beat you down. This is a great Trump tactic that’s used. I didn’t expect it to come from fellow Democrats,” Becerra said, defending himself as attacks intensified.
He later added, “With friends like that, who needs enemies?”
The debate. held as Californians mailed ballots in an unsettled governor’s race. also reflected how quickly the contest has narrowed.. Republican voters appeared to be consolidating behind Hilton. endorsed by President Trump. while Becerra and billionaire hedge fund founder Tom Steyer were seen as the top choices among Democrats.
Becerra’s rivals centered their case on one immediate contradiction: how aggressively to treat the fallout from Williamson’s plea without alleging wrongdoing by Becerra himself.
That tension hung over the opening exchanges, where Becerra’s Democratic opponents struck first and some Republicans joined in. The attacks came with the backdrop of last month’s departure of former U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell, who dropped out in April after allegations of sexual assault and misconduct.
Williamson. who also worked in the Newsom administration as chief of staff. pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges alleging she and Becerra’s former top advisor illegally siphoned $225. 000 from Becerra’s campaign accounts.. While prosecutors have not accused Becerra of wrongdoing, his opponents argued that the episode still raised questions about his judgment.
Hilton went further, saying Becerra should be preparing for a criminal defense rather than running for governor.. Porter warned the most damaging evidence could still arrive. saying that if Becerra finished as the top Democrat in the primary. it could weaken his campaign and help elect a Republican as the next governor of California.
Becerra pushed back, emphasizing that federal prosecutors never accused him of involvement and that none of the gubernatorial candidates were implicated in the scandal.
“I didn’t expect it to come from fellow Democrats,” he repeated earlier, framing the barrage as politically driven rather than evidence-based.
On healthcare and fraud, Democrats and Republicans pressed their own lines. Mahan, who entered the debate polling in the single digits, argued that Becerra should have stopped fraud and mismanagement while he served as California’s attorney general.
“He wasn’t minding the shop,” Mahan said, pointing to fraudulent unemployment and hospice claims early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Mahan also said the Biden administration sidelined him during COVID, calling it “not good leadership.”
Becerra was also accused of wavering on single-payer healthcare, and his opponents faulted him for failing to curb healthcare and unemployment fraud during his time as attorney general.
Alongside the legal and record-based attacks, candidates tried to anchor their pitches to kitchen-table concerns. The debate included an introductory video of a single mother struggling to fill her gas tank and buy groceries, and affordability became the central argument for several candidates.
Steyer said he would reduce costs by taking on special interests and pursuing structural change, including breaking up monopolies. He framed that effort around paying for healthcare and education.
“I am the person who will tax the billionaires like me, and the big corporations so we can afford to make the changes” to pay for healthcare and great education, Steyer said.
Mahan argued for a different route: “put more money in people’s pockets by bringing down costs. ” and he said that approach would not happen under either Steyer or Hilton.. He then targeted Steyer’s plan as too expansive. saying Steyer’s structural change sounded like socialism and would “literally would double the size of state government.”
Mahan also accused Hilton of leaning on Donald Trump endorsements, pointing instead to tariffs and wars driving up costs.
Hilton fired back, arguing that Mahan talked about lowering costs while his city had been “recently rated the most expensive, the least affordable for housing, in the world.”
Climate change split the Republican field even as the GOP candidates avoided direct attacks at each other elsewhere.. Chad Bianco said California was “destroying itself” with environmental policies. arguing that while temperatures were increasing. he was not “naive” enough to believe humans can affect or control the climate as it has “been changing since he was a child.”
He added that California should stop all environmental regulations that he called “activist related” and said those policies are destroying the state’s economy.
Hilton, by contrast, said he believes in climate change but argued that California needs “common sense” instead of ideological policy. He said it is “of course” right to want clean water and air, but that California’s approach is not working, pointing to the state’s recent “mega-fires.”
On the Democratic side, candidates presented a more unified case that the climate crisis requires a response and that environmental protections should not be dismantled by the Trump administration.
For the candidates still struggling to break through—Matt Mahan and Antonio Villaraigosa, both polling in the single digits—Thursday’s debate became a last-ditch try to reshape how voters see them.
Mahan opened with a broad assault. telling the stage that the change he wanted was about “accountability for results.” He said it was not what Steyer offered. which he described as higher taxes and bigger government. and not what Hilton offered. which he called fear. division and “more Donald Trump.”
Mahan added that Becerra was not offering change at all, calling him “the embodiment of the status quo.”
Villaraigosa leaned hard on experience leading Los Angeles and serving in the state Assembly, saying he was best positioned to lead California while arguing that Sacramento’s policies had contributed to the state’s problems.
“This is a state with big challenges, the challenge of affordability, the challenge of healthcare, homelessness, and dirty streets and crime-filled streets,” Villaraigosa said.
He argued he was the only candidate who. in addition to attacking Donald Trump. had challenged his own party and said the problems were tied to Sacramento policies.. “We need someone with the courage to take on Donald Trump. but also take on our friends when they’re wrong. ” Villaraigosa said. citing his record.
Tuesday’s and Thursday’s exchanges captured a race defined by both immediate political stakes and longer-term concerns—whether voters were prepared to reward a surging Democrat like Becerra. or whether the party’s internal cracks over judgment and governance could open a door for a Republican victory in November.
With the June 2 primary now close enough for results to feel inevitable, Thursday’s debate served as a final stress test—especially for Becerra—before ballots fully settle the question of who can withstand the latest wave of scrutiny and still sell a vision for California’s next chapter.
California governor race Xavier Becerra Dana Williamson guilty plea Tom Steyer Steve Hilton Matt Mahan Antonio Villaraigosa Chad Bianco single-payer healthcare unemployment fraud climate change June 2 primary