Villaraigosa rejects – Antonio Villaraigosa says Democrats cannot attribute every California problem to President Donald Trump, pointing to homelessness, gas prices, utilities, and housing costs he ties to Democratic policies, while remaining pointedly unspecific about naming Califo
Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is trying to draw a hard line through California politics: President Donald Trump, he says, is a “threat to our democracy,” but that doesn’t justify treating him as the answer to every issue Californians face.
Speaking on Saturday. the current California gubernatorial candidate told a television program that liberals “can’t put everything” wrong with the state on Trump.. He laid out what he called the state’s competing realities—“We have the highest homelessness in the United States of America. the highest gas prices. the highest utilities. the highest home prices.. People can’t afford rent,” Villaraigosa said.. “And those happened under Democratic policies.”
Villaraigosa framed his approach as a refusal to stay comfortably partisan. calling himself the “stink bomb in the elevator” for being willing to challenge Democratic leadership rather than focusing only on bashing Trump.. In the Saturday interview, he did not call out California Gov.. Gavin Newsom or any other state leaders by name.
The homelessness crisis is at the center of his argument.. California’s homeless population climbed to a record 187. 084 people in 2024. the most recent year data is available for. and that accounted for about 1 out of every 4 homeless Americans nationwide.. He also pointed to the cost pressures hitting daily life. saying the average price for a gallon of gas recently hit $6 in the state.
Villaraigosa’s comments also run into a policy fight over how to handle gas taxes. Newsom said last week he still opposes suspending California’s gas tax, which adds 61.2 cents per gallon—the highest in the USA.
The political stakes show up in the race Villaraigosa is trying to win.. He is vying to succeed Newsom. and the campaign is described as crowded. with Republican Steve Hilton and Democrat Xavier Becerra leading in most polls.. Becerra drew viral attention last week after telling an LA reporter on camera that he didn’t want an interview to turn into a “gotcha piece.”
Villaraigosa, who served as LA’s mayor from 2005 to 2013, also argued that California’s budget choices worsened the outlook.. He said the state had a $300 million budget surplus when Jerry Brown’s time as governor ended in 2019. but that the surplus was squandered by hiring 36. 000 new government employees—something he said would force the next governor to “live within our means.”
The friction in Villaraigosa’s pitch is the relationship he draws between national politics and state accountability: he calls Trump a “threat to our democracy. ” then immediately insists California’s homelessness. gas prices. utilities. and home prices are realities tied to Democratic policies. while pointing to Newsom’s stance on keeping the gas tax.
For Villaraigosa, the campaign message lands on a simple demand—stop letting national figures swallow state responsibility—without saying, out loud, that he’s targeting specific rivals like Newsom even as his argument repeatedly circles back to Democratic decisions and their results.
Antonio Villaraigosa California governor race Gavin Newsom Steve Hilton Xavier Becerra homelessness gas tax homelessness 187 084 61.2 cents per gallon