California surges for Democrat magician for governor

[Newman]

The Hilton bubble is coming down to earth as apparently a viable candidate is emerging from the Democrat romper room.

Xavier Becerra now 2026 California governor’s race favorite (Nina Joudeh, NY Post)

New Vegas betting odds heavily favor former Biden Cabinet official Xavier Becerra in California’s crowded governor’s race — and it’s not even close.

Prediction market Polymarket currently gives Becerra a commanding 52% chance of winning the 2026 gubernatorial contest, far outpacing his nearest rival, billionaire Democrat Tom Steyer, who trails at around 32%.

So who is Becerra?

Xavier Becerra | California governor candidate profile (Daniella Segura, in USA Today)

. . . Here’s a clear, factual look at who Xavier Becerra is, what he stands for, and how his record compares — designed to help readers make informed decisions.

Who is Xavier Becerra?

• Age: 68
• Party: Democrat
• Current role: Voting rights attorney
• Home region: Sacramento
• First entered politics: 1986, when he began working as a staffer for California State Senator Art Torres

Becerra is an attorney who most recently served as the 25th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services and is running for California governor on a platform focused on building the state’s economy, defending its communities, and protecting rights and freedoms.

Background and career

• Education: Becerra is a graduate of Stanford University, where he earned both his undergraduate and law degrees.
• Professional experience: Becerra began his legal career in 1984 as a legal advocate for people suffering from mental illnesses
• Political experience:
  • 25th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (2021–2025)
  • Attorney General of California (2017–2021)
  • Member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 12 terms (1993–2017)

[. . . .]

Becerra spent two years as a fledgling advocacy attorney before entering the political cauldron.

Key policy positions

Economy and cost of living

• Becerra believes Californians are being squeezed by rising costs, including those associated with insurance, childcare, and groceries, according to his campaign website. The "affordability crisis," he says, stems from the state's "systems that have stopped working for everyday Californians."
• To address the issue, Becerra advocates for stronger state intervention to lower costs, including standing up to price gouging, expanding affordable housing, and investing in clean energy to reduce utility bills.
• Becerra supports maintaining California’s progressive tax structure. "Tax policy has to be predictable. It has to be stable, and it has to understand that it's interconnected with everything that's going on," Becerra told KQED News in March.

Housing and homelessness

• Becerra believes California's housing crisis stems in part from the state not building enough homes, leaving working families to pay "the price through soaring rents, overcrowding, and displacement," according to Becerra's campaign website. "I will push to dramatically increase housing production by making it easier to build. That means cutting unnecessary red tape, speeding up approvals for projects that meet affordability and environmental standards, and reducing unnecessary costs," Becerra said, adding that he would also support investing in affordable housing.
• To addresshomelessness, Becerra, in a recent debate, called for expanding "emergency shelters so that we can get people off the streets." Then, he said, he would focus on reforming the state's zoning and permitting laws to allow for the quicker production of homes in California. He said he would specifically focus on helping working families. "You're working; you're working, but you're living on the edge. You're a paycheck away from becoming homeless," Becerra said. "That's where I want to step in. I want to make sure the state says, 'Hey, you're working hard. There is no reason why you should become homeless.'"

Public safety and crime

• Becerra supports investing in local law enforcement. "We're going to invest in local law enforcement to make sure they're safe in school, you're safe at home and work, and our cities and towns are safe places where we can all thrive," Becerra's campaign website said in May 2025, according to OnTheIssues.org.
• Becerra is in favor of strict gun control, advocating for policies that restrict access to firearms.

Climate, water and energy

• While Becerra is a proponent of climate action, emphasizing clean energy investments, grid resilience, and environmental justice, he does not want it to come at a cost for residents.
• "California’s clean-energy transition is necessary and urgent—but too many families are paying the price through rising utility bills, unreliable service, and confusing rate structures. As California’s Governor, I understand one simple truth: climate action only succeeds if it is affordable, reliable, and fair," Becerra's campaign website says. "The goal is to cut pollution and emissions while lowering household energy costs, strengthening public oversight, and ensuring the benefits of clean energy reach everyone."

Immigration and border issues

• Becerra believes in protecting immigrants and their rights. “We're going to protect all of our families, but especially our immigrant families,” Becerra said in a video shared on Instagram.
• Becerra is against the Trump administration's immigration policies, including mass deportations. He has said that he believes ICE activities have become illegal, calling for the agency’s departure from California.
• “Our next Governor needs to be ready to protect our immigrant communities from the threat of ICE,” Becerra wrote in an Instagram post.

Education

• During his campaign, Becerra has positioned himself as pro‑teacher and pro‑public education.
• While speaking at a forum with college students in Fresno, Becerra spoke about building student housing, making education affordable, and bolstering regional investment to benefit young people, The kNOw Youth Media reported in March. “If I leave the governor’s office after eight years, it should be because we helped build the systems you will rely on,” Becerra said, the outlet reported.

Record in office

• Key votes or actions:
  • Here are five notable votes from Becerra during his time as a U.S. House Representative:
    • Affordable Care Act: In 2010, Becerra cosponsored the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which expanded healthcare access and protections for pre-existing conditions.
    • Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008: Becerra supported provisions that required accreditation and training for imaging providers, helping strengthen patient safety in Medicare.
    • Medicare Savings Programs Improvement Act of 2007: Becerra sponsored legislation, which was not passed, to expand eligibility for low-income Medicare beneficiaries.
    • Becerra voted in favor of the Opioid Abuse Prevention and Health Programs under H.R. 6, 2018. The legislation expanded Medicare and Medicaid to cover medication‑assisted treatment for opioid addiction.
    • Becerra voted down the Carbon Tax Resolution (HCR 119, 2018), a resolution declaring a federal carbon tax would harm families and businesses.

I realize most of this is campaign blather, but still I find magical thinking unconvincing. For example,

• Becerra believes Californians are being squeezed by rising costs, including those associated with insurance, childcare, and groceries, according to his campaign website. The "affordability crisis," he says, stems from the state's "systems that have stopped working for everyday Californians."
• To address the issue, Becerra advocates for stronger state intervention to lower costs, including standing up to price gouging, expanding affordable housing, and investing in clean energy to reduce utility bills.

Frankly I don't see anything in his positions that is new or different from the policies of the last decades that have degraded California so dramatically. His bromides are as convincing to me as Joe Biden's fearsome warning to America's enemies, "Don't."

[Celeste Chalfonte]

The Hilton bubble is coming down to earth as apparently a viable candidate is emerging from the Democrat romper room.

Xavier Becerra now 2026 California governor’s race favorite (Nina Joudeh, NY Post)
So who is Becerra?

Xavier Becerra | California governor candidate profile (Daniella Segura, in USA Today)

Becerra spent two years as a fledgling advocacy attorney before entering the political cauldron.

I realize most of this is campaign blather, but still I find magical thinking unconvincing. For example,

Frankly I don't see anything in his positions that is new or different from the policies of the last decades that have degraded California so dramatically. His bromides are as convincing to me as Joe Biden's fearsome warning to America's enemies, "Don't."

And he's part of the Newsom machine, so he's probably crooked. I doubt that will come out in time.

[Newman]

And he's part of the Newsom machine, so he's probably crooked. I doubt that will come out in time.

The scale of public corruption being what it is in CA, I'm not sure it matters if it comes out.

[Newman]

An inconvenient anniversary. . .

An Inconvenient Movie: Al Gore's 20 Years of Failed Predictions – HotAir (David Strom)

. . . as bad as the COVID myths were, I think it is safe to say that the Climate hysteria and all the downstream consequences of reshaping our lives and economies around a hysterical overreaction to an exaggerated problem are worse.

Millions of young people have had their mental health shattered, economies have been hobbled for decades, and the balance of the world economy has shifted toward China as manufacturing has migrated there. Germany is deindustrializing, the UK is committing economic suicide, and many of our major industrial powers have wasted trillions on useless technology.

Strom's is a pleasant romp through memory lane of bad predictions and embarrassing hysteria, replete with tweets such as this one,

Embedded Tweet

or this,

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or this NOT crazy one,

Embedded Tweet

(One reply to the last here featured this meme

HIGM3TNXcAAfPa4.jpg

So why here, this this thread about Mr. Bacerra? Because though it seems Becerra is less crazy than the competing Democrats (Big Oil in the governor’s race - POLITICO [Noah Baustin and Alex Nieves]), he really is more of the same, and California looks to be, under Democratic leadership, maybe the last to abandon the World Is Ending ship, life going on to the contrary. (From Daniella Segura, above: )

• While Becerra is a proponent of climate action, emphasizing clean energy investments, grid resilience, and environmental justice, he does not want it to come at a cost for residents.
• "California’s clean-energy transition is necessary and urgent—but too many families are paying the price through rising utility bills, unreliable service, and confusing rate structures. As California’s Governor, I understand one simple truth: climate action only succeeds if it is affordable, reliable, and fair," Becerra's campaign website says. "The goal is to cut pollution and emissions while lowering household energy costs, strengthening public oversight, and ensuring the benefits of clean energy reach everyone."

[Celeste Chalfonte]

Here's what they don't say:

Modern gasoline vehicles have very low emissions. Hybrids even more so, and despite the problems with battery disposal, hybrid actually makes sense to me, as someone who has run out of gas (once, long ago) on a remote, rural stretch of Highway 101 at 11 pm. BUT, poor people drive old cars. Old cars are less efficient, but replacing them at today's prices is just not economically feasible for low-income workers. And low-income workers, especially agricultural workers, need cars, because public transit doesn't go where they work, especially at the time of day they need to get there. So the CA war on cars is a war on the poor, who the politicians all claim to love and protect.

AND, we still have no plan for dealing with the dead batteries. Can't be recycled. High risk of fire or explosion.

AND you can't talk about carbon output and leave out the carbon involved in producing supposedly "clean" energy.

It's. A. Scam.

[Newman]

Here's what they don't say:

Modern gasoline vehicles have very low emissions. Hybrids even more so, and despite the problems with battery disposal, hybrid actually makes sense to me, as someone who has run out of gas (once, long ago) on a remote, rural stretch of Highway 101 at 11 pm. BUT, poor people drive old cars. Old cars are less efficient, but replacing them at today's prices is just not economically feasible for low-income workers. And low-income workers, especially agricultural workers, need cars, because public transit doesn't go where they work, especially at the time of day they need to get there. So the CA war on cars is a war on the poor, who the politicians all claim to love and protect.

AND, we still have no plan for dealing with the dead batteries. Can't be recycled. High risk of fire or explosion.

AND you can't talk about carbon output and leave out the carbon involved in producing supposedly "clean" energy.

It's. A. Scam.

Just give every poor Californian a new car! Presto, problem solved.

Consider it an investment in a clean and more affordable future.

Heck, just give everyone a new EV when they turn 18. Diapers at birth, cars at 18, ain't California great?!

[scott]

Here's what they don't say:

Modern gasoline vehicles have very low emissions. Hybrids even more so, and despite the problems with battery disposal, hybrid actually makes sense to me, as someone who has run out of gas (once, long ago) on a remote, rural stretch of Highway 101 at 11 pm. BUT, poor people drive old cars. Old cars are less efficient, but replacing them at today's prices is just not economically feasible for low-income workers. And low-income workers, especially agricultural workers, need cars, because public transit doesn't go where they work, especially at the time of day they need to get there. So the CA war on cars is a war on the poor, who the politicians all claim to love and protect.

AND, we still have no plan for dealing with the dead batteries. Can't be recycled. High risk of fire or explosion.

AND you can't talk about carbon output and leave out the carbon involved in producing supposedly "clean" energy.

It's. A. Scam.

Yet another example of how your views have evolved over the last 20 years. Funny how discussion, paying attention to results, and holding your own views up to scrutiny does that.

[Celeste Chalfonte]

Yet another example of how your views have evolved over the last 20 years. Funny how discussion, paying attention to results, and holding your own views up to scrutiny does that.

Oh, no, many of my views have evolved, but not this one. I was never onboard with electric cars. Or, for that matter, electric stoves. Both suck compared to gas.

If you're talking about my views on California, I love it as much as ever - at least, the part of it that has year-'round good weather. LA/the valley always sucked, Sacramento right behind it. And politically, once again, it's California that has changed, me, not so much. A few years after leaving college, I left DC and arrived in CA what I would consider a mainstream/moderate Democrat. I'm still that. The party and the state, to quote someone I didn't like then and don't like in retrospect, left me, not the other way around.

[scott]

Oh, no, many of my views have evolved, but not this one. I was never onboard with electric cars. Or, for that matter, electric stoves. Both suck compared to gas.

If you're talking about my views on California, I love it as much as ever - at least, the part of it that has year-'round good weather. LA/the valley always sucked, Sacramento right behind it. And politically, once again, it's California that has changed, me, not so much. A few years after leaving college, I left DC and arrived in CA what I would consider a mainstream/moderate Democrat. I'm still that. The party and the state, to quote someone I didn't like then and don't like in retrospect, left me, not the other way around.

Fair enough. I didn't remember that you were not in favor of electric cars.

Surprisingly, I actually favor them now - and definitely hybrid cars. They are much more efficient - not any better for the environment if you believe human used CO₂ is the thermostat for the planet, but way more efficient. Now if we could just get regional nuclear reactors to make electricity even more efficient.

[Newman]

We leased a hybrid a long time ago, spent too much money on it, really. But I gotta say I like the design of the Teslas I see, even their clunky truck that looks more like a Transformer toy.

Getting one next time might be another waste of money, but I'm tempted.

[scott]

We leased a hybrid a long time ago, spent too much money on it, really. But I gotta say I like the design of the Teslas I see, even their clunky truck that looks more like a Transformer toy.

Getting one next time might be another waste of money, but I'm tempted.

I had a Kia Optima hybrid and it was excellent. Quick off the line, too. I averaged 30 mpg city and 40 mpg highway but it had power when I needed it. I had the equivalent non-hybrid model of that car a few years ago and the 1.6L turbo was very quick but also fuel efficient if wasn't driving like a maniac. 25 in the city and 35 on the highway. I wish they put those in the hybrids, that would be a beast.