Candidates for California governor continued sparring over healthcare, immigration, affordability and President Donald Trump during the latest in a series of debates among the top candidates.
Fresh off a particularly heated debate at Pomona College last week, Chad Bianco, Steve Hilton, Xavier Becerra, Matt Mahan, Katie Porter, Tom Steyer and Antonio Villaraigosa debated for two hours during CNN’s televised debate Tuesday at East L.A. College. And it didn’t take long for Porter, a former Democratic congresswoman from Irvine, to quip: “Boys, enough with the bickering.”
It was immigration, though, that drew some of the most heated rhetoric from the debate stage and Hilton who initially drew jabs from some of the Democratic contenders onstage. The Republican commentator shied away from saying outright whether he’d push for the deportation of California’s undocumented farmworkers, saying it’s the president’s decision rather than the California governor’s.
Porter disagreed.
“It’s the job of the governor to protect every single Californian, period,” Porter said. “There are no qualifications on that.”
But Bianco, the only other Republican on the debate stage, jumped in. Sanctuary state policies — restrictions that prevent state and local law enforcement officials from directly working with federal immigration authorities in certain instances — do not make the state safer, the Riverside County sheriff argued.
“You say you’re a sheriff, and I know you are, but you clearly don’t know what the sanctuary law does,” said Villaraigosa, a former Los Angeles mayor, adding that sanctuary laws are not designed to protect violent criminals.
Bianco challenged Villaraigosa to defend sanctuary policies to the family members of those who have been killed by someone who is in the country illegally.
“If an undocumented worker killed somebody, he should go to jail,” Villaraigosa said.
Steyer, meanwhile, said he wants the California attorney general to hold U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and their leadership — and that could include former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, he said when pressed — criminally liable.
“It’s not legal for federal agents to come to California and break the law,” Steyer said.
Candidates went toe to toe on healthcare, climate and housing as well on Tuesday. They also split on a proposed tax on billionaires, which is expected to be on the ballot in the fall general election.
Porter defended her opposition to the measure while Steyer vowed to vote for it, should it be put forth later this year. Still, Steyer, a billionaire, maintained the proposal did not go far enough.
But the candidates also largely stuck to their lanes, their campaign talking points: The five Democrats castigated the president and his policies. The two Republicans complained about life in California under a Democratic supermajority.
Steyer, sporting his trademark red tartan tie, proclaimed himself the progressive who would hold Big Oil companies accountable in a way that would help alleviate gas prices. Mahan sought to paint himself as a “different,” pragmatic Democrat, underlining his plan to suspend the state’s gas tax and bragging about successes in San Jose. And Becerra continually pointed to his healthcare background, having served in the Biden administration as the Health and Human Services secretary.
Bianco’s past membership with the extremist Oath Keepers group was also a topic on the debate stage.
“You’re an Oath Keeper; we all know that,” Villaraigosa charged at one point.
“And I’m very proud of it,” Bianco shot back.
When pressed later by debate moderators, Bianco said he was referring to “taking an oath.” But he also defended the organization.
“Everybody wants to again lie and emotionally get all spun up about the Oath Keeper organization,” Bianco said. “I just would, before you do that, and I know none of you have, I want you to go read the mission statement.”
He later said he still does not consider himself to be a member of the group.
Leaders of the Oath Keepers were among those convicted for leading attacks on the U.S. Capitol in 2021 after Trump’s election loss.
Porter’s past, too, came up. She was questioned about a new campaign ad that seemingly makes reference to a video that went viral earlier in the campaign season. From 2021, the video shows Porter berating a staffer who interrupted a recording she was taping for the Biden administration to correct a comment about electric vehicles. Cursing, Porter admonished the staffer for appearing in the background of the shot.
She said she’s apologized and has taken responsibility for her “mistake.” That sets her apart from the others on the debate stage, she said, who have not been able to take accountability for past missteps.
Becerra drew a lot of criticism from his fellow contenders Tuesday night, from his views on single-payer healthcare to reports that HHS under his leadership “lost contact” with about 85,000 migrant children.
“It’s nice to hear my name quite a bit,” Becerra quipped at one point.
Perhaps that’s because Becerra, according to the latest polling from the California Democratic Party, has seen a boost in recent weeks, particularly since Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell resigned from Congress and dropped out of the race amid sexual assault allegations.
The latest polling, conducted last week, showed Becerra and Hilton both polling at 18% each, followed by Bianco at 14% and Steyer at 12%.
The narrative among California Democrats only a few weeks ago was one of fear. With a crowded field of credible Democrats, there were concerns among some in the party that Hilton and Bianco could both advance to the general election in California’s jungle primary system, where the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, make it through the primary.
They may have gotten a bit of a reprieve, though, from an unlikely name: Trump endorsed Hilton in early April. Bianco has slipped a bit in polling since then.
When asked why voters in deep-blue California should back a Trump-endorsed candidate, Hilton broke out his “Califordable” catchphrase, which is what he is calling his plans to address affordability. Hilton argued that high gas prices and the cost of living in California are the result of local and state Democratic leaders, not Trump.
“Most of my career has been in business,” Hilton said, adding: “We need some fresh thinking.”
Democrats have an approximately 20 percentage point voter registration advantage over Republicans in California. As of April 3, 44.92% of the state’s registered voters were Democrats, 25.03% were Republicans and 22.76% had no party preference.
The candidates will debate again Wednesday evening.
Hosted by KNBC Channel 4 and Telemundo’s KVEA Channel 52, a one-hour debate will take place at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles in partnership with Loyola Marymount University. The stations will first hold a Los Angeles mayoral debate at 5 p.m., followed by a statewide broadcast of a gubernatorial debate at 7 p.m.
Registered California voters have already been mailed their ballots, with many receiving them this week. Election Day is June 2.
Staff writer Linh Tat contributed to this report.