Hilton, Becerra lead California governor’s race as Steyer gains ground

The race to succeed term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom in California remained undecided Thursday night, with Republican former Fox News host Steve Hilton holding the top spot over the second-leading candidate, Democratic former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.

Not far behind, in third place, was Democratic billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer, who gained some ground in the latest round of returns.

Some experts believe Steyer still has a path into the top two as counties continue processing ballots, though others have noted that Hilton has continued to perform well among late-counted votes.

The pace of California’s vote count has drawn criticism from some Republicans, including President Donald Trump, who has questioned the state’s election process without providing evidence of wrongdoing. Election officials have defended the timeline, saying every ballot must undergo the same verification procedures regardless of when it arrives.  

Under California’s top-two primary system, the two candidates with the most votes will move on to the November general election, regardless of party affiliation.

The 2026 gubernatorial primary election has drawn a mix of candidates with backgrounds in federal, state and local government, as well as business and media. 

Polling throughout the race showed no clear front-runner to replace Newsom, with a significant share of voters remaining undecided heading into the primary election, according to a recent CBS News poll. Republican former Fox News host Steve Hilton, and former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer, both Democrats, have emerged as the leading contenders to advance to November’s general election, according to preliminary results.

Not long after the polls closed on election night, former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa all acknowledged that they would not become California’s next governor.

Among the other major candidates remaining in the race as of Thursday night are State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.

The office of the California governor has been held by a Democrat since 2011, when former Gov. Jerry Brown succeeded former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who reached his term limit. 

Cost of living is at the forefront of many voters’ minds as inflation has spiked in recent years. A recent CBS News poll showed that 70% of California registered voters say the cost of living is “unmanageable” where they live.

Just 7% of registered voters in the same poll said the “California Dream” is still attainable today, with 29% somewhat confident it is and 64% not confident.

Throughout the race, candidates have been pressed on how they would address California’s high cost of living, homelessness, energy policy, public safety, immigration, surging gas prices and housing affordability. 

Hilton ascends as Bianco falls behind

As the leading Republican candidate, according to recent polling, including the April CBS News survey, Hilton’s campaign has centered around the state’s cost-of-living crisis. He’s vowed to make the state “Califordable.” 

Hilton, who was born in London and once served as director of strategy for then-United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron, became a U.S. citizen in 2021. He’s been highly critical of Newsom’s actions on housing, homelessness and California’s regulatory processes.

“We want [young people] to be able to make your life here in California,” Hilton said during the CBS News Governor’s Debate on April 28, describing his desire to make housing affordable and to “restore that California dream of home ownership.”

President Trump endorsed Hilton in April, calling him a “truly fine man” who has “watched as this once great State has gone to Hell.” 

On Wednesday, Mr. Trump congratulated Hilton “on coming in first” in a post to Truth Social. As of the time that the message was posted, CBS News had not yet made any projections in the race.

“If Californians are smart, which I know they are, they will put Steve into the Governor’s Mansion, and watch their State get better at a rate that has probably never been seen before,” Mr. Trump wrote.

Hilton received the endorsement over fellow Republican Bianco, a longtime supporter of Mr. Trump, who has lagged behind Hilton in recent surveys. The pair were engaged in a toe-to-toe battle in early polling for the race.

Bianco has positioned himself as the opposition to California’s establishment in Sacramento, arguing that the state legislature’s progressive agenda is “destroying California.” 

“California is broken because of what has been happening in Sacramento,” he said during April’s CBS News Governor’s Debate. “The regulations and the taxes have got to go.”

Becerra gets a post-Swalwell boost as Steyer positions himself as “class traitor”

Meanwhile, the crowded Democratic field has taken many forms over the course of the race. In April, one of the race’s leading candidates, Rep. Eric Swalwell, suspended his campaign and resigned from Congress after multiple allegations of sexual assault came to light. Swalwell has denied all allegations.

His departure from the race led to an apparent boost for Becerra, buoying his campaign as the California Democratic Party struggled to consolidate around a consensus candidate. In the final days of the campaign, some polling showed Becerra — who served as the Secretary of Health and Human Services under former President Biden, and was California attorney general from 2017 to 2021 — leading a tight race for front-runner alongside Hilton and Steyer. 

Becerra, who represented parts of Los Angeles in Congress for 24 years starting in 1992, has touted his experience in government as the main driver of his campaign.

“The governor’s office is not a place with training wheels,” he said during April’s CBS News Governor’s Debate. “You need people who have experienced those challenges, have dealt with national crisis.” 

Becerra’s primary competition from the Democratic side comes from Tom Steyer, who has never held public office before but ran for president in 2020. Steyer, an environmentalist, positions himself as the most progressive Democrat in the race.

A billionaire hedge-fund manager, Steyer describes himself as a “class traitor,” and has attacked Becerra’s reliance on campaign donations from corporations.

“This is a three-way race with only two spots on the ballot,” he said during a recent campaign event. “A MAGA Republican, a corporate Democrat, and you guys and me.”

Porter, Mahan, Villaraigosa and Thurmond struggle to break through

Democratic former Rep. Katie Porter was an early frontrunner in the race’s beginning stages, but she began to lag in the polls after a fiery interaction with CBS News California’s Julie Watts in which she threatened to exit the interview. Another video later surfaced of Porter snapping at a staffer during a taped meeting with then-Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, an incident she’s since poked fun at, as first reported by Politico. Her polling numbers didn’t recover in the months since last year’s interaction with Watts.

“The votes are still being counted and it may take a few days here in California to have final numbers, but we know tonight that we will not advance to the general election in November,” Porter said. “Running a race like this isn’t easy, and coming up short is hard, but democracy is worth doing hard things for. Stay in the fight, stay in touch, and thank you for believing in me.”

A late entrant to the race in January, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan never gained momentum in polling. He campaigned on his record on the homelessness crisis in his three years in charge of the Bay Area’s largest city. Mahan-supporting PACs have received donations from some of the biggest names in the Silicon Valley tech sphere, like Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

While conceding on Tuesday night, Mahan hinted at his political future.

“We will take tonight to celebrate all we have accomplished. But we’re back to work tomorrow,” Mahan said. “This is not the last time I will ask Californians to come together to fight for a better state.”

Former LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa ran on a similar experience-based platform to Becerra, but despite his standing as one of the first major candidates to begin a campaign, he failed to break through in polling. Before his tenure as mayor from 2005 to 2013, he was a prominent member of the California Assembly, serving as both Majority Leader and Speaker in the 1990s.

“Tonight didn’t turn out the way we hoped, and I offer my congratulations to the winners and offer my best wishes for the road ahead,” he said. “I’m not stepping aside from the cause, only from the race. To everyone who gave this campaign a piece of their hope: hold on to it. California is worth fighting for – and I’m not done fighting.” 

The campaign of California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond also failed to gain traction, although he polled well enough to qualify for some early debates. Prior to his election to statewide office, Thurmond served in the state Assembly from 2014 to 2018.