Former HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra will face Hilton in California's race for governor

Nearly a week after election day, Xavier Becerra, former Secretary of Health and Human Services, will face Republican Steve Hilton in the California's race for governor.

Transcript

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

After a week of vote-counting in California's primaries, we have results in the race for governor. The Associated Press has called the second-place spot for Republican Steve Hilton. He will face, in November, Democrat Xavier Becerra, who is the former secretary of Health and Human Services, a former congressman and a former state attorney general. Hilton is a former Fox News commentator, endorsed by President Trump, who has campaigned on the idea of Republican leadership being the change that California needs. Now, no GOP candidate has won statewide office in California for 20 years.

Joining us now to talk about all of this is KQED's Guy Marzorati. Hi, Guy.

GUY MARZORATI, BYLINE: Hey. Thanks for having me.

CHANG: Oh, thanks for being here. All right. So let's get into these results. On Friday, we learned that Becerra was definitely in the governor's race. Tonight, the AP called the second spot for Hilton. What kind of race is this setting up for November, you think?

MARZORATI: Well, most likely an uncompetitive one. Let's be honest. As you mentioned, it has been 20 years since California elected a Republican governor. That was Arnold Schwarzenegger back in...

CHANG: I remember (laughter).

MARZORATI: ...Yes, back in 2006. And so it is a tough path ahead for Hilton, by the very virtue of the fact that the single biggest thing he had going for him in this primary - and it was a top-two primary in California, all Democrats, all Republicans on the same ballot - the biggest thing Hilton had going for him was Trump endorsed him. He had the endorsement of President Donald Trump. That allowed him to consolidate Republican voters. But that very endorsement that was a propellant in the primary is going to likely be an anchor for Hilton in the general election, when you're talking about a state where the vast majority of voters disapprove of the job that Trump has been doing as president.

CHANG: Exactly. All right, well, with Hilton moving on to the general election, that means Democrat Tom Steyer will not be advancing. What have you heard from Steyer tonight?

MARZORATI: Well, it was definitely a tough campaign between Becerra and Steyer. But Steyer immediately endorsed Becerra tonight in a statement saying, quote, "Californians must unite behind Xavier Becerra." Clearly, a tough loss for Steyer. This is a billionaire philanthropist who spent well over $200 million on this campaign alone. His victory, if he was able to make it into the general election, it would have been a big victory for California progressives. Steyer was running on this really tax-heavy platform. But I just think a lot of Democratic voters may have had reservations. Even if they liked the policies that Steyer was putting forward, they may have had reservations about voting for a billionaire for governor.

CHANG: OK. Well, let's look past November and to a Becerra administration or a Hilton administration, should that case play out. But based on their experience, their track records, what will you be looking for when it comes to actually governing this state?

MARZORATI: Yeah. I think with Becerra, he - you know, he spent relatively little time on policy during the campaign compared to someone like Steyer. He's really leaning on the fact that he has the experience in Sacramento. He served as the state's attorney general. That's a job that there's a lot of overlap with the duties of the governor. He has those relationships in the Capitol. There are question marks, though, like where does he stand on issues like AI? How will he work with environmentalists after saying he supports new oil drilling?

And then for Hilton, look, how would he work with a Democratic supermajority? I think there's some ideas he has that might have, you know, bipartisan support, like cutting taxes for small businesses. Other things - scrapping environmental laws, promoting housing sprawl - those would all likely get opposed by Democrats in the Legislature.

CHANG: That is KQED's Guy Marzorati. Thank you so much, Guy.

MARZORATI: Thanks for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.