Top CA governor candidates spar, seek votes on last day before primary election
Former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, a comfortable frontrunner in polls ahead of Tuesday’s primary election, seemed relaxed as he handed out baked goods to supporters at a Planned Parenthood office in downtown Sacramento. It was his last stop in a get out the vote tour that has taken him around California.
Billionaire financier and climate activist Tom Steyer spent his final day of campaigning in Los Angeles, speaking to college Democrats at the University of California, Los Angeles in the morning and attending a West Hollywood Pride event in the evening.
Former Fox News broadcaster Steven Hilton appeared on the conservative broadcast channel NewsMax, urging Republicans to consolidate behind him and not cast their votes for Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco. The closing polling gap between Steyer and Hilton threatens to make the general election a contest between Democrats — if Steyer can beat Hilton out for the second spot. A spokesperson for Hilton did not respond to a request for his schedule Monday.
The top three polling candidates spent their last day on the trail ahead of a long anticipated primary election in the race to replace outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom. Voters, meanwhile, continued to respond somewhat sluggishly to the race, with early ballot returns slow particularly among Democrats, The Sacramento Bee reported Monday.
The top two Democrats, who have in the last few weeks engaged in a pitched one-on-one battle against each other, continued to snipe in the final days of the race. Over the weekend, an attorney for Becerra threatened to sue Steyer’s campaign if the latter did not drop an attack ad that tied Becerra to a corruption scandal involving his former chief of staff and advisor.
Though Becerra’s campaign threatened a lawsuit if ads did not halt by noon on Sunday, on Monday afternoon the former HHS secretary and California attorney general said no such suit had been filed, but added that the campaign maintained the option to do so.
“I didn’t realize that’s what makes you progressive, to be a liar about other people when you’re campaigning,” Becerra said. “But I guess when you’ve got unlimited funds ... you can say pretty much everything you want.”
Steyer has spent an estimated $200 million of his own wealth on his primary campaign. He has cast Becerra as a politician bought by the special interest groups that have donated to his campaign or backed him heavily through independent expenditures — in particular oil and gas companies and health industry groups.
“That’s the story of Xavier Becerra’s campaign,” Steyer said at a rally in Los Angeles on Sunday.
Hilton, meanwhile, told NewsMax viewers he was the only “change candidate who has a shot at getting in the top two,” at this point in the race.
“Don’t let Becerra, Biden’s useless health secretary, and Tom Steyer the billionaire climate fanatic stitch this up,” he said.
Over the weekend, Emerson College published a poll that put Hilton with 21% of the vote, behind the two leading Democrats — Becerra held 28% and Steyer 22%. The poll put Bianco at 12%, a fairly distant fourth. None of the remaining other significant Democratic candidates — specifically former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond — broke 5% in that poll.
But Bianco, on the social media site X, adopted Hilton’s sales pitch to note that voters still have the final say and are free to upend expectations.
“It’s clear that Steve Hilton supporters should unite and support me,” Bianco said. “While they’re at it, Becerra, Steyer, Porter, Mahan, Thurmond, Villaraigosa supporters should vote for me too.”
On election night, Hilton and Becerra are scheduled to await election returns in Los Angeles and Huntington Beach, respectively. Steyer will be in San Francisco.
This story was originally published June 1, 2026 at 4:30 PM.
