Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, is running for California Governor in the November 2026 general election against Republican Steve Hilton, having advanced from the June 2026 top-two primary with about 27% of the vote. Born in Sacramento to a Mexican immigrant mother, he was the first in his family to graduate college, earning a bachelor’s degree in economics and a law degree from Stanford. He worked as a legal aid attorney before entering politics, serving in the California State Assembly and then 12 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2017, where he became the first Latino on the Ways and Means Committee and the second Hispanic to chair the House Democratic Caucus.
Becerra served as California Attorney General from 2017 to 2021, the first Latino to hold the post, filing roughly 120 lawsuits against the first Trump administration over immigration, environmental, and health care policy and winning about 82% of contested cases tracked by outside researchers, at a cost to the state of roughly $41 million over four years. He went on to serve as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Biden from 2021 to 2025, the first Latino to lead the agency, where he oversaw Medicare drug-price negotiation reforms but also drew criticism during a surge of unaccompanied migrant children, when HHS was unable to reach at least 85,000 minors for follow-up welfare checks, prompting a House Republican subpoena of sponsor-vetting records. Critics also faulted him for a subdued public profile during parts of the pandemic response.
Becerra has campaigned for governor on what he calls a “break-glass moment” for California, pledging to be the “health-care governor,” declare a state emergency to freeze insurance and utility rates, and focus on affordability in housing, health care, and child care, while defending abortion access and voting rights.
