In a darkened airport lodge ballroom room, a bevy of California Democrats sought to differentiate themselves from the crowded discipline working for governor in 2026.
It was not a simple job, provided that the lineup of present and former elected officers sharing the stage on the Sunday morning discussion board agreed on nearly all the problems, with any variations largely taking part in out within the margins.
They pledged to tackle President Trump, make the state extra inexpensive, safeguard immigrants and supply them with Medi-Cal healthcare advantages, and hold the state’s over-budget bullet practice mission intact.
There may be not but any clear front-runner within the race to run the nation’s most populous state, although former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter has had a small edge in current polling.
Other than a opaque dig from former state Controller Betty Yee, Porter was not attacked in the course of the debate.
They had been joined onstage by former U.S. Secretary of Well being and Human Companies Xavier Becerra, California Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. State Sen. Toni Atkins, who was alleged to take part, dropped out resulting from sickness. Rich first-time political candidate Stephen J. Cloobeck withdrew resulting from a scheduling battle.
The discussion board was sponsored by the Nationwide Union of Healthcare Employees, in partnership with the Los Angeles Occasions and Spectrum Information. It was held in Los Angeles and moderated by Related Press nationwide planning editor Lisa Matthews, with L.A. Occasions California politics editor Phil Willon, Spectrum Information 1 information anchor Amrit Singh and Politico senior political reporter Melanie Mason asking the questions.
Sen. Alex Padilla and businessman Rick Caruso have additionally each publicly flirted with a bid for the state’s high workplace, however have but to decide.
Two main GOP candidates, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and conservative commentator Steve Hilton, are additionally working for California governor, however neither had been invited to the talk as a result of they didn’t full an endorsement questionnaire from the union.
With Prop. 50 within the forefront, an absence of consideration on the race
California’s June 2 gubernatorial major is simply eight months away, however the horde hoping to exchange Gov. Gavin Newsom has been competing for consideration in opposition to an awfully crowded panorama, with an surprising particular election this November pulling each {dollars} and a focus away from the race for governor. To say nothing of the truth that the race had been considerably frozen in place for months till the top of July, when former Vice President Kamala Harris lastly introduced she wouldn’t be working.
The candidates reiterated their help for Proposition 50, the Newsom-led November poll measure to assist Democrats win management of the U.S. Home of Representatives subsequent 12 months by redrawing California congressional districts. Newsom pushed for the measure to counter efforts by Republican-led states to reconfigure their congressional districts to make sure the GOP retains management of Congress.
“This isn’t a struggle we truly wished to have,” Yee mentioned. “That is in response to a transparent try to mute our illustration in Washington. And so we now have to struggle again.”
A give attention to immigrant backgrounds, and appeals to Latino voters
The candidates repeatedly centered on their households’ origins in addition to their efforts to guard immigrants whereas serving in elected workplace.
Thurmond raised his upbringing in his opening remarks.
“I do know what it’s to battle. You recognize that my grandparents had been immigrants who got here right here from Colombia, from Jamaica? You recognize that I’m the descendant of slaves who settled in Detroit, Mich.?” he mentioned.
Becerra highlighted his help for undocumented folks to have entry to state healthcare protection in addition to his profitable lawsuit defending undocumented immigrants delivered to this nation as younger kids that reached the Supreme Court docket.
“Because the son of immigrants, I do know what occurs once you really feel such as you’re excluded,” he mentioned.
Becerra and Thurmond addressed the varied viewers in Spanish.
Yee, who spoke about sharing a room together with her immigrant dad and mom and siblings. additionally raised her background throughout a lightning-round query about what the candidates deliberate to decorate up as on Halloween.
“My genuine self as a daughter of immigrants,” she mentioned.
Differing opinions on prison justice approaches and healthcare
The talk was overwhelmingly cordial. However there was some dissent when the subject turned to Proposition 36, a 2024 anti-crime poll measure that imposed stricter penalties for repeat theft and crimes involving fentanyl.
The poll measure — which undid key components of the 2014 prison justice reform poll measure Proposition 47 — sowed division amongst California Democrats, with Newsom and teams together with the ACLU strongly opposing it. Its passage marked a turning of the tide in Californians’ attitudes about prison justice reform and response to crime, following years of help for progressive insurance policies that leaned away from punitive jail sentences for lower-level crimes.
First, Villaraigosa contended that he was the one candidate on stage who had supported Proposition 36, although Porter and Becerra shortly jumped in to say that they too had supported it.
However Porter additionally contended that, regardless of her help, there have been “very actual issues with it and really actual shortcomings.” The measure ought to have additionally centered on prevention and incarcerating folks for drug offenses doesn’t make anybody safer, she mentioned.
Thurmond strayed sharply from the pack on the problem, saying he voted “no” on Proposition 36 and citing his profession as a social employee.
“Prop. 36, by design, was set as much as say that you probably have a substance abuse subject, that you’re going to get therapy in jail,” Thurmond contended, suggesting that the quantity of medication current within the jail system would make that final result tough.
As governor, he would extra money into therapy for substance abuse applications and diversion applications for individuals who commit minor crimes, he mentioned.
When the candidates had been requested to boost their fingers in the event that they supported a single-payer healthcare system, Porter and Villaraigosa didn’t, whereas Becerra, Yee and Thurmond did.
The necessity to construct extra housing
Problems with affordability are high of thoughts for many Californians, notably in terms of housing.
Thurmond mentioned he would construct two million housing models on surplus land on college websites across the state and supply a tax break for working and center class Californians.
Villaraigosa additionally centered on the necessity to construct extra housing, criticizing bureaucratic pink tape and sluggish allowing processes.
Villaraigosa additionally twice critiqued CEQA — notable as a result of the landmark California Environmental High quality Act was as soon as held seemingly above reproach by California Democrats. However the legislation’s flaws have change into more and more accepted lately because the state’s housing disaster worsened, with Newsom signing two payments to overtake the the legislation and ease new development earlier this 12 months.
Porter mentioned that if she had been governor, she would signal SB 79, a landmark housing invoice that overrides native zoning legal guidelines to increase high-density housing close to transit hubs. The controversial invoice — which might probably remake single-family neighborhoods inside a half-mile of transit stops — is awaiting Newsom’s signature or veto.
