Steve Hilton and Xavier Becerra squared off Wednesday night on CNN in the only debate scheduled before California voters pick their next governor, and the Republican challenger spent much of it going after Becerra’s record and his tax proposals.
“Thank you to CNN for bringing Xavier Becerra out of hiding,” Hilton said, opening the night on offense.
Hilton pressed Becerra over his tenure as California attorney general, telling him directly: “When you were there as Attorney General, you did nothing. You did nothing.”
The debate’s central fight was over taxes. Hilton is campaigning on eliminating state taxes on the first $150,000 of income and scrapping the gas tax, arguing the cuts would help both working Californians and the higher earners he says create jobs. Becerra rejected the plan outright, calling it a version of “Trump tax cuts” and warning it would hand the wealthiest residents a windfall.
“You’re going to end up giving the wealthiest Californians a 40% tax break,” Becerra said.
Becerra also said he didn’t want Wall Street to have an easier time affording California homes than the state’s teachers do.
One of the sharpest moments came when Becerra argued against repeating policies that produce poor results. Hilton didn’t let it pass: “Yes, like voting Democrat.”
The candidates also split on artificial intelligence. Hilton called for a pause on AI in California classrooms, while Becerra pointed to his lawsuits against Google and Meta and said, “I will continue to do so as governor.”
Asked directly by Hilton to name something he’d done to cut red tape, Becerra cited his lawsuit against the city of Huntington Beach, in Orange County. Hilton wasn’t having it: “That’s more red tape.”
Becerra closed by warning voters they’d get “Trump results” if Hilton won. President Trump has endorsed Hilton and backed his campaign.
Hilton enters the race’s stretch run trailing in the polls. The UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies Poll from September had Becerra at 58% to Hilton’s 33%, and the Public Policy Institute of California put the race at 60% to 38%.
Hilton has made Becerra’s record the centerpiece of his campaign outside the debate stage too, including a campaign website built around the nickname “Bitch-ass Becerra” — a reference to an insult reportedly attributed to former Biden adviser Susan Rice.
With no second debate on the calendar, Wednesday’s exchange was the only head-to-head Californians will see before voting. It came a day after the California Post reported that former Biden administration colleagues questioned Becerra’s fitness for the governor’s office, with one alleging he disparaged migrant children as “little Juanitos and Juanitas.” “I do not think he is qualified to be the governor,” the former colleague told the paper. “I don’t think he’s qualified to be the boss of anything.”
