Steyer and Hilton Scrap for Second Top Spot in Tight Tuesday Governor's Race Primary

With Californians slow to return ballots, former Biden Cabinet secretary Xavier Becerra has surged ahead in the governor's race, while billionaire Tom Steyer and Trump-backed Republican Steve Hilton battle for the crucial second spot. Hilton warns conservatives that supporting a rival Republican could lock them out of the November election, while Steyer spends millions on television ads casting Becerra as beholden to Big Oil, Big Tech, and other corporate backers.

As Californians dawdle about casting ballots before Tuesday's primary, the leading candidates crisscrossed the state making their closing arguments. With Becerra surging in recent polls, the two candidates battling for second place highlighted strategic reasons why voters should support them.

Republican Steve Hilton, a former conservative commentator who surged past his main GOP rival, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, after President Trump endorsed him in April, urged voters to back him to avoid the possibility of two Democrats facing off in November. "I want us to fight like we are third.

We aren't going to let this slip away," Hilton told a few hundred people at the Santa Monica Hilton Hotel & Suites on Sunday. He warned that every vote for Bianco is a vote for two Democrats in the top two.

Billionaire hedge fund founder turned climate change activist Tom Steyer, a Democrat, has spent a record-breaking $216 million of his wealth on his gubernatorial bid. He argued that he is the only candidate not beholden to special interests, hammering Becerra for support from corporations including Meta, Airbnb, Uber, and Chevron.

"We've seen it in this race. Chevron cuts you a check and you look the other way when they hike prices at the pump.

Meta gives you money and your AI plan starts sounding like ChatGPT," Steyer told more than 500 supporters at a community college near downtown Los Angeles on Sunday.

At a raucous rally in Long Beach, Becerra attacked Steyer and Hilton, though not by name. "We are not going to let a billionaire or Trump's handpicked candidate take over this state," he told more than 1,000 people at the city's convention center.

"We are not going to let them gut Medicaid while Californians work hard to build a future. We are not going to let them buy an election."

Becerra also released a new video that ostensibly attacks Hilton as "Trump's favorite" — a thinly veiled effort to prop up Hilton among Republicans to ensure he finishes ahead of Steyer in the primary. Given that Democratic voters outnumber Republicans by almost 2 to 1, Becerra would much rather face Hilton than Steyer in the general election.

Steyer launched an ad this weekend titled "Risky" that implies Becerra could face criminal charges related to the acts of two former advisors who have pleaded guilty to federal charges related to stealing campaign funds from a dormant Becerra campaign account. Becerra's campaign called the ad defamatory in a cease and desist letter sent to the Steyer campaign on Saturday.

Lower-polling candidates also stumped in the Southland, including San José Mayor Matt Mahan and former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter.

Despite a crowded field of candidates with notable resumes, as well as record-breaking spending by Steyer and independent-expenditure committees, Californians only recently tuned in. Political experts believe voter malaise was due to fatigue about the nation's political polarization, as well as Trump administration policies such as federal tariffs that drove up prices and immigration raids.

Southern Californians were also reeling from the devastating wildfires in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena and last year's special election to redraw the state's congressional boundaries.

The most recent polls suggest that the prospect of two Republicans advancing to the general election is nonexistent, and there is now a slim chance that two Democrats win the top two spots in the June 2 primary.