California will have a new governor for the first time in eight years after the Fox News Decision Desk projected that former Biden administration Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra has defeated Republican Steve Hilton, keeping the governorship in Democratic hands as Gov. Gavin Newsom’s term-limited tenure comes to a close.
Becerra, a Democrat, brings more than three decades in public office to the role. He was first elected to the California State Assembly in 1990, then spent over two decades in Congress before leaving the House in 2017, when then-Gov. Jerry Brown appointed him state attorney general. He won a full term as attorney general in 2018 and later served as President Joe Biden’s HHS secretary from 2021 to 2025.
Becerra and Hilton advanced to the general election out of California’s crowded, nonpartisan top-two primary in June, with Becerra finishing first at roughly 28% of the vote and Hilton second at about 25%. More than 9.4 million Californians voted in that primary, according to certified results from the California secretary of state’s office.
The win continues an unbroken run of Democratic control over California’s governorship that stretches back to 2010. No Republican has won a gubernatorial race in the state since Arnold Schwarzenegger’s reelection in 2006, and none has held the office since he left in January 2011. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in California by a wide margin.
Two very different visions for the state
Hilton, a former Fox News host who also advised British Prime Minister David Cameron on policy, ran as a change candidate. He argued that sustained one-party rule in Sacramento had driven up the cost of living and fueled homelessness. His platform called for cutting taxes and state spending, rolling back regulations and climate mandates, and expanding energy production to bring down the cost of housing, electricity and gasoline. Hilton secured President Donald Trump’s endorsement, though he said during the campaign he would work with the administration while breaking with Trump when he disagreed.
Becerra also made affordability central to his campaign, warning that rising costs were putting what he called the
