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Californians watching Wednesday night’s gubernatorial debate would be forgiven for thinking the candidates for governor are President Donald Trump and the Democratic Party.
Trump was the central topic in the debate between Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton, with Becerra repeatedly tying Hilton to Trump’s policies on immigration, taxes, housing, the environment and Big Tech. Hilton also tried to tie Becerra to outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Democrats at large.
Becerra mentioned the president, who is widely unpopular in California, more than a dozen times during the hourlong debate on CNN.
“You’re going to end up with Trump results if you follow Steve Hilton’s plans,” Becerra said when asked about Hilton’s proposal to eliminate income taxes for middle-class Californians. He pointed out that Hilton’s plan to drop income taxes on the first $150,000 in earnings also includes a tax cut for the state’s wealthiest earners, comparing it to federal tax cuts enacted by Trump.
Similarly, when Hilton said he would wait to assess whether California needs to more aggressively regulate artificial intelligence companies, Becerra linked his response to Trump’s inaction, saying “if you listen closely, you can hear Donald Trump in that response.” Hilton noted that Becerra’s campaign has received donations from the biggest artificial intelligence companies, Anthropic and OpenAI.
Trump endorsed Hilton during the contested primary election, but the former Fox News host has since tried to distance himself from both the president and the Republican Party, running ads telling voters they can dislike Trump and still support him. Last week, in an acknowledgement that opposition to Trump is dragging down Republicans’ approval rating, his campaign released a poll claiming he was “unscathed from (the) Republican collapse.”
On Hilton’s proposal to expand oil drilling in California, Becerra brought up Trump’s effort to expand drilling off the state’s coast.
It’s a predictable strategy for Becerra, who enjoys a double-digit lead over Hilton in the heavily Democratic-leaning state where voters also disapprove of Trump by wide margins. The Democratic candidate has laid low since getting the most votes in the crowded all-party primary election in June, making few public appearances and agreeing only to one debate. Hilton criticized Becerra for repeatedly mentioning national politics, arguing the Democrat isn’t offering Californians any concrete solutions to the nation-topping cost of living.
“All you ever say is ‘Trump, Trump, Trump,’” Hilton said. “And that’s nothing but an insult to every Californian who is desperate for something to change in this state.”
This is a developing story.
