Becerra and Hilton Advance in California, Setting Up a Combative Race to Succeed Newsom

Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton have advanced from California's open primary to a November runoff for governor, locking in a contest that will pit a veteran Democratic official against a conservative media personality to lead the nation's most populous state.

Becerra, the former U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services under President Joe Biden and a onetime California attorney general, took the top spot with about 27.1% of the vote once a slow ballot count was largely complete, the Associated Press projected Friday. Hilton, a former Fox News host and adviser to British Prime Minister David Cameron, clinched the second slot with roughly 25.1%. Under California's top-two primary system, the two highest finishers advance regardless of party.

The result capped a volatile week. Hilton led the field on election night when the polls closed June 2, but as California's notoriously slow mail-ballot tabulation continued, Becerra steadily climbed and overtook him. Billionaire investor and climate activist Tom Steyer, who poured millions into his own campaign, fell short of the runoff, as did a crowded field of Democrats competing for the party's establishment base.

The race will determine the successor to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is barred by term limits from seeking another four years and is widely expected to weigh a 2028 presidential bid. Whoever wins in November will inherit a state grappling with a strained budget, persistent housing and homelessness crises, and recurring battles with the Trump administration over immigration, federal funding and environmental policy.

Becerra is expected to campaign as a defender of California's Democratic agenda and a counterweight to Washington, leaning on his record litigating against the first Trump administration as attorney general. Hilton, who has built a following as a populist critic of California's governance, has cast the race as a referendum on one-party Democratic rule, blaming Sacramento for high costs, crime and what he describes as government overreach.

Democrats hold a commanding voter-registration advantage in California, and no Republican has won a statewide race in nearly two decades, making Becerra an early favorite. But Hilton's advance guarantees that the general election will feature a sharp ideological clash rather than the intraparty Democratic contest many had anticipated, ensuring a five-month campaign over the direction of a state of nearly 40 million people.