What they say they stand for
Their own words. Claims, not verified facts.
- Costs: declaring an emergency to freeze insurance and utility rates, and cracking down on price gouging.
- Housing: a state emergency declaration to fund 40,000 affordable housing units and pressure on cities to zone for apartments and duplexes.
- Homelessness: ongoing state funding for rental assistance, while saying 'people should not be allowed to voluntarily stay on the street when offered shelter.'
- Health care: expanding coverage for all residents and reducing insurance administrative costs; defending Medi-Cal coverage for undocumented immigrants.
- Crime: he voted for Proposition 36 and says he would fully fund its provisions.
- Immigration: supporting California's sanctuary law.
- Climate: supporting clean energy goals but open to revising them, including the gas car phase-out, if they make energy unaffordable.
What they’ve actually done
Documented record from official sources.
- U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, 2021-2025.
- Attorney General of California, 2017-2021; filed more than 100 lawsuits against the first Trump administration.
- U.S. Representative from Los Angeles for more than two decades, including as chair of the House Democratic Caucus.
- Finished first in the June 2 2026 top-two primary with about 28.0%.
- Shifted from supporting single-payer health care to expanding coverage within the existing system.
- Underlings on his California campaign account were involved in a scheme to divert $225,000 to a consulting firm; Dana Williamson, Sean McCluskie and a Sacramento lobbyist pleaded guilty to fraud and related charges in late 2025 and May 2026. Becerra has not been charged.
Arguments in favor
He has run a federal department and a state law office, and sued the first Trump administration more than 100 times — experience he says California will need again.
— Xavier Becerra for Governor campaign
His cost agenda uses powers a governor actually has: an emergency declaration to freeze insurance and utility rates, price gouging enforcement, and state money for 40,000 affordable units.
— Xavier Becerra for Governor campaign
He would keep Medi-Cal coverage for undocumented residents, arguing the prosperity of the world's fourth-largest economy has to be shared with the people who sustain its workforce.
— Xavier Becerra, as reported by Times of San Diego
Arguments against
As HHS secretary he ran the agency that 'released more than 319,000 migrant children and then lost contact with them' — 'one of the greatest government failures in modern history' — after pressing to move children out of shelters and to sponsors more quickly.
— Hector Barajas, Steve Hilton campaign spokesman
He has refused to commit to specifics — he will not say how many homes he would build, how he would cut health costs, or whether he would keep the gas car phase-out, saying it 'depends.'
— CalMatters
People around his California campaign account ran a $225,000 diversion scheme and pleaded guilty; the FBI should revisit what he knew.
— Steve Hilton, Republican candidate
What we couldn’t verify
- Whether he would keep California's 2035 gas car phase-out; he says it depends on affordability.
- How many housing units he would target beyond the 40,000 affordable units funded by emergency declaration.
- What, if anything, he knew about the $225,000 scheme his associates pleaded guilty to; he has not been charged and no finding against him was located.
- He has released no major education proposals.