How Xavier Becerra turned around his campaign to be California’s governor

Xavier Becerra during his election-night party at La Plaza de Cultura y Artes in Los Angeles, on 2 June. Photograph: Chris Torres/EPA View image in fullscreen Xavier Becerra during his election-night party at La Plaza de Cultura y Artes in Los Angeles, on 2 June. Photograph: Chris Torres/EPA Analysis How Xavier Becerra turned around his campaign to be California’s governor Uwa Ede-Osifo and Lauren Gambino In late March, his polling hovered near 3%, but in a stunning reversal Becerra has advanced to the general election Xavier Becerra, the former Biden cabinet official whose California gubernatorial campaign survived a deeply underwhelming start, has advanced to the general election, in a stunning reverse of political fortune. If he prevails in November, Becerra would make history as the state’s first Latino governor since 1875, when California was briefly led by Romualdo Pacheco, who was born in the territory when it was still part of Mexico. Becerra, born in Sacramento to a Mexican immigrant family, rose from the California state legislature to Congress, where he served from 1993 to 2017, to attorney general of California, taking the place of Kamala Harris when she was elected to the US Senate. He departed that role in 2021, when he was tapped by then president Joe Biden to be the health and human services secretary. Despite his government bona fides, Becerra floundered at the start of the race to succeed the term-limited Gavin Newsom as California governor. His polling hovered around 3% in late March, and he lagged far behind three Democrats – then-congressman Eric Swalwell, former congresswoman Katie Porter and billionaire activist Tom Steyer, as well as two Republicans, Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco – in the non-partisan primary. Since Donald Trump ’s return to the White House, Democrats had moved to quickly turn the page on the Biden years. Many voters gravitated toward leaders willing to brawl on the president’s level, like Newsom. The party has sought anti-establishment outsiders and younger-generation challengers. Becerra, a mild-mannered 68-year-old political veteran, seemed hardly a match. View image in fullscreen Lizza Monet Morales at an election-night event for Becerra, on 2 June in Los Angeles. Photograph: Jae C Hong/AP There was a particular anti-Trump buzz in California after the passage of Proposition 50, a Newsom-led redistricting plan meant to blunt Republican gerrymandering in Texas, said Christian Grose, a University of Southern California political scienceprofessor. The crowded Democratic field had also stoked concern that the party vote would be so splintered that the two Republican candidates could finish first and second in the primary, locking Democrats out of the general election top-two runoff. In March, Rusty Hicks, the chair of the California Democratic party, urged candidates without a viable path – effectively those polling low like Becerra – to drop out and help avoid the nightmare scenario of no Democrat being on