Is Xavier Becerra the Best California Can Do?

Among Democratic professionals in California, the prevailing sentiment about the governor’s race is a depressed shrug and a question: How did we end up with Becerra and Tom Steyer as Newsom’s most likely successors?

In California, mail pieces are common in local races but mostly rare in an expensive statewide race usually fought over the airwaves. But Steyer has the money to spend—on TV, on streaming, on digital, and apparently on influencers who post friendly content that is only sometimes disclosed.

Peter Hamby

May 26, 2026

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A scorcher of an attack ad landed in my mailbox over the holiday weekend—paid for, natch, by billionaire Democrat Tom Steyer. Steyer has spent a record-breaking $200 million of his own money on his run for California governor, and he’s shelling out more cash in the final weeks before next Tuesday’s primary to savage the frontrunner, Xavier Becerra, rendering him as an establishment stooge, bought and paid for by the corporate interests who really run Sacramento.