State of California · Statewide General Election
Governor
Draft candidate list — early preview until the state’s official list publishes on August 27, 2026.
On the ballot
- Xavier Becerra — Democratic
- Steve Hilton — Republican
This person is California's chief executive: signs or vetoes laws, proposes the state budget, appoints judges and agency heads.
The biggest job in California government is genuinely open — no incumbent, 61 names on the June ballot. Statewide, Xavier Becerra and Steve Hilton finished first and second, and they meet on November 3. LA County voted differently — Tom Steyer ran second here — but runoffs are decided by the statewide count.
The governor signs or vetoes every state law, writes the first draft of a roughly $300 billion budget, and appoints judges and agency heads — a four-year term that will shape how California handles housing costs, wildfire and insurance recovery, and its relationship with Washington.
A useful question for this race: do you want deep government experience steering the machine, or an outsider promising to shake it?
Xavier Becerra
Democrat; former U.S. Health Secretary, California Attorney General, and 24-year member of Congress. He runs on housing, cost of living, and clean energy, with a manager's pitch: he has already run huge public institutions. The knock: he's a career insider in a change election.
Strengths
Executive experience at every level of government; led California's courtroom defense of state policies as AG; helped shape the Affordable Care Act in Congress.
Trade-offs
His HHS tenure drew criticism over the agency losing contact with migrant children placed with sponsors; a long résumé cuts both ways when voters want a break from the status quo.
Keep in mind
CalMatters reported questions about undisclosed paid influencer posts by his campaign (later given disclaimers), and he entered the general far behind his June rivals in fundraising.
Steve Hilton
Republican; former Fox News host and UK government adviser, ran as a small business owner. His message is affordability — housing, gas, groceries — and a sharp break from one-party Sacramento. He has never held elected office.
Strengths
A clear, energetic outsider message that carried him to second statewide against better-funded rivals.
Trade-offs
No governing record to evaluate, and his agenda would face a heavily Democratic Legislature from day one.
Keep in mind
He ran with Donald Trump's endorsement, which the state Republican convention notably declined to echo — it deadlocked between him and Sheriff Chad Bianco. How you weigh that alignment is a real part of this vote.
Financial info
- Small donors
- Individuals
- PACs & committees
- Businesses & other orgs
- Self-funding
Xavier Becerra
$22,373,949 raised
- Small donors$1,925,1839%
- Individuals$11,922,05154%
- PACs & committees$3,923,40318%
- Businesses & other orgs$4,372,40220%
Steve Hilton
$12,962,824 raised
- Small donors$2,609,78020%
- Individuals$9,442,07374%
- PACs & committees$48,550<1%
- Businesses & other orgs$552,1804%
- Self-funding$178,1001%
Tom Steyer
$220,961,725 raised
- Small donors$32,679<1%
- Individuals$205,664<1%
- PACs & committees$78,400<1%
- Businesses & other orgs$3,000<1%
- Self-funding$219,779,555100%
Chad Bianco
$6,471,409 raised
- Small donors$939,57215%
- Individuals$3,662,10259%
- PACs & committees$230,3184%
- Businesses & other orgs$1,361,88022%
1Becerra's biggest backers are organized labor — fourteen Laborers' union committees gave a combined $439,200 — tribal governments (San Manuel, Pechanga, and Agua Caliente together gave nearly $210,000), and Wonderful Company owners Stewart and Lynda Resnick at $47,000 each.
2Hilton's single largest contributor is investor Tim Draper at the $78,400 two-election maximum, and donors listing themselves as retired supplied about $4.5 million — over a third of everything he raised.
3Figures are CA Form 460 filings through June 30, 2026 by committees controlled by each candidate, and can include transfers from a candidate's earlier committees. Semi-annual reports covering January–June 2026 were due July 31, 2026, so some totals lag a period behind. Per the California Secretary of State's Cal-Access raw data export, retrieved 2026-08-03.
June 2 primary — how they advanced
Source review: Very strong (97/100) · 5 cited sources
Official records anchor this contest, with several source types checked for context.
- sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)CA Secretary of State — Statement of Vote, June 2, 2026 primary (certified 2026-07-10)
- calmatters.org (opens in a new tab)CalMatters — 2026 primary voter guide and statewide race coverage
- nbclosangeles.com (opens in a new tab)NBC Los Angeles — June 2026 primary results coverage
- ballotpedia.org (opens in a new tab)Ballotpedia — June 2026 California primary
- sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)Cal-Access raw data export — California Secretary of State
Last updated August 3, 2026.