Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton came out swinging tonight in a nationally televised CNN gubernatorial debate, throwing nearly 60 minutes of punches but landing few solid blows.
The first and last statewide General Election confrontation for the pair before ballots are distributed next week left both men standing unscathed – and offered little evidence that the trajectory of the campaign will change in the weeks ahead.
Both men leaned towards the center, staking out the more moderate positions of their respective parties that they displayed in their primary campaign.
The latest poll before the showdown on the stage in Burbank showed Becerra with the largest lead of this election cycle with 60% support, followed by Hilton at 38%. In the days leading up to tonight’s standoff, the poll showed that the state’s unaffiliated voters continued to shift towards Becerra, a former California congressman and state attorney general who was Health and Human Services secretary in the Biden Administration.
Becerra touted his California and Washington D.C. experience and repeatedly linked Hilton to the “tyrant” President Donald Trump, who endorsed the former Fox News commentator.
Hilton countered by tying Becerra to what Hilton called the failed policies of Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic super majorities in Sacramento.
Becerra, as he had in the primary race, avoided any criticism of the governor, and Hilton, as he also had done in the primary, avoided questions about Trump, whose endorsement he secured early in the campaign.
The candidates were testy but stuck to their scripts, despite the efforts by moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash to pin them down on the issues.
Hilton began the debate by thanking CNN “for bringing Xavier out of hiding.”
Becerra began by accusing Hilton of endorsing a 40% tax cut for California “millionaires and billionaires.”
“We need to bring jobs back to California, because your policies of high taxes have driven businesses out of the state,” countered Hilton.
“You are proposing Trump tax policies and promoting Trump tax cuts,” counterpunched Becerra,” and you’re going to end up with Trump results.”
Tapper and Bash asked about the candidates’ positions on housing, AI, data centers, immigration, climate change, homelessness, disaster relief, voting rights, immunization, health care and Hollywood.
Often the candidates preferred talking about their opponents’ positions, rather than their own.
Often it sounded as though the real opponents in this California election were Newsom and Trump – Becerra talked about Hilton’s links to the president, and Hilton talked about Becerra’s links to the governor.
On the climate, for example, Hilton complained about “ineffective and costly climate policies” and suggested that Democrats were responsible for high gasoline prices in California.
Becerra said Hilton wants to “drill, baby, drill” along the coast of California, and blamed high gasoline prices on “Trump’s policies and the Iran War.”
There were occasional promises.
Hilton said he would cut $150,000 from the cost of each new home, and build 10 new cities “to help young people follow their dreams.” Becerra said he would “close the housing gap and double the rate of building” new housing.
Hilton cautiously endorsed Trump’s hands-off approach to AI companies. “We’ll have to see if these companies will make good” on their promises to self-regulate,” he said. “I will hold them to that.”
He added: “Our finances are dependent on these companies,” and California needs “to make sure we get all those new [AI] jobs here in California.”
Becerra warned of the possible lost jobs from unregulated AI growth and said Hilton was relying on Trump: “The president got a pinky promise” from the AI CEOs this week, he said.
When asked if they would endorse multiple new California laws attempting to block aggressive ICE immigration enforcement, Hilton said he would protect “legal immigrants,” then accused Becerra, as HHS secretary, of sending thousands of children “into camps…into the clutches of sex traffickers.”
“I cannot believe that you haven’t apologized, that you haven’t any sense of shame,” Hilton told his opponent.
“Trump used to put kids in cages – we changed all that,” said a defensive Becerra, adding: “What I won’t do is invite ICE into our state.”
“You welcomed ICE mercenaries into this state,” Becerra said to Hilton. “You seem to welcome immigrants who look like you but deport immigrants that look like me.”
Hilton paused: “What a disgraceful remark.”
A frustrated Hilton at one point complained to Becerra that “All you ever say is Trump, Trump, Trump.”
“You chased his endorsement,” responded Becerra.
Hilton defended the anti-vaccine efforts of the Trump Administration, while saying he was “pro-vaccine.”
“We had nearly eradicated measles (59 cases reported so far in California this year), and today children are dying of measles,” Becerra said. “That’s what happens when vaccine deniers take over – we can’t reward those who are willing to let families die.”
When Hilton promised to “increase affordable health care for California” with lower costs and lower premiums, Becerra reminded him that Republican cuts to Medicaid and Obamacare subsidies “will kick people off health care…and close hospitals.”
In his closing remarks, Hilton pleaded with voters: “It’s time to try something different” after 16 years of one-party domination and a “bloated government.”
Becerra reminded voters that Hilton “never served in government, and never balanced a budget.” He ended the evening by promising to protect Californians from “a tyrant like Donald Trump.”
Voting centers and ballot boxes open next week. The ballot counting begins on Election Day, Nov. 3.
