BECERRA/DAVID CRANE/MEDIANEWS GROUP/LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS VIA GETTY IMAGES / HILTON/ROBERT GAUTHIER/LOS ANGELES TIMES VIA GETTY IMAGES
Gov. Race Turns Identity Politics Inside Out
Becerra vs. Hilton is contest unlike anything California has seen in a while.
I BY RUBEN NAVARRETTE
n california, the scenery is beautiful. But the politics are weird.
That’s what keeps things
interesting in a dark blue state where the outcome of most political races is often a foregone conclusion. With a 2 -1 voter enrollment advantage, mediocre Democrats tend to win, while ultra- qualified Republicans are shut out. In the Golden State, where I was
born and raised and where I’ve lived most of my life, politics still packs its share of surprises. And, over the next several weeks, in the homestretch of the Nov. 3 gubernatorial election, vot- ers should expect the unexpected. The matchup between Republican
Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host, and Democrat Xavier Becerra, a for- mer Health and Human Services sec- retary, is unlike any that Californians have seen in a while. On the ballot, voters will have
to choose between a Latino and an immigrant. In this case, the Latino and the immigrant are not the same person. Here’s the twist: Becerra — a Mexi- can American who was born and
raised in Sacramento in 1958 — is a domestic product. Hilton is an immigrant from Great
Britain, who came to California in 2012 after serving as an adviser to former U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron. One candidate is proposing radi-
cal change, while his buttoned-down opponent seems comfortable main- taining the status quo. Here’s another twist: In this race,
the change agent is the Republican, and the defender of the status quo is the Democrat. Hilton has a horror story to tell
about how Democrats — who have controlled the governor’s mansion in California for 16 straight years, and 19 of the last 27 — have destroyed a once great state.
Meanwhile, Becerra is not running
away from the dismal record of his fellow Democrat, current Gov. Gavin Newsom, who failed to lead on the COVID-19 shutdown, homelessness, affordability, crime, education, and more. Becerra gives Newsom high marks.
Given that California is home to
more undocumented immigrants than any other state, the issue of immigra-
tion is always on the menu. In 1994, former Gov. Pete Wilson
— the last Republican governor who wasn’t a famous action movie star — infuriated Latino voters by fueling his successful reelection campaign with anti-Latino and anti-immigrant demagoguery. Wilson won the battle, but Repub-
licans lost the war. Hilton can’t win today without peeling off Latino vot- ers, who make up 40% of the state’s population. And, if he does that too aggressively, he risks dampening the enthusiasm of the GOP base. Becerra will try to link Hilton to
the Trump administration, including Immigration and Customs Enforce- ment raids in the state. Hilton will try to portray the middle-mannered Becerra as a left-wing radical. No matter how much Becerra is
disliked by progressives, he will like- ly win handily. Hilton can’t change that unless he wins over significant numbers of Democrats and indepen- dents, which would be hard to do without alienating the GOP base. It will get ugly. As a foreigner,
Hilton compares himself to working- class Mexican immigrants, which angers Latinos. As he vies to become the state’s
first Mexican-American governor since 1875, Becerra is an inviting tar- get for those who feel that the state is an annex of Mexico. Voters will either elect a Republi-
can who loves the state so much he wants to change everything about it, or a Democrat who wants to make things better without admitting there’s room for improvement. Stay wacky, California.
HILTON BECERRA
Ruben Navarrette is a nationally syndicated columnist and host of the podcast Ruben in the Center.
OCTOBER 2026 | NEWSMAX 55
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