{"id":47847,"date":"2026-04-22T12:07:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T19:07:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=47847"},"modified":"2026-04-22T12:07:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T19:07:35","slug":"how-the-california-governors-race-is-changing-post-swalwell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/04\/22\/how-the-california-governors-race-is-changing-post-swalwell\/","title":{"rendered":"How the California governor&#8217;s race is changing post-Swalwell"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul>\n<li>Laurel Rosenhall | \u00a9 2025 The New York Times Company<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Apr 20, 2026 (SFExaminer.com)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com\/sfexaminer.com\/content\/tncms\/assets\/v3\/editorial\/5\/8c\/58cc90fe-a0b8-4fe5-a00c-98d240912121\/69e6f96798e06.image.jpg?resize=400%2C267\" alt=\"Xavier Becerra Wikimedia\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Xavier Becerra, whose polling numbers had languished for months, has jumped into the top tier of Democratic candidates since Swalwell&#8217;s campaign imploded amid accusations of sexual assault. Photo:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Xavier_Becerra_(48002921902).jpg\">Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/2.0\">CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>, via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>SACRAMENTO, Calif. &#8212; In the 10 days since Eric Swalwell dropped out of the race for California governor, two of his Democratic rivals&#8217; fortunes have turned in opposite directions. Betty Yee, a former state controller, ended her campaign on Monday, while Xavier Becerra, a former California attorney general, has drawn a surge of support in multiple polls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;Four polls in the past week have shown Becerra as receiving at least 10% support, at least twice what he previously had, putting him in contention in a large field of candidates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the competition is stiff, and the race remains fluid. Becerra, who served as health and human services secretary under President Joe Biden, has roughly the same level of support as two other Democrats: Tom Steyer, a billionaire former hedge fund manager, and Katie Porter, a former member of Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many voters remain undecided two weeks before Californians begin receiving ballots by mail for the June 2 election. The state&#8217;s nonpartisan primary rules have added extra intrigue to the race to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who must leave office in January because of term limits. In this deeply Democratic state, no Democrat has dominated, and two Republicans &#8212; Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host who has been endorsed by President Donald Trump, and Chad Bianco, the sheriff of Riverside County &#8212; have been among the front-runners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In California primaries, all candidates run on the same ballot, and the two who get the most votes advance to the general election, regardless of party. With a gubernatorial field that once included eight prominent Democrats, polls suggested that two best-known Republicans might take the top two spots because the minority party had far fewer candidates to split its votes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Such a scenario would block Democrats from the general election and hand the governor&#8217;s office of the nation&#8217;s largest blue state to a Republican.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To prevent that possibility, Rusty Hicks, chair of the California Democratic Party, has been encouraging Democrats to drop out if their campaigns did not seem viable. Hicks on Monday urged flagging candidates to follow Yee&#8217;s example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I continue to believe there are too many Democrats in the field,&#8221; Hicks said as he released the results of a poll that the California Democratic Party commissioned in an effort to thin the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The poll was one of four that have demonstrated momentum for Becerra since Swalwell dropped out. Becerra hired a new social media strategist last week, Tonya Lamont, Newsom&#8217;s former digital communications director, and his online presence has since boomed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A campaign event for Becerra in Los Angeles on Saturday drew a large crowd. Mariana Salas, 45, had previously supported Swalwell but said she was looking for a new candidate and had seen social media influencers talk about Becerra in recent days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Salas said she had identified with Becerra as a fellow Mexican American and was impressed by his experience as state attorney general.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ex \/\/ Top Stories<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"4\" height=\"3\" src=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-63.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-47848\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/transit\/sfmta-project-would-improve-service-on-this-busy-muni-line\/article_02243f77-d2b4-450f-b0a2-6081d3ed1586.html#tncms-source=top-stories-article\">SFMTA project aims to improve one of The City&#8217;s busiest Muni lines<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Transportation officials embarking on multiyear effort aimed at boosting pedestrian and transit safety along the 1 California route<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"4\" height=\"3\" src=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-65.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-47850\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/technology\/sf-to-get-first-dibs-on-new-green-energy-source\/article_77a5adc8-2972-4a4f-af9c-dccd7b90a78d.html#tncms-source=top-stories-article\">Local startup offers promise of clean power for SF<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Palo Alto-based XGS Energy is developing a new geothermal power system that could produce more power in more places<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"4\" height=\"3\" src=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-64.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-47849\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/politics\/overpaid-executive-tax-hike-foes-add-2-million-to-coffers\/article_7d378ee0-b3bd-4a6c-8f1c-c71213d10517.html#tncms-source=top-stories-article\">Foes of changes to Overpaid Executive Tax add $2 million to fight it<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Business interests poured $2 million more into a campaign fighting a labor union ballot measure that would raise San Francisco&#8217;s Overpaid Executive Tax<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;When he mentioned the suing of Donald Trump, I was like, &#8216;Oh my God, maybe this is the next guy,'&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other Democrats are also positioning themselves as the candidate who can best lead California&#8217;s fight against the Trump administration. Steyer has run on a liberal platform and received an endorsement Monday from Our Revolution, which was founded by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was a notable endorsement of a billionaire by a group established to fight what it calls &#8220;the billionaire class.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Porter, a former Democratic member of Congress from Orange County, was endorsed Monday by Rep. Robert Garcia, a California Democrat and a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. She already had support from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass..<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Matt Mahan, the mayor of San Jose, California, has received millions of dollars in support from Silicon Valley executives this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Supporters believe that Mahan, a moderate Democrat, has an opportunity to win over former backers of Swalwell and other voters who are undecided, though he has faced criticism that he is too aligned with California billionaires, and he has not made big gains in polls over the past week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yee, 68, announced her withdrawal from the race in an emotional call with reporters on Monday. She had pitched herself as a budget expert who would be the scandal-free choice following Swalwell&#8217;s demise. She called herself &#8220;Boring Betty&#8221; in social media posts that highlighted her deep experience in California state government, including two terms as the state&#8217;s chief fiscal officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Yee has lagged at the bottom of most polls since she entered the race in 2024 and has struggled to raise money. Her message had not broken through in a state with several expensive media markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re living in a reality TV era,&#8221; she said in the call with reporters. &#8220;I got no gimmicks. I have no scandals.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This article originally appeared in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/04\/20\/us\/california-governor-democrat-betty-yee.html\">The New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SACRAMENTO, Calif. &#8212; In the 10 days since Eric Swalwell dropped out of the race for California governor, two of his Democratic rivals&#8217; fortunes have turned in opposite directions. Betty Yee, a former state controller, ended her campaign on Monday, while Xavier Becerra, a former California attorney general, has drawn&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/04\/22\/how-the-california-governors-race-is-changing-post-swalwell\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47847"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47847"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47851,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47847\/revisions\/47851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}