Leading candidates in California’s gubernatorial race rushed to deliver their closing arguments this week as the state’s chaotic primary season nears its Tuesday conclusion. Former U.S. health secretary Xavier Becerra, billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer and businessman Steve Hilton made their final pitches to voters days before voting concludes in a contest to succeed Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who cannot seek a third term.
Becerra has campaigned on what he calls “hot competence summer,” promoting his decades of public service as evidence he has the qualifications to lead the nation’s most populous state.
Hilton pledged an end to a “bloated, nanny-state bureaucracy” during remarks outside the state Capitol on Wednesday. The Republican candidate framed his bid around a rollback of government regulations and bureaucratic expansion.
Steyer told reporters this week in Berkeley that he has made it his life’s work to advance progressive causes, a mission he said he will bring to Sacramento if elected.
Roughly 60 names appear on the single gubernatorial ballot under California’s top-two primary system, which allows candidates of any party to run together. The two candidates who receive the most votes on Tuesday will advance to the general election in November, where voters will decide who replaces Newsom at the end of his term.