Xavier Becerra Declared Winner of California Governor’s Race

Xavier Becerra has been declared the winner of the California governor’s race, easily swatting away a challenge from Republican Steve Hilton.

Becerra, the Democrat, ran on a platform of lowering energy costs and working toward universal health care. The dominant theme of his campaign was opposition to President Trump, noting that he had sued the president more than 100 times as attorney general during Trump’s first term.

After emerging as the top vote-getter in the June primary, Becerra had an easy path to victory over Hilton. He has made relatively few firm commitments — including on the issue of expanding California’s film and TV tax incentive.

“Everyone recognizes that one of the reasons Southern California is such a destination point for tourists and people around the world is because of things like Hollywood, because of Universal Studios, Disneyland,” Becerra told Variety last month. “And so we have to fight to keep that industry here in Southern California.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a proposal on Monday to expand the state’s $750 million production tax credit to $1 billion, to include above-the-line costs, and to extend the sunset date to 2040. But Newsom will be out of office in two months, leaving any consideration of expanding the incentive to his successor.

Many in Hollywood are pushing for an unlimited tax incentive, which would function as an entitlement and would not require discretionary approval from the state film commission. An Assembly special committee held a hearing on that issue last week, but the chair, Rick Chavez Zbur, said afterward that the idea of an unlimited incentive is a “heavy lift.”

Becerra has not taken a position on the issue, saying only that he wants to work to enhance the credit.

“I’ll sit down with all the legislators to see what kind of proposals are put before us,” he told Variety. “But we’re going to fight.”

Becerra’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment on Newsom’s proposal on Monday. Becerra posted a film policy on his website that did not lay out explicit commitments and that was rated by Pangram as 100% AI-generated.

Becerra served in Congress before being appointed to replace Kamala Harris as the state attorney general. In the Biden administration, he served as secretary of the Department Health and Human Services. He emerged from a crowded primary field last spring, becoming the frontrunner only after Rep. Eric Swalwell was forced to withdraw and resign from Congress amid sexual misconduct allegations.

His strongest Democratic opponent was hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer, who had the backing of IATSE and a slew of progressive groups.