Steve Hilton and Xavier Becerra are leading gubernatorial contenders in California

HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA – Republican Steve Hilton and Democrat Xavier Becerra were leading in unofficial early returns Wednesday morning and appeared poised to advance to California’s November gubernatorial election in the race to replace the term-limited Democratic Alliance to lead the nation’s most populous state and one of the world’s largest economies.

Hilton, a British political strategist who is a former American commentator and Fox News Channel anchor supported by the President. Donald Trumpand Becerra, a former California attorney general who later served as a Cabinet secretary in former President Biden’s administration, were leading early Wednesday, with votes still being counted and results still undecided.

“Change is coming to California, and it’s long overdue,” Hilton told fans at her first viewing party in Orange County.

Hilton, in an exclusive Fox News Digital interview after her speech, said that speaking “honest, simple truths” to voters boosted her campaign. “Everything is more expensive in California. We will reduce people’s expenses,” he promised.

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Becerra, who, if elected in November, will make history as California’s first Latino governor since Romualdo Pacheco served briefly in 1875, told supporters that his campaign’s success “is more than a Hollywood ending. It’s more than a milestone. That’s the daily miracle of living in a state that makes the impossible seem inevitable. And I couldn’t have done it without you.”

Democratic-controlled California runs what is known as a primary field in which all candidates, regardless of party affiliation, appear on the same ballot, and the top two finishers advance to the general election.

Tom Steyer, the billionaire hedge fund founder turned environmental activist who failed to win his party’s 2020 presidential bid and has poured more than $200 million of his own money into his gubernatorial campaign, was in third place as results continued to be tallied and as more mail-in and provisional ballots were still to be counted.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican, along with Democratic candidates Katie Porter, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, were also among the 61 candidates.

Hilton hopes to become the first California Republican to win the gubernatorial election since then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2006 re-election bid.

In his speech, Hilton showed off the lining of his blazer, with the American and California flags, which he said Schwarzenegger had urged him to wear a few years ago. “Arnold, I did that for you,” Hilton said.

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Xavier Becerra (D) speaks during CBS Television Stations’ California Gubernatorial Debate on April 28, 2026 in Claremont, California. (Leon Bennett/Getty Images for CBS Television)

Former Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. Alex Padilla discussed the presentation of Democratic Alliance applications for governor, but both last year announced that they would succeed. That resulted in a lack of a clear Golden State gubernatorial frontrunner for the first time in more than a quarter of a century.

And the race has been clouded for much of the past year, as damage from Los Angeles neighborhoods and President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown have made headlines in California.

But the race for governor came to light earlier this year when one of the candidates, Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, who dropped out of the race and resigned from Congress after facing multiple allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct he continues to deny.

Matt Mahan, Xavier Becerra, Chad Bianco, Steve Hilton, Tom Steyer and Katie Porter appear during the gubernatorial debate at KRON Studios in San Francisco, California, US, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. California will hold its primary election on June 2, with the top two winners advancing to the November general election regardless of party affiliation. (Jason Henry/Nexstar/Bloomberg – Pool/Getty Images)

Swalwell’s exit from the race opened the way for first Steyer and then Becerra to rise in the election.

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Steyer, who failed to win the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, has spent more than $200 million of his own money to blanket the airwaves and the Internet with ads. Meanwhile, more than $80 million in foreign money has been spent on the race.

Bianco, who launched his campaign for governor in April of last year, was one of the frontrunners in the race until Trump’s concession to Hilton in early April seemed to shake his momentum.