(AFP) – Democrat Xavier Becerra handily defeated Donald Trump-backed Republican Steve Hilton on Tuesday in the race to become the governor of California, US networks said. Partial results showed Becerra, a career politician who served in the cabinet of former president Joe Biden, had a nearly two-to-one advantage over Hilton, with about half of the ballots counted.
Becerra had run a low-key campaign in a state where Democrats heavily outnumber Republicans and where the Trump brand is almost toxic. The son of Mexican immigrants, he will be the first elected Latino governor of California, a state that would be the world’s fourth-largest economy if it were a country.
“Ladies and gentlemen, you have now entered the Becerra era,” the former US Health and Human Services secretary told his supporters at a victory party in Sacramento. “I didn’t run to make history,” he said. “I ran to make a difference for anyone and everyone who calls California home, whether you voted for me or not.”
Becerra will replace term-limited Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democratic Party big-hitter who is believed to have his eyes on a tilt at the White House in 2028.
Hilton, a British-born conservative former pundit who was once an adviser to former UK prime minister David Cameron, had always been a long shot. But he sought to leverage his status as an outsider and a relative newcomer to the state to persuade voters that he could channel what he said was California’s “rebel spirit” to make it more business-friendly and less constrained by red tape.
Hilton conceded he had lost a difficult race. “Maybe this isn’t the best year to be running for office as a Republican when we see what’s going on around the country,” he said.
© 2024 AFP
