In Becerra and Hilton’s only scheduled debate, Trump was the main character

Californians watching Wednesday night’s gubernatorial debate would be forgiven for thinking the candidates for governor are President Donald Trump and the Democratic Party.

Trump was the central topic in the debate between Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton, with Becerra repeatedly tying Hilton to Trump’s policies on immigration, taxes, housing, the environment and Big Tech. Hilton also tried to tie Becerra to outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Democrats at large, whom Hilton blames for business and housing regulations that contribute to high costs.

Becerra mentioned the president, who is widely unpopular in California, more than a dozen times during the hourlong debate on CNN.

“You’re going to end up with Trump results if you follow Steve Hilton’s plans,” Becerra said when asked about Hilton’s proposal to eliminate income taxes for middle-class Californians. He pointed out that Hilton’s plan to drop income taxes on the first $150,000 in earnings also includes a tax cut for the state’s wealthiest earners, comparing it to federal tax cuts enacted by Trump.

Similarly, when Hilton said he would wait to assess whether California needs to more aggressively regulate artificial intelligence companies, Becerra linked his response to Trump’s inaction, saying “if you listen closely, you can hear Donald Trump in that response.”

Becerra also said he would impose limits on AI data centers in communities that oppose them. Hilton noted that Becerra’s campaign has received donations from the biggest artificial intelligence companies, Anthropic and OpenAI.

Trump endorsed Hilton during the contested primary election, but the former Fox News host has since tried to distance himself from both the president and the Republican Party, running ads telling voters they can dislike Trump and still support him. Last week, in an acknowledgement that opposition to Trump is dragging down Republicans’ approval rating, Hilton's campaign released a poll claiming he was “unscathed from (the) Republican collapse.”

On Hilton’s proposal to expand oil drilling in California, Becerra brought up Trump’s effort to expand drilling off the state’s coast.

On homelessness, Hilton noted Becerra once graded Newsom an “A for effort” on the issue despite homelessness increasing during his terms, while Becerra countered that Trump has blocked federal funding for local homelessness agencies.

It’s a predictable strategy for Becerra, who enjoys a double-digit lead over Hilton in the heavily Democratic-leaning state where voters also disapprove of Trump by wide margins. The Democratic candidate and former U.S. Health and Human Services secretary has laid low since getting the most votes in the crowded all-party primary election in June, making few public appearances and agreeing only to one debate. Hilton criticized Becerra for repeatedly mentioning national politics, arguing the Democrat isn’t offering Californians any concrete solutions to the nation-topping cost of living.

“All you ever say is ‘Trump, Trump, Trump,’” Hilton said. “And that’s nothing but an insult to every Californian who is desperate for something to change in this state.”

The candidates traded insults throughout the night. Hilton cited reports that Becerra’s colleagues in President Joe Biden’s cabinet had “described (Becerra) as an idiot.”

Then, in several testy exchanges over immigration, Becerra, the son of Mexican immigrants, tied Hilton to Trump’s aggressive nationwide immigration raids and mass deportation campaign.

“You seem to welcome immigrants who look like you, but deport immigrants who look like me,” Becerra said. Hilton, a British immigrant and former adviser to British Prime Minister David Cameron, bristled at the comment, calling it “disgraceful.”

Hilton praised the deportation campaign last January as “perfect” during an appearance on Fox News. He has previously described himself as “pro-immigration.” On Wednesday night, he dodged questions on whether he would undo the state’s sanctuary law limiting police cooperation with immigration agents and direct California officers to assist in Trump’s campaign.

Instead, he said, he would prefer to “turn down the temperature” on that debate.

The candidates argued over the best way to increase housing construction.

Hilton wants to build 10 new cities and allow more new construction on undeveloped land to avoid battles between the state and residents and local governments that are resistant to new development.

“We have got so much space that we could be building in,” he said.

Becerra said to address the housing crisis, he would reduce administrative and bureaucratic hurdles to getting construction permits, boost down payment assistance programs and stop Wall Street investors from competing with would-be homeowners. He pointed to the lawsuit he filed as state attorney general against the city of Huntington Beach to force it to approve new housing.

“No locality should have the right to try to stop all of our people in California from having the housing they need,” Becerra said.

They found common ground on how to keep the film industry in California amid competition from other states and countries. Los Angeles County has lost about 50,000 film and TV jobs since 2022. But while both candidates support expanding the state’s film tax credit to lower the cost of producing in California, they still each got in a dig over who to blame.

“Who’s been in charge when all those jobs have gone?” Hilton said.

“Donald Trump,” Becerra said.

“The Democrats,” Hilton said.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.