Xavier Becerra, the Democratic frontrunner in the California governor’s race, has floated a range of policy goals — including faster housing construction and even free electricity — but he has mostly avoided the kind of detailed blueprints and far-reaching pledges some of his opponents have put forward.
In a recent interview with CalMatters, Becerra made clear that his more cautious, less-specific approach is intentional.
The former U.S. Health and Human Services secretary pointed to a vote from more than 30 years ago as the experience that still shapes how he talks about policy today.
In 1993, during his first term representing the Los Angeles area in Congress, Becerra had campaigned against the North American Free Trade Agreement. He later agreed to support it after being persuaded that labor safeguards and a domestic lending program would help protect American workers.
But Becerra said the outcome did not match those assurances, and U.S. jobs were still lost.
“No one gets my vote unless I know what I’m voting for completely,” he told CalMatters, describing the episode as a “pivotal lesson.”
As he campaigns for California governor, Becerra says that lesson has made him wary of promising more than he can responsibly deliver.
That caution has been especially visible on housing. Although Becerra says he wants to accelerate homebuilding to confront California’s housing crisis, he has declined to commit to a specific number of homes he would aim to produce if elected.
When pressed by reporters to take certain positions, the candidate has given cautious answers that seem vague, such as saying “there’s a lot of room to expand” on AI regulation.
Even when asked at a Politico event last week what voters expect him to do as governor, Becerra did not mention one policy commitment.
“I would prefer not to run on inflated promises,” he said. “I will run on my record.”
The vagueness makes sense, Melissa Michelson, a political science professor at Menlo College, told CalMatters, because Becerra will likely win regardless in a state dominated by Democratic voters against his GOP opponent.
“He doesn’t have an incentive to go out on a limb,” she said. “You don’t want to mess up, you don’t want to do anything crazy.”
In contrast, GOP candidate Steve Hilton has laid out a list of bold policy planks, most recently a vow to gut the California Energy Commission over a controversial ban on non-environmentally-friendly tires. Such promises would likely falter under a Democrat-controlled state legislature.
Hilton has lashed into Becerra’s cautious approach — including incidents of dodging reporters or a yet-to-materialize debate — as evidence that the Democrat is taking California voters for granted.
“What an insult to every voter and the democratic process,” Hilton said. “He is obviously running away from debating his disqualifying record.”
Becerra said he can be decisive and bold when necessary, such as during his time as state attorney general when he sued the Trump administration over immigration protections.
Still, he said he’s only making campaign promises when he feels like he can keep them, even if it means lowering a policy’s ambition.
“I’d like to make it a promise, because it’s not pie-in-the-sky,” he said to CalMatters. “Is it realistic? Can I make it into a promise? I probably can, because I’ve limited it.”
