Xavier Becerra, a candidate for governor in California, is currently enjoying a rise in the polls following the downfall of former Representative Eric Swalwell’s campaign. However, his past as Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Joe Biden is now under increased examination.
With Swalwell departing the race due to allegations of sexual misconduct, Becerra’s support has climbed to 10%, as revealed by a recent poll on Thursday. Previously, his backing hovered in the low single digits, around 4 to 5 percent.
Becerra, 67, who also served as California’s attorney general, is banking on his federal leadership experience to appeal to voters. In a recent campaign message, he emphasized, “Californians need a governor who can lead effectively from day one.”
He highlighted his accomplishments by stating, “I’ve managed one of the largest federal agencies in the country,” and mentioned he had “balanced a budget that surpasses the size of California’s state budget,” while also praising the department’s efforts in handling the COVID-19 pandemic and the vaccine distribution.
Throughout his campaign, Becerra has positioned himself as the seasoned candidate, but detractors point to significant blunders during his time at HHS.
Criticism mounted in his first year for his absence from White House COVID briefings and his low public visibility. These criticisms resurfaced during the 2022 monkeypox outbreak.
“Certainly from a public profile point of view he’s been a major disappointment,” Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University public health law professor, told STAT News at the time.
“He was very silent during those crises and when he did speak, he didn’t seem to have a good, enormous grasp of the medical and scientific and public health issues.”
Michael Bustamante, an advisor to the Becerra campaign, told the Post that the candidate delivered on free vaccines and had results.
“There are two kinds of people in this world, show horses and work horses. Secretary Becerra is a workhorse that delivered to the people of the United States while he was health secretary, and we’ll deliver the same kind of results,” he said.
During the monkeypox response, Becerra said the federal government had done its job and suggested local officials needed to step up, remarks that sparked backlash from public health experts, with Politico reporting at the time on speculation he could be pushed out.
Bustamante refuted the criticism.
“Similar to his quick and decisive action around covid 19 vaccines, that same kind of response was delivered to all 50 states around monkeypox. There were no one, no state was left wanting in terms of the vaccine,” he said.
Becerra’s most heavily criticized episode came in 2023, when HHS lost contact with more than 85,000 unaccompanied migrant children, prompting reports that Biden “lashed out” at Becerra over the handling of the crisis.
The issue has since become a flashpoint in the governor’s race, with rival Antonio Villaraigosa launching attack ads branding Becerra “not fit to be governor.”
The ads highlight the missing children report and include lawmakers’ reactions describing the situation as “horrendous,” “disturbing” and “exploited,” with one telling Becerra: “The buck stops with you.”
His campaign previously told The Sacramento Bee that such attacks rely on “discredited MAGA talking points.”
“There’s no one in this race, no one that can say that he didn’t succeed in his administration at the Department of Health,” Bustamante told the Post.
