California’s race for governor is a full-on circus, and Fox News host Jesse Watters just said out loud what a lot of people were already thinking.
The Democrat frontrunner surged from single digits to the top of the polls in a matter of weeks.
And Watters spoke one brutal truth that Democrats are not going to forget anytime soon.
Watters Sizes Up the Democrat Field
On a recent edition of Jesse Watters Primetime, with California’s jungle primary underway, Watters took a hard look at who Democrats are actually running for governor of the nation’s most populous state.
On one side, he put it plainly: “On the Democrat side, there’s a big oil billionaire who basically bought his way to the top.” That would be Tom Steyer, the hedge fund billionaire who has reportedly poured more than $200 million of his own money into the race.
But it was what Watters said next that drew the most attention.
“He’s up against a guy whose biggest qualification is the sound of his name,” Watters said. “In a state that is half Hispanic, Xavier Becerra.”
Watters also noted that Becerra’s own chief of staff and an aide allegedly pocketed cash under his nose, a reference to a federal case in which Becerra’s former HHS chief of staff, Sean McCluskie, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud, according to court filings. McCluskie agreed to pay back $225,000 he allegedly took from a dormant Becerra campaign account. A political consultant who also served as Gavin Newsom’s chief of staff was separately indicted in connection with the alleged scheme. Becerra has said he was not involved and did nothing wrong.
How Becerra Got Here
Just a few months ago, Becerra was polling at roughly 3 percent in the governor’s race. He was barely a footnote.
Then the frontrunner, Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), imploded. Multiple women accused Swalwell of sexual assault and misconduct, allegations he has denied. He suspended his gubernatorial campaign and resigned from Congress. The House Ethics Committee had opened an investigation before his resignation effectively ended it.
And into that vacuum stepped Becerra, whose numbers shot up almost overnight.
A recent Emerson College poll showed Becerra leading the primary at 28 percent, with Steyer at 22 percent and Trump-backed Republican Steve Hilton at 21 percent. Two months before that survey, Becerra was at 5 percent.
But the speed of that rise has raised eyebrows even inside the Democrat Party. One House Democrat told Politico: “If you took a gun to my head and asked me, ‘Who are Xavier Becerra’s friends — or who were they?’ I couldn’t tell you. I don’t know.”
That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement from your own team.
A Record Worth Examining
Becerra served as Joe Biden’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, where critics inside and outside the administration said he was largely absent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Becerra was part of the Biden public health regime that attempted to mandate that 80 million Americans take the controversial COVID-19 vaccine.
His tenure was also dogged by the handling of unaccompanied migrant children. A Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times investigation reported that the administration relaxed certain safeguards as it rushed children through shelters, including some background checks meant to protect minors from exploitation. Becerra and his allies disputed the characterization that children were “lost,” but the controversy followed him into the governor’s race.
At a recent California gubernatorial debate, Republican candidate Steve Hilton called Becerra “mired personally in a corruption scandal” over the McCluskie plea. Democrat candidate Katie Porter suggested at the same debate that Becerra could still face charges himself, saying the latest plea “does not preclude an indictment from being issued against you.” Becerra rejected all of it.
And then there’s the Biden name problem. Watters pointed out that Biden himself couldn’t even pronounce Becerra’s name correctly at his own nomination hearing, with Biden on video saying, “I nominate Javier Bacceria.” Not exactly the endorsement you want replayed on loop.
The Bigger Picture in California
California’s jungle primary puts every candidate on the same ballot regardless of party, with the top two vote-getters advancing to November. That means a Republican could make the general election, something the state hasn’t seen in a statewide race in years.
Steve Hilton, the former Fox News host who has President Donald Trump’s endorsement, has been consistently near the top of the polls. Trump’s backing gives Hilton a real shot at cracking the top two and forcing California Democrats to spend real money defending their own backyard in November.
But the Democrat side of this race tells its own story about where the party is right now. Their frontrunner is a candidate who was polling in the single digits until another candidate’s career collapsed in scandal. Their number two is a billionaire who has spent a quarter of a billion dollars of his own money and still can’t pull away. And their party establishment, including Kamala Harris and Governor Gavin Newsom, has refused to endorse anyone.
As one observer put it, the whole thing has been “a process of elimination” that left Democrats with two people nobody expected to be leading the pack.
Watters put it more bluntly. The biggest qualification for the Democrat frontrunner in the most expensive, most-watched state race in the country is the sound of his name.
Becerra looks to be heading into a General Election contest against Trump-endorsed Republican candidate Steve Hilton. Jesse Watters believes woke, identity politics secured Becerra that spot.
Sources: Mediaite; Fox News / Jesse Watters Primetime transcript via Internet Archive; Emerson College poll via Time; NBC News; Politico; CBS Sacramento; PBS NewsHour; CNN; San Francisco Chronicle; New York Times