{"id":621,"date":"2026-06-12T04:32:03","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T04:32:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sanfranciscomovingguide.com\/?p=621"},"modified":"2026-06-12T04:32:03","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T04:32:03","slug":"the-first-post-primary-poll-of-the-california-governor-race-is-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sanfranciscomovingguide.com\/?p=621","title":{"rendered":"The first post-primary poll of the California governor race is here"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The first poll of California\u2019s upcoming governor face-off shows Democrat Xavier Becerra with a strong lead.<\/p>

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The poll, released Thursday by the UC Berkeley Institute for Governmental Studies, found that Becerra leads Republican Steve Hilton by over 20 percentage points among registered voters.<\/p><\/div>

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This is the first poll released since the election was called this week. The findings are not entirely unexpected given the large number of registered Democrats in the state compared with Republicans.<\/p><\/div>

Becerra, the former state attorney general and health secretary under President Joe Biden, and Hilton, a former Fox News commentator, were the top two finishers in the California governor\u2019s primary race, which was finally called by the Associated Press on Tuesday after nearly a week of ballot counting. The poll found that Becerra is the choice of 52% of the state\u2019s overall electorate, while 31% favor Hilton. The poll found that 17% of voters are undecided.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

\u201cXavier Becerra\u2019s lead makes it increasingly likely that California will elect its first Latino governor in November,\u201d said IGS co-director G. Cristina Mora in a news release accompanying the results. She noted that the state has had a Latino plurality for years, but that voter group\u2019s electoral and financial power \u201cis only recently becoming more widely recognized.\u201d<\/p><\/div>

The pollsters say that Becerra\u2019s lead is due to a large number of registered Democrats in the state. Eighty-two percent of registered Democratic voters support Becerra in the general election. Hilton similarly has widespread support from registered Republicans, with 84%, but registered Democrats outnumber Republican voters by 20 percentage points in California, which gives Democratic candidates \u201ca huge advantage in general elections,\u201d Berkeley IGS Poll Director Mark DiCamillo wrote in the release.<\/p><\/div>

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Hilton, who was also an adviser to U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, clinched the second spot this week over Democratic venture capitalist Tom Steyer, whom Hilton beat with almost 200,000 more votes.\u00a0<\/p>

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President Donald Trump endorsed Hilton, which allocated a lot of the Republican vote to him and away from Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, the other major Republican candidate. DiCamillo wrote that while Trump\u2019s endorsement likely helped boost Hilton to the general election, it could work against him in the next few months leading up to November due to the low approval ratings Trump has in California.<\/p><\/div>

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