Candidate Xavier Becerra assures he will be known as the California health care governor

Californians will have the opportunity to select their new governor in the midterm elections of 2026 as more candidates place a bid for the seat. Another Latino in the race is former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra.

With 35 years of experience at the state and federal level, the latest polls put Becerra in third place after former Democratic Congresswoman Katie Porter, and Republican Riverside Sheriff Chad Bianco.

Becerra is one of the most recent candidates, but his numbers are quickly putting him near the top. While at the beginning of the campaign, the expectation was that former Vice-President Kamala Harris would run, after she confirmed she was not, people are paying more attention to other candidates. 

Becerra said he is the only candidate that has been able to fight for the people at any position that he has held in the past. As California’s Attorney General during the first Trump administration, he filed 120 lawsuits against his administration. As the U.S. Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services under the Biden administration, he was able to successfully run a budget five times bigger than the budget of the State of California. 

“People know that I know how to fight and win,” he said. “No other candidate can say they’ve run an enterprise that is as large as California, except me.”

Becerra said he is running because he wants California to return to those early years when blue collar workers could own a home, have decent health insurance, were able to send their children to college and eventually retire with dignity. His parents were part of this wave, and that’s the California that Becerra aims to bring back. 

“Even though my dad didn’t get past sixth grade and my mom didn’t come to this country until she was 18, they were able to work hard and earn enough as a construction worker and a clerical worker,” he said. 

However, he often hears younger generations question if they will be able to buy a house, keep their health insurance or send their children to college. 

“It’s not right that in a state that is the fourth largest economy in the world, all that prosperity is not getting to all those working people in this state,” he said. 

The health care governor

Becerra said he feels very competent when there is a need to handle crises. He said he’s not offering empty promises, but proof of experience. 

If he’s elected as governor of California, Becerra said he will be known as the health care governor that will fight against the Trump administration that has stripped more than a trillion dollars in funding for Medicaid in California.

“We call it Medi-Cal and that’s the health care insurance program for working families that don’t make much money, which happens to be a lot of Latino families,” he said. 

Becerra prides himself in highlighting his success as a secretary running the health issues as Americans were recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic. He was able to negotiate lowering drug prices with some of the largest pharmaceutical companies. Under his leadership during the Biden administration, the U.S. reached the highest level of coverage for health care insurance in the country. 

“More than 300 million Americans had their insurance, mostly because we really boosted membership in the Affordable Care Act (ACA),” said Becerra. “What bigger crisis has this country gone through than trying to come out of the Covid pandemic?”

Reaching out in Spanish

Another accomplishment that Becerra feels is differentiating  him from  the other candidates is the fact that he has opened a TikTok page completely in Spanish for the Latino voters. 

“I’m proud of my ability to communicate to Californians, not just in English but in Spanish,” he said, stating that if he spoke more languages he would’ve added them, too.“We have to make sure we’re providing people with accurate information, truthful information.”

Becerra said the TikTok page is focusing on the importance of the governor’s race, how to move forward despite the issue of affordability, and the current administration.

 “I want to make sure we’re reaching as many people as possible because they deserve to know what’s going on in California, so they can make the best decision [when voting].”