California Democratic gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra speaks at an election night event Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
California first had a Latino Governor in 1875, but he was appointed. Xavier Becerra is now the first Latino to be elected by Californians to lead the state.
Tuesday’s midterm election delivered historic moments for Democrats throughout the United States.
As results trickled in, the night became a series of firsts. The country now has its first Black woman elected as governor, with Keisha Lance Bottoms set to become Georgia’s next governor. In Texas, voters elected Mexican American candidate Gina Hinojosa, the first Latina to lead the state. And another first in New Mexico: Deb Haaland became the first Native American governor-elect.
Former football player Ryan Russell posted on Threads: “The face of American leadership is changing. And it looks a lot more like America.”
Indeed.
As the Trump administration has systematically eliminated diversity from the vocabulary of official government records, pushed for revisionist history, escalated immigration operations and defied judicial control, voters overwhelmingly pushed back against the Republican Party, flipping Texas, Ohio and South Carolina, to name just a few of the states that haven’t elected a Democrat in decades.
In California, the results for the next governor came in swiftly after polls closed — with just 16% of votes counted, it was clear that Becerra had taken the state for the Democrats. As of 8:20 a.m. on Wednesday, with 59% of the votes counted, 64% of the votes went to the Sacramento native, while 36% went to British immigrant and Trump-backed Republican candidate Steve Hilton.
The mayoral race in Los Angeles also remained too close to call by Wednesday morning, with democratic socialist candidate Nithya Raman leading by 51% and incumbent Mayor Karen Bass trailing close behind at 49%.
Meanwhile, another closely watched race, Proposition 40 seemed headed for defeat. The billionaire tax would have taxed the 200 billionaires in California a one-time 5% tax to alleviate some of the healthcare cuts brought on by Trump’s H.R.1. bill.
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