Look, I caught the gubernatorial debate coverage from CalMatters Housing, and it's worth walking through what happened in that matchup between Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton. According to the reporting, this was actually their only scheduled debate, and if you watched it, you might've noticed something pretty striking. Trump ended up being the main character of the whole event, even though he wasn't on stage. Becerra brought up the president more than a dozen times during the hour-long CNN debate, tying Hilton's positions on everything from immigration to taxes to housing to his own policies and rhetoric.
The Democratic candidate was pretty strategic about it. Every time Hilton proposed something, Becerra connected it back to Trump's approach. When Hilton talked about cutting income taxes for middle-class Californians, Becerra pointed out that the plan would also benefit the wealthy, comparing it to Trump-era tax cuts. When Hilton hedged on artificial intelligence regulation, Becerra said you could hear Trump in that answer. Hilton, for his part, tried to separate himself from Trump despite getting Trump's endorsement in the primary, but he also spent a lot of time linking Becerra to outgoing Governor Gavin Newsom and California Democrats more broadly, arguing their regulations are what drive up housing and business costs.
Hilton pushed back on Becerra's strategy pretty hard, saying the Democrat was avoiding real solutions and just repeating "Trump, Trump, Trump" instead of offering Californians concrete ways to address the state's cost of living crisis. The two did spar over some specific policy ideas, though. On housing, Becerra talked about reducing permit hurdles and stopping Wall Street investors from outbidding regular homebuyers, while Hilton proposed building ten new cities and opening up more undeveloped land. Becerra also mentioned the lawsuit he filed as state attorney general to force Huntington Beach to approve more housing.
They squared off pretty hard on immigration too, with Becerra, whose parents were Mexican immigrants, accusing Hilton of welcoming immigrants who look like him while supporting deportations for immigrants who look like him. Hilton called that accusation disgraceful and said he considers himself pro-immigration, though he's previously praised Trump's deportation campaign and dodged questions about whether he'd undo California's sanctuary law protections.
What I am seeing locally in the Bay Area and across the East Bay is that housing keeps dominating these conversations, and it should. Both candidates are talking about different paths to solve our crisis, but what matters to my clients is whether either approach actually gets more homes built and makes the market more accessible. Becerra's focus on removing bureaucratic roadblocks and reining in corporate investors resonates with a lot of people who've been priced out, while Hilton's vision of massive new development might attract folks who think we just need to open up land and let the market do its thing. Either way, the next governor is going to face enormous pressure to deliver real results on housing affordability.
