The California governor is the most powerful elected official in the nation’s most populous state, commanding a $300 billion budget. The governor shapes policy for 39 million residents, signs or vetoes legislation, appoints judges and members of regulatory agencies and leads crisis response from wildfires to pandemics. California’s governor wields outsized national influence, making the office a launching pad for presidential ambitions. This year, a crowded Democratic field has split likely voters, allowing two Republican candidates to consistently poll near the top. The top two candidates, regardless of party, will advance to the November election.
Top polling candidates appear in alphabetical order followed by dozens more you will see on your ballot.
LAist invited all the leading candidates to participate in one-on-one interviews at Loyola Marymount University with AirTalk host Larry Mantle in April. Xavier Becerra and Antonio Villaraigosa participated. Before dropping out of the race, Eric Swalwell and Betty Yee were scheduled to participate.
Since those in-person interviews, Matt Mahan and Steve Hilton spoke to AirTalk. Those interviews are included below. Additional interviews will be added when (and if) they become available.
Our limited-run newsletter Make It Make Sense unpacks the ballot count and results, then checks in regularly on officials voted into office and the measures voters pass.
Party: Democratic
Former U.S. health secretary, former state attorney general
Becerra represented Los Angeles in Congress for more than two decades before being appointed California’s attorney general in 2017. He led the state’s numerous lawsuits against the first Trump administration and Republican states. He was U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services under Biden, steering the administration through the COVID-19 vaccine rollout and receiving criticism for the agency’s care of migrant children in its custody. Becerra says he’s open to revising the state’s climate goals to keep fuel affordable for middle-class Californians and wants to declare a state of emergency to freeze utility and insurance rates.
Listen to his interview with LAist:
In depth with Xavier Becerra
Becerra talked with LAist about issues facing the next governor of California, and why he's suited to take on the job.
Party: Republican
Riverside County sheriff
Bianco has a three-decade career in the Riverside County sheriff’s office and was elected sheriff in 2018 with the support of the union that represents deputies. He has past ties to far-right groups such as the Oath Keepers militia and has faced criticism, lawsuits and a state investigation over deaths and conditions in his jails. Bianco is pushing to suspend numerous state regulations, particularly environmental ones, and says as governor he would overturn the state’s sanctuary law. He also wants to boost oil and gas production and eliminate the income tax and the gas tax.
Party: Republican
Former adviser to UK prime minister, former Fox News host
Hilton, who is British American, was senior adviser for former conservative Prime Minister David Cameron from 2010 to 2012 before moving to California, where he co-founded a political crowdfunding platform in Silicon Valley. He has written books on decentralizing power in large, bureaucratic institutions from government to the food and health care systems. From 2017 to 2023, he hosted a weekly show on Fox News. Hilton wants to lower the price of gas by suspending environmental regulations, cut income taxes for middle-class earners and wealthier Californians and open natural spaces for housing, particularly suburban single-family homes.
In-depth with Steve Hilton
Hilton talked with LAist about his tax plans, support from President Trump, housing and more.
Party: Democratic
Mayor of San Jose
Mahan worked on voter engagement platforms in Silicon Valley before joining the San Jose City Council in 2021 and becoming mayor in 2023. He has focused his term on reducing street homelessness by opening numerous tiny homes as a more palatable alternative to traditional temporary shelters, sometimes at the expense of using city funds to develop permanent affordable housing. A moderate, he opposes new taxes and wants to temporarily suspend the gas tax and tie government leaders’ pay to performance to force improvements.
In-depth with Matt Mahan
Mahan talked with LAist about why he's running for governor on what he's calling a back-to-basics platform.
Party: Democratic
Professor of law at UC Irvine, former congressmember from Orange County
Porter flipped a longtime Republican congressional seat in Orange County in 2018 and held it through 2024. She is a law professor focused on consumer protection, was mentored by Elizabeth Warren and is known for grilling corporate and health care executives while pointing at a whiteboard. Porter wants to cut income taxes for middle-income earners and raise corporate taxes on large businesses. She supports developing denser housing in urban areas and near transit stations.
Party: Democratic
Environmental advocate and investor
Steyer is a billionaire who made his fortune at a hedge fund where he invested in such industries as private prisons and fossil fuels. After selling off those holdings, he founded a firm investing in environmental technology and became a climate change activist, sometimes bankrolling ballot measures on other liberal causes. He wants to challenge the monopoly status of the state’s investor-owned utilities, raise property taxes on business-owned properties and collect a fee on AI usage to support displaced workers.
Party: Democratic
Superintendent of Public Instruction
Thurmond, a former social worker, is head of the California Department of Education which oversees the state’s public K-12 schools. He previously served four years in the state Assembly. Further to the left than most of his fellow Democratic candidates, Thurmond is the only gubernatorial contender who supports a proposed one-time tax on billionaires’ assets to backfill federal cuts to Medi-Cal. He wants to give a tax credit to lower-income working families, open up spare land owned by school districts to develop housing and commit more public funding to building affordable housing.
Party: Democratic
Former mayor of Los Angeles and Assembly speaker
Villaraigosa was speaker of the state Assembly in the late 1990s and mayor of Los Angeles from 2005 to 2013, during which he significantly expanded the size of the police force and pushed a local sales tax ballot measure to pay for public transportation expansions. Villaraigosa is one of the more moderate Democrats in the race. He is more skeptical of the state’s climate goals, believes in using oil and gas as a “transition” fuel and wants a moratorium on climate regulations.
In depth with Antonio Villaraigosa
Villaraigosa spoke with LAist about issues facing the next governor of California, and why he's suited to take on the job.
Candidates who suspended their campaigns after ballots were printed will still appear, including Eric Swalwell and Betty Yee. Where campaign websites are available, LAist lists them here.
Akinyemi Agbede
Party: Democratic
Occupation: Mathematician
Mohammad Arif
Party: Democratic
Occupation: Immigrants Organizer
James Athans Jr.
Party: Republican
Occupation: Real Estate Agent
Larry Azevedo
Party: Democratic
Occupation: Businessman
Naomi Bar-Lev
Party: No Party Preference
Occupation: Musician/ Proprietor/ Writer
Louis A. De Barraicua
Party: Democratic
Occupation: Teacher/ Business Owner
Patricia De Luca Basualdo
Party: Republican
Occupation: Real Estate Broker
Carolina Buhler
Party: Democratic
Occupation: Civil Rights Advocate
Joseph Cabrera
Party: No Party Preference
Occupation: Business Administrator
Elaine Culotti
Party: No Party Preference
Occupation: Entrepreneur/ Farmer/ Developer
LivingForGod AndCountry DeMott
Party: No Party Preference
Occupation: Logistical Professional/ Chaplain
Randeep S. Dhillon
Party: Republican
Occupation: Economist/ Farmer/ Businessman
Sophia Edum-a-Sam
Party: Democratic
Occupation: Project Manager
Serge Fiankan
Party: No Party Preference
Occupation: Real Estate Broker
Lukasz Adam Filinski
Party: No Party Preference
Occupation: Father
Max Fomin
Party: No Party Preference
Occupation: Business Owner/ Father
Derek Grasty
Party: Democratic
Occupation: District Trustee/ Educator
Don J. Grundmann
Party: No Party Preference
Occupation: Doctor of Chiropractic
Jon Henderson
Party: No Party Preference
Occupation: Business Owner
Lewis Herms
Party: No Party Preference
Occupation: No Ballot Designation
Rafael M. Hernandez
Party: Republican
Occupation: Businessman/ Songwriter/ Author
Leo Naranjo IV
Party: Republican
Occupation: Retired Military Sergeant
Joel E. Jacob
Party: Democratic
Occupation: Business Owner/ Entrepreneur
Dawit Kellel
Party: No Party Preference
Occupation: Father
Gary Howard Kidgell
Party: Democratic
Occupation: Building Consultant
Anne Komarovsk
Party: No Party Preference
Occupation: Communications Executive
Alicia Olivia Lapp
Party: Republican
Occupation: No Ballot Designation
Matthew Chase Levy
Party: Democratic
Occupation: Entrepreneur/ Physicist
Duane Terrence Loynes Jr.
Party: No Party Preference
Occupation: No Ballot Designation
Amanda Martin
Party: No Party Preference
Occupation: Mother/ Builder/ Entrepreneur
Brent Maupin
Party: No Party Preference
Occupation: Civil Engineer
Daniel Mercuri
Party: No Party Preference
Occupation: Father/ Author/ Businessman
Tim Nelson
Party: Republican
Occupation: Diplomat/ Rights Advocate
Mauro Alberto Orozco
Party: No Party Preference
Occupation: Small Business Owner
Thunder Parley
Party: Democratic
Occupation: Market Analyst
Raji Rab
Party: Democratic
Occupation: Aviator/ Educator/ Entrepreneur
Satish Rao
Party: Democratic
Occupation: Professor
Ramsey Robinson
Party: Peace and Freedom
Occupation: School Social Worker
Reza Safarnejad
Party: No Party Preference
Occupation: Small Business Owner
Sam Sandak
Party: No Party Preference
Occupation: Filmmaker
Christine R. Sarmiento
Party: No Party Preference
Occupation: Public Health Nurse
Frederic C. Schultz
Party: No Party Preference
Occupation: Human Rights Attorney
Barack D. Obama Shaw
Party: Democratic
Occupation: Business Owner
Scott P Shields
Party: Democratic
Occupation: Chief Executive Officer
Gretha Solórzano
Party: Republican
Occupation: Retired Nuclear Engineer
Eric Swalwell
Party: Democratic
Occupation: Former U.S. Representative
Margaret Trowe
Party: No Party Preference
Occupation: Hotel Worker
Tom Woodard
Party: Libertarian
Occupation: Retired CEO
Betty T. Yee
Party: Democratic
Occupation: Family Care Navigator
Nancy D. Young
Party: No Party Preference
Occupation: CEO/ Businesswoman/ Pastor
Leo Samuel Zacky
Party: Republican
Occupation: Farmer/ Businessman/ Broadcaster
Erin “Zez” Zezulak
Party: Democratic
Occupation: Consultant/ Nurse/ Businesswoman
David Zickefoose
Party: Republican
Occupation: Real Estate Investor
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