Overview
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra unveiled a platform focused on housing affordability, healthcare access, and immigrant rights. He pledged to declare a housing emergency to accelerate financing for thousands of ready-to-build homes, prevent homelessness, expand healthcare access, and defend immigrant communities, while highlighting his working-class roots and grassroots support.
State of Emergency for Housing
Tackling California’s crippling housing crisis is a top priority for leading Democratic candidate for Governor Xavier Becerra, a problem he wants to take head-on by declaring a state of emergency for housing as soon as he takes office.
“There are currently about 40,000 housing units that are shovel-ready. They just lack the financing…I will immediately work with the legislature to see if we can find the resources that would let us have those projects move forward,” he said at a press briefing organized by the American Community Media (ACoM) on May 27.
According to recent polls, Becerra and former Fox News host Steve Hilton (endorsed by President Donald Trump) are frontrunners for California’s highly competitive open Governor’s race, with 61 candidates in the fray. The primaries are set for June 2.
During his declared housing emergency, Becerra said he would also freeze utility rates and home insurance premiums, adding that Californians were entitled to transparency regarding why they are paying more or why their policies are being canceled without sufficient notice.
On dealing with California’s staggering homelessness, Becerra said he would focus on prevention and accountability, demanding documented outcomes from cities and counties that receive state funding for services.
“It costs so much more money to pick someone off the street than trying to help someone who’s on the verge of losing their home stay in it,” Becerra said. “Whether it’s because of a medical emergency or loss of a job, I’m going to do everything I can to keep them housed rather than see them become homeless.”
On Healthcare
Denying that he had softened his support for a single-payer healthcare system, Becerra said he had always championed healthcare for all and had helped draft, pass, and defend President Obama’s Affordable Healthcare Act in court. He added that as President Joe Biden’s health secretary, he had helped cap prices of medicines like insulin, helped negotiate lower drug prices for Medicare, and had expanded coverage through Obamacare.
“I believe the most efficient way to deliver care is to remove as many of the middlemen and unnecessary moving parts in the healthcare system…While we try to get there – because it’s been difficult in those three plus decades to get there – we have to continue making progress towards the goal of Medicare for all,” he said.
He also said he would protect healthcare for undocumented immigrants.
“If you’re working hard, you deserve to have access to the healthcare that you need,” Becerra said. “If three million Californians are kicked off their MediCal, they don’t stop using healthcare, but they use the emergency room, the most expensive place to get healthcare, and California taxpayers pay.”
On Immigration
To a question from India Currents about a Trump administration policy memo that would make it harder for green card applicants seeking adjustment of status to remain in the country, Secretary Becerra called it “un-American” and disruptive. “These are people who are qualifying to be here, which means they have to have a good record. It just proves that Donald Trump never intended to go after only criminals. He’s just after anyone who’s an immigrant. Immigrant families are some of the most successful Americans in the country and they have created millions of jobs. They are revitalizing communities that were dying beforehand,” he said, adding that he would fight any such policy.
(On May 29, a week after the policy memo sent applicants and immigration lawyers scurrying for clarification, the Department of Homeland Security stated that most green card applicants would not have to leave the country while their applications were in process.)
Criticizing the federal immigration crackdown, Becerra called the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) President Trump’s “mercenary force, which is violating the laws of US citizens.” If elected, he said he would ensure that immigrant families know that they are protected.
“I’ll do it not just because I’ve done it as attorney general, but because I know what it feels like as a son of immigrants when your rights are not respected, when you’re threatened, and when it’s difficult for you, as hard as you’re working to believe that your government is there for you,” Becerra said.
Limited Party endorsements
The Democratic Party top brass has notably kept its counsel, endorsing no candidate yet for governor. Becerra’s former bosses, outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom and President Biden, have both so far refused to endorse any candidate in the governor’s race, as has former colleague and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Some of Becerra’s local South Asian support has come from
Assemblymember Dr. Darshana Patel, Elk Grove Mayor Bobbi Singh Allen,
San Carlos Mayor Pranita Venkatesh and San Mateo Deputy Mayor and Councilmember Nicole Fernandez. (Watch India Currents conversation with Mayor Venkatesh, Deputy Mayor Ferdnandez). Congressman Ro Khanna and Assemblymember Ash Kalra have both endorsed Tom Steyer.
Becerra distinguished himself from billionaire and fellow Democratic candidate Tom Steyer, who has run one of the most expensive campaigns in California’s history, saying he has the backing of working families. “It’s people like teachers and nurses and union workers who are supporting this campaign and helping us fuel us to victory. We have the support of firefighters, Planned Parenthood, nurses. That’s who’s backing this campaign.”
He also pushed back on Styer’s allegation that large corporations funded independent expenditure committees supporting his race. Distancing himself from such committees, Becerra said, “My record speaks for itself. When I was attorney general, I sued the fossil fuel industry. I went after the Trump administration when they tried to undo some of our environmental protections.”
While highlighting his legal battles against Trump policies (he said he had sued Trump over 120 times and won over 80 per cent of them), Becerra repped his roots, remembering his working-class upbringing by immigrant parents in Sacramento; his father was a union worker who couldn’t study past the 6th grade, and his mother was a clerical worker who came to the U.S. with $12 on her. Becerra was the first in his family to go to college.
“Working hard should be enough to help you build something that lasts,” he said.
“We have to restore those days when people would come to California believing that if they worked hard, they could accomplish much more for their kids,” he added.
This article is supported by an American Community Media fellowship.
