Eight California governor candidates face off in wide-open debate

Eight candidates shared the stage in Claremont as California’s governor’s race, vacant for the first time in a generation because Gavin Newsom is term-limited, shifted from a crowded field into a sharper national test of the issues most likely to define the campaign. The 90-minute CBS California Governor’s Debate at Pomona College’s Bridges Auditorium brought Xavier Becerra, Chad Bianco, Steve Hilton, Matt Mahan, Antonio Villaraigosa, Tony Thurmond, Tom Steyer and Katie Porter into the same forum at 5:30 p.m., with CBS billing it as the largest and most inclusive debate of the 2026 race.

The setting underscored how wide open the contest remains. California’s Secretary of State certified 61 names for the June 2 top-two primary ballot, while county elections officials were scheduled to begin mailing ballots by May 4 to all active registered voters. Betty Yee had initially accepted an invitation before suspending her campaign, and Eric Swalwell had already left the race, though both names remained on the ballot because they withdrew after ballot language was certified on March 26.

The debate was organized by CBS California stations in partnership with Pomona College and the Asian Pacific American Public Affairs Association, and it was broadcast across CBS California stations and streaming platforms. Moderators Pat Harvey, Tony Lopez, Julie Watts, Ryan Yamamoto and Sara Sadhwani pressed the candidates with questions shaped by an exclusive CBS News/YouGov poll of 1,479 registered California voters conducted April 23 to 27, along with student input from Pomona College. That polling backdrop reflected a race in which no clear front-runner had emerged and a large share of voters remained undecided.

The substantive fault lines were the ones that travel furthest beyond California: affordability, public safety, housing, immigration, the economy, homelessness, wildfire insurance, social media restrictions for children and the state’s gas tax. Those issues will help determine whether candidates can persuade voters who are weary of high costs, rising risks and gridlock in Sacramento. The debate also followed an April 22 televised clash that highlighted sharper Democratic infighting, while Republicans largely stayed more congenial, a sign that the field is still sorting out whether the campaign will turn on ideology, competence or the basic ability to govern the nation’s largest state.

For a race with 61 certified names and no dominant contender, the Claremont debate was less a finale than an early stress test. The candidates now have less than six weeks before ballots are due back, and the arguments that resonated in Pomona College’s historic auditorium are the same ones most likely to shape how California’s governorship is judged far beyond the state’s borders.