OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
8:25 PM – Thursday, April 23, 2026
Six candidates in the running for Governor of California faced questions in the first debate since a Democrat frontrunner dropped out of the race following a scandal, leaving Democrats to regroup and identify a new leader for their party candidate.
On Wednesday, NewsNation hosted a 90-minute debate ahead of the California governor primary election set to take place in June. The debate featured Republican candidates—commentator Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco—as well as Democrat candidates former Representative Katie Porter, businessman and activist Tom Steyer, former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan.
While the candidates are all competing to replace incumbent, term-limited Governor Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.), the four Democrats in the race avoided directly criticizing him during the debate.
The candidates were each asked to assign a letter grade to Newsom’s handling of the homelessness crisis, amid data showing California accounts for roughly a quarter of the nation’s unhoused population.
Both GOP candidates gave the current governor a failing grade.
Though Mahan initially tried to avoid the question, he ultimately gave Newsom a “B” for policy and a “D” for Democrats overall, citing a failure to effectively implement those policies.
Porter gave Newsom a “B,” commending him for “calling attention to the problem.” She argued that homelessness is primarily driven by housing and affordability challenges in the state, contrasting with Republican candidates who attribute the issue more to mental health and substance abuse. Steyer also gave Newsom a “B-.”
Becerra gave Newsom an “A” grade for his “effort.”
Meanwhile, Newsom has yet to endorse any replacements. However, he has voiced support for the Democrats in a general sense.
“I’m supporting a Democrat in the runoff and look forward to the voters making that decision very shortly,” Newsom told reporters this week. “There are a lot of outstanding candidates with extraordinary records. I can name seven of them.”
Porter was also asked to respond to criticism that has followed her after a video resurfaced of her cursing at a staff member during a video-call interview during the COVID-19 pandemic. This came after she abruptly ended an interview in October over her frustration with the interviewer’s follow-up questions.
“I apologized that day to that staffer four years ago, and I took responsibility then, and I have taken responsibility since, acknowledging that it was not the right way to treat someone,” Porter answered.
She pointed out, however, that her humble handling of the situation was “a big contrast” to what her fellow candidates have done when “called out for misconduct.”
“I’m proud that that staffer in that video and I continued to work together for four years following that incident, and that speaks to how I addressed it,” she added.
Hilton was also given a chance to address the glowing endorsement he received from President Donald Trump this month.
“One of the proudest days of my life was the day I became an American citizen. It happened in a ceremony right here in San Francisco. So it is a deep honor for me to be endorsed by the president of the United States,” he stated.
When asked by moderators to respond to the fact that 62% of Californians disapprove of the president’s job performance, Hilton said, “Here’s the thing that’s going to help every Californian when I’m governor. … We will have a constructive relationship and partnership with the federal government, which I would hope would be the case for any party in that situation, so that we can make things better in California.”
Hilton said that under his governorship, California could “work with the president and his administration to manage our forests better, to harvest the timber so we can build the single-family homes we need for our young families, to work to increase California energy production, as he wants to do, so we can lower gas prices, to fight the fraud in our government, so we can cut spending and cut taxes, to work to enforce our immigration laws. In all these areas and more, it will benefit every Californian to have a governor who is a partner on these issues with the president.”
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