Several hundred supporters packed the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles on Sunday night as California's top Democrats made one final push for Xavier Becerra, the party's candidate for governor, two days before polls opened statewide. Governor Gavin Newsom, former Vice President Kamala Harris, and U.S. Senators Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla all took the stage alongside Becerra at the event, dubbed the “Stop the Power Grab” rally. The gathering capped a race that has narrowed to two names on the ballot: Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton.
The rally drew several hundred supporters, according to the New York Times, which reported that Newsom and Harris delivered rousing speeches backing Becerra as he seeks to succeed Newsom in Sacramento. As NBC Palm Springs reported, the event brought together some of California's most prominent political figures ahead of the general election, with Becerra taking the stage alongside Newsom, Harris, Schiff and Padilla. Becerra told the crowd, “I have stood up to dangerous authoritarianism before and I'm ready to do it again,” according to a live Guardian dispatch covering rallies around the country ahead of the election.
A Governor's Race That Narrowed to Two
California's general election is set for Tuesday, November 3, and the governor's race has come down to Becerra and Hilton, per the station's report. Becerra finished first in the June 2 primary with 28.1% of the total vote, the same outlet noted. His path to the top of the field wasn't always obvious — his polling hovered around just 3% in late March, before he surged after Eric Swalwell withdrew his campaign following allegations of sexual misconduct and assault, according to the Guardian.
Becerra brings decades of experience to the race. He represented Los Angeles in Congress for more than two decades before being appointed California's attorney general in 2017, according to CalMatters, and he later served as U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services under President Joe Biden. If elected, Becerra would make history as the state's first Latino governor since Romualdo Pacheco in 1875, the Guardian reported. On the campaign trail, Becerra has promised to solidify many of California's liberal policies and the state's opposition to former President Trump, per the Los Angeles Times' voter guide.
Becerra's record of legal fights with the first Trump administration has become a recurring talking point. CalMatters reports that he often touts suing Trump more than 100 times during his first presidency, while the Los Angeles Times cites a figure of roughly 120 times over issues including immigration enforcement — accounts that differ on the exact count but agree on the scale of his record as attorney general.
Proposition 50 Looms Over the Ballot
Sunday's rally unfolded against the backdrop of Proposition 50, a special election measure that redrew the state's congressional district boundaries, as NBC Palm Springs noted. California voters approved the measure with more than 64% of the vote, according to KQED, casting aside political lines previously drawn by the independent California Citizens Redistricting Commission. Supporters have said the new maps could help Democrats add up to five additional congressional seats in California, KQED reported.
Under the measure, California will temporarily use legislatively drawn congressional district maps starting this year and through 2030, according to the California Secretary of State. The California Secretary of State's Proposition 50 Quick Reference Guide describes the new maps as temporary, lasting until the Citizens Redistricting Commission draws new lines following the 2030 U.S. Census — a commission the state constitution normally tasks with adjusting congressional and legislative boundaries after each decennial census, per California Legislative Information's text of AB 604.
The measure and the state's congressional maps remain part of the broader political debate heading into the election, NBC Palm Springs noted. Newsom and Harris, both seen as potential Democratic presidential candidates in 2028, focused their remarks at the Palladium on Becerra while also rallying Democrats to flip control of Congress, the Times reported. Nonpartisan analysts have projected Democrats could capture as many as 20 Republican-held House seats nationwide in Tuesday's midterm election, according to KQED, with the Cook Political Report and Sabato's Crystal Ball projecting Democrats could win around 235 seats on the high end of likely outcomes — well past the 218 needed for a majority.
Not Everyone Is Cheering the New Maps
The Los Angeles rally came less than two weeks after a similar Democratic rally in a San Francisco union hall promoted Proposition 50's maps, where Newsom told supporters, “we've got to deliver on the promise and the promotion, and that's why it's critical that we get those five seats,” per KQED. That measure added hundreds of thousands of Democratic voters to two GOP-held seats in Northern California and drastically reconfigured the Inland Empire district held by Republican Representative Ken Calvert, the outlet reported.
Not everyone sees the new lines as a win for representation. Rural Republicans interviewed by NPR criticized California's redistricting even while disapproving of similar moves in Texas, arguing “what was done in Texas was wrong. Two wrongs do not make a right.” NPR reported that the changes could leave Modoc County voters represented by Democrat Jared Huffman of the San Francisco Bay Area, in a district where Marin County — Huffman's base — accounts for 30% of the vote, compared with just 1% from Modoc County.
