Hilton, Becerra lead crowded primary to replace Gavin Newsom in California

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]Let's go out to the Bay Area right now.

[00:00:02]Plenty of top headlines in California.

[00:00:04]Let's be joined right now by Fox 2 KTVU, Ally Rasmos. Ally, thank you so much for joining us here on Live Now from Fox.

[00:00:11]And there's plenty to cover in the North area, the Bay Area. What are you focusing on? We got California governor debate, other different things are going to impact. What are you focusing on this Memorial Day weekend?

[00:00:23]>> Uh this Memorial Day weekend, we are talking politics and also prices. Uh so, first politics. as you know, a California gubanatorial primary. And the primary is on June 2nd, so it's a little more than a week away. California has gotten a lot of attention for its gubernatorial race because there are a lot of candidates. And right now, even a week and a half out from the June 2nd primary, there's still no real clear front runners. Now, a lot of Californians vote by mail, and so a lot of folks have already started the process of casting their ballot. There's early voting centers that have opened up just this weekend so people can go and uh vote in person. So the race and the vote is already underway. The latest polls show that Javier Viser, which we just showed you in that clip a second ago, he is most recently the former Health and Human Services Secretary under President Biden. Prior to that, he was attorney general here in California and a congressman. He right now is more or less the front runner in this primary race. and uh but he's pulling around 21 22% which is about the same as the top Republican candidate in the primary, Steve Hilton, former Fox News commentator uh originally from the UK.

[00:01:32]He's only been in California for a few years, so there's been some missteps with his campaign and some criticism about maybe he doesn't quite understand California voters. Obviously, Javier Visera with his uh previous experience with the Biden administration, there's some consternation about his uh credentials and his prior record. So, no candidate really that people feel very enthusiastic about. There's no one that's uh really standing out amongst the rest of the pack. And if California has what's called an open primary, so that means it's not limited to any one party. The top two vote getters in the primary will face off in the general election in November. And so that's why uh the stakes are so high to see who it's going to be. If it's is it going to be two Democrats? Is it going to be Bera versus Hilton, which is what seems most likely now? But for a while, there was some uh concern that amongst the Democratic party here in California, that the two top vote getters could have been the two Republicans in the primary because Chad Biano, who's San Bernardino uh sheriff, was also the only other Republican really of note that's kind of in the top 10 tier of candidates running for governor. But he has come down quite a bit in the polls. Uh Tommy Styer, a billionaire progressive candidate here in California, he is pulling around 15%.

[00:02:50]So at this point, it looks like if things continue on this track and if the polling is accurate, it will be uh Basera and Hilton facing off in the general election, but it's still very much in flux. Uh very much unknown.

[00:03:03]>> Yeah, a very interesting race and one that California hasn't seen in quite some time when voting for governor. I do want to ask you because there are some probably tense moments within the Democratic party. Javier Bera, former member of the Biden administration, like you mentioned, leading some of the polls. Are we surprised that more Democrats haven't dropped out and thrown their support behind different candidates because we've seen Betty Ye, but there are a handful of Democratic candidates right now that are pretty much not saying quit, not saying die ever. Are we surprised that no one has coalesed? We haven't had a plenty of endorsements from people to try to pick the candidate they want to make sure it's no to Republicans come November.

[00:03:44]>> Yeah. Well, on our uh morning show this morning, we had our political commentator who we regularly have on the show. He's political history lecture uh at UC Santa Cruz, Nolan Hickden. He talked I asked him that very question.

[00:03:54]You know, why have there not been, you know, the party coming behind one solid candidate, at least on the Democratic side? and he says it's representative really of kind of a split within the Democratic party. It can't really figure out which wing it wants to favor, which side it wants to be. Uh and even though Bera is polling around 21 20%, there is not a ground swell of support behind him as a Democratic candidate.

[00:04:19]Now, things kind of got turned upside down and and and really tossed around when Eric Swallwell, former congressman uh here in the Bay Area, who had been running for California governor, he had to step down amid allegations of sexual assault and now an investigation there.

[00:04:35]So, he could have probably been had a better chance at being the front runner, but then when he stepped down, it kind of threw uh the whole thing on its head.

[00:04:43]And so, ever since then, the party has had a hard time deciding or getting behind any one candidate.

[00:04:48]>> Yeah. So, we'll see what comes this time around in terms of the primary, but upcoming in November, it's going to be an interesting race. I do want to also talk because obviously you mentioned just money and the economy and and obviously there's conversations about water heaters being bound a little earlier uh in the San Francisco Bay area. What can you tell us about that change, how quickly this is coming, and how it might impact people? Well, uh, when it comes to prices, we know that gas prices are the kind of the biggest driver of, uh, putting financial pressure on people's budgets. Uh, and California has, as we know, has gotten used to paying much more, about 20% more than the rest of the country. So, as gas prices have risen above, uh, $4 a gallon pretty much in all 50 states. In California, they are well over $6 a gallon, 615, 620 a gallon. That's for regular gas. that's not even the fancy gas. Uh so that is putting a lot of pressure on people and and leading to this overall sentiment about downward sentiment about the state of the economy and uh consumer consumer sentiment and how people are going to afford and and pay for things. So that's putting a lot of pressure on things. We're used to unfortunately here in the Bay Area in California paying more uh for most things than people in other parts of the country. And one of those issues has to do with water heaters. So, California regulators have banned the replacing your existing gas water heater with another gas water heater by the year 2030. They want people to become more energy efficient and switch to one of those electricbased heat pump uh water heaters by 2030. Here in the Bay Area, regulators here have said that they want to reach that goal even sooner. So, by January of 2027, if your water heater breaks down in your house, you will no longer be able to replace it with a traditional gas water heater. You'll have to get an electric heater instead.

[00:06:43]Now, the concern, of course, while those electric water heaters are about 300 to 400% more efficient, so you get more bang for your buck. It's easier to heat your water. The cost will be lower. The initial cost to install a heat pump water heater, electric water heater, is more. It's about $1,500 to $3,500 more than a regular gas heater. So again, that's one more factor and one more uh cost that people are having to factor in uh to the cost of living here in the Bay Area. We have beautiful weather. It's a beautiful place, a wonderful place to live. But we pay for that in the form of higher prices for just about everything.

[00:07:19]>> Yeah. And it's going to be interesting because if you can't afford that extra few hundred bucks with people living paycheck to paycheck, it might be uh very difficult for those to try to make ends meet. Uh Ally, thank you so much for joining us. Anything else you want to know before I let you go?

[00:07:33]>> Uh no, we'll just continue to monitor what happens in the next 10 days with the California governor's race. So, kind of all eyes on that.

[00:07:39]>> Yeah, of course. So many very important primaries ahead of a critical midterm year in November. Thanks again. I appreciate your time. Course.