The UC Merced Community and Labor Center held a candidate forum with the Central Valley Worker Coalition at Fresno City College. The event, moderated by Neil Chase, chief executive officer of CalMatters, featured five candidates: Xavier Becerra, Matt Mahan, Kate Porter, Tony Thurmond, and Antonio Villaraigosa, all of whom are running for California governor. Spanish and Punjabi translations were made available, allowing for inclusivity.
Each panelist had approximately one minute and 30 seconds to answer each question from Chase. Candidates were asked how they would improve life for many in the Central Valley, ranging from implementing affordable housing to protecting immigrant communities, addressing environmental issues, and addressing unemployment rates in the region.
Former United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Xavier Becerra, who also served as the first Latino to lead the HHS, gave the first response. Becerra shared that he hopes to offer every individual who works hard and is the lowest-paid the same opportunities afforded to his immigrant parents, so that they can live out the dream of a better life.
“I keep telling folks that I am running for governor because I want to give people today what the state gave my parents. I want to see families today achieve what my parents got. They were able to afford a little house, even though they didn’t have much education and never had a chance to go to college,” He said. “I do it because I was a son of immigrant workers, I do it because I saw how hard they worked so that I can have an opportunity.
Matt Mahan, San Jose Mayor, focused on affordability. Drawing on his experience growing up in Watsonville, California, a rural, farm-working town, he emphasized that he knows what it is like to be overlooked by larger cities and to have fewer resources allocated to it.
“We can have better schools by better training and preparing our teachers. We can have more affordable housing by speeding up permitting and reducing fees and other bureaucracy that make it slow and expensive to build the housing we need,” said Mahan.
Former United States Representative Katie Porter, who works at UC Irvine teaching Law and serves as a consumer protection advocate, centered her candidacy on accessibility and what California can accomplish in the future.
“I am also the proud mother of three teenagers who are California’s future, and I am in this race for their future and to make sure they’re able to get a good education, to buy a house, to start a family. That’s what this race is about,” Porter said, “The Central Valley is California’s future, the Central Valley is where we have the next generation of workforce.”
Superintendent Tony Thurmound took a different approach, focusing on how many people in the Central Valley are Medi-Cal recipients and the importance of reestablishing the American dream here in California, beginning with affordable housing, health access, economic stability, and education.
With recent federal cuts, he hopes to restore Medi-Cal for all, including undocumented immigrants. Thurmound similarly drew on personal experience, noting that his grandparents were immigrants from Colombia and Jamaica, and that his mother was born in Panama; all were able to achieve this dream and own their homes.
“We have to make it possible for everyone here to live the American Dream again and to buy a home. As governor, I will build 2 million housing units through downpayment assistance programs and make sure everyone has good-paying jobs and that Californians have healthcare,” said Thurmound.
Antonio Villaraigosa, former LA mayor and civil rights advocate, took a similar approach, centering affordability as the main reason for his run for governor.
“I’m running for governor because I believe the next governor has to take on this issue of affordability; we can’t afford gas, we can’t afford rent, and we can’t afford to buy a home, and we can do something about it,” he said.
Citing the recent immigration raid known as Operation Return to Sender, which caused a wave of fear and uncertainty for many immigrant communities in the Central Valley. During those raids, employment in the agricultural sector began to plummet, driving unemployment rates higher for many immigrant communities. Candidates were asked what they could do as governors to protect the people of the Central Valley.
“We will police the ICE police, we will investigate the ICE police, we will prosecute the ICE police, and we will do everything we must if they decide to violate the law,” shared the former Secretary of State Becerra. “We will fight, and we will win.”
Becerra also referenced and highlighted his efforts as attorney general during Trump’s first term as president, when Trump attempted to force California to conduct and participate in immigration raids. Becerra noted the successful lawsuit that he led against the president at the time.
Representative Porter emphasized the importance of protecting all individuals in California, regardless of immigration status, by implementing state-funded pathways.
“Politicians like to talk about how we are the world’s fourth-largest economy. Well, let’s act like it, let’s protect and fund care for every single person who makes that economy the fourth-largest,” she said.
She added that amid ongoing federal-level cuts that are causing uncertainty, the state of California needs to ensure funding for all its residents.
