California’s high cost of living surfaced as the top issue at a live televised debate between gubernatorial candidates Republican Steve Hilton and Democrat Xavier Becerra on Sept. 30 in Los Angeles.

The one-hour debate moderated by CNN anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash covered a wide range of issues including affordability, gas prices, housing and homelessness, illegal immigration, jobs and the economy, AI data centers, vaccines, and climate change.

Hilton blamed Democratic policies for the affordability crisis in California while Becerra pointed at the Trump administration.

Becerra, 68, a former U.S. Health and Human Services (HSS) secretary and former state attorney general during part of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s first term, has run a low-key campaign while Hilton, 57, a former Fox News host and political adviser, has promised change and deep-reaching reforms.

Newsom’s second and final term expires in January.

Both candidates advanced to the Nov. 3 election after winning the top two spots in the governor’s race in California’s jungle primary on June 2.

The latest Real Clear Politics polling average results based on September surveys show Becerra in the lead with 56.8 percent of the vote and Hilton with 35 percent.

When asked if Hilton’s promises to cut California’s 63.4 cent-per-gallon excise tax on gasoline and eliminate state income tax on the first $150,000 that Californians earn are on the right track to offer relief to those struggling with the high cost of living, Becerra said such tax cuts would hurt the state.

“Steve Hilton’s plan actually goes beyond just the $150,000,” he said. “He wants to give the richest Californians, millionaires and billionaires, a 40 percent tax cut.”

Hilton’s push for sweeping tax cuts would mean reduced funding for schools, healthcare, and housing, and make living conditions in the state even worse, Becerra said.

“We have to have sound policy, whether it’s tax policy or spending policy, to make sure that we can bring our California Dream back to life,” he said. “If you start making tax breaks for the wealthiest, you damage our working families.”

Hilton countered Becerra’s claims, saying that the best way to help working families is to create incentives and bring businesses and jobs back to the state.

“I love the way that Xavier says the wealthiest are people who are earning less than $150,000 a year, struggling,” Hilton said. “We have the highest poverty rate and the highest unemployment rate in America. That’s because high taxes have driven business out.”

During the primary debates, Becerra consistently refused to suspend the gas tax, saying it’s needed to pay for roads and bridges.

Hilton has also promised to reduce the price of gasoline to $3 a gallon, cut electric bills in half, and help young families buy affordable starter homes.

He criticized Becerra for running a low-profile campaign.

“I just want to say thank you to CNN for bringing Xavier out of hiding. He’s barely been seen in public since the primary four months ago,” he said. “It’s very important we have this debate.”

Illegal Immigration

Tapper asked Hilton if he would reverse Senate Bill 54, which prohibits state and local law enforcement from cooperating with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).   

Hilton said his goal is to follow the law and “lower the temperature” of the illegal immigration debate.

“I want to make sure that we protect our legal immigrant communities and we enforce the law,” he said. “Everybody agrees that we need secure borders.”

Dangerous criminals who are in the United States illegally should be removed, he said.

“We’ve got to get this whole debate back to where most people want it to be, which is to prioritize the removal of dangerous criminals. That’s not happening in California,” Hilton said.

“Every week, pretty much, we hear horrific stories of crimes that have been committed because of this partisan posturing by the politicians in California that just refuse to follow the law as it’s written, even California sanctuary law, which allows for those kinds of criminals to be removed from the country.”

Becerra criticized Hilton for not supporting the state’s sanctuary laws. His mother was a Mexican immigrant. His father was born in Sacramento, but grew up in Tijuana, Mexico, according to the U.S. House Historian.

Hilton was born in England to Hungarian parents who fled communism. He then moved to California as an adult and became a U.S. citizen.

“You’re running for governor of California, and you'll enforce Trump’s laws at the federal level, but you won’t enforce state laws at our level. California welcomed you into California, and you welcomed ICE mercenaries into our state in return,” Becerra said.

“How do you square that. … You seem to welcome immigrants who look like you but deport immigrants who look like me. We need to have a governor who will protect everyone who works hard.”

Hilton called the remark disgraceful, and denied Becerra’s accusation that he seeks to deport every farm worker in California.

 Missing Migrant Children

Becerra said he’s fought all his life to protect immigrants and make life better for them. He criticized the Trump administration for conducting ICE raids, claiming migrants have been “killed indiscriminately” and separated from their children.

“Let’s have regulation of our borders. We have a right as a sovereign nation to do so. I have always been for that,” Becerra said, calling for immigration reform. “I am not for violating the Constitution. I am not for treating immigrants like animals, and I am for recognizing that immigrants lift up our state. They build it every day.”

Hilton fired back, saying Becerra came under fire during his tenure as HHS secretary in the Biden administration.

“I cannot believe that you’re standing there trying to make these arguments,” Hilton said.

“When you were HHS secretary, you were responsible for 479,000 unaccompanied migrant children and for their welfare in camps that you ran. You dismantled the vetting that should have made sure that they were with a safe, protective family or sponsor. You sent thousands of young children directly into the clutches of child, sex, and labor traffickers.” 

Thousands of children are still missing today, Hilton said.

“I cannot believe that you haven’t apologized, that you [haven’t] any kind of sense of shame or responsibility for what you did to those children,” he said.

Becerra dismissed the criticisms as “retread Trump talking points,” but Hilton said that the issue was first documented in a Pulitzer Prize-winning exposé published by The New York Times.

“What people want to hear is solutions to their problems, not these unpleasant political attacks that don’t help anyone, immigrant or not, with the problems that they’re facing; the cost of living, all of the problems that you have no solutions to whatsoever,” Hilton said.

“All you ever say is ‘Trump, Trump, Trump’ and that’s nothing but an insult to every Californian who is desperate for something to change in this state, and all you’re offering is more of the same.”

Becerra lists “Fighting Donald Trump” as a core platform on his campaign website and says that he sued Trump 122 times when he was California’s attorney general.