Xavier Becerra thinks California’s next governor should know how to call Donald Trump’s bluff.
The former US health and human services secretary built his reputation in the state leading California’s legal battles against the first Trump administration. Now, as he joins a crowded field of Democrats vying to succeed the term-limited governor, Gavin Newsom, Becerra says he has the experience – and the poker face – to go toe-to-toe with the president again.
“He’s a big bluffer, as we’ve seen with these tariffs,” Becerra, 67, said in a recent interview, referring to Trump’s on-again-off-again approach to taxing imported goods. “If you’re prepared to call his bluff, and you’re on the right side with a decent hand, you can make him blink.”
When he was California’s attorney general, Becerra filed more than 120 lawsuits against the Trump’s first-term agenda – often alongside other Democratic-run states – and more often than not, he won. But Trump’s vengeful second act poses an even greater risk to the state, he warns.
“This is a break-glass moment,” he said. “We can’t continue to do things under business as usual and that means you need a leader – you need a CEO – who’s had to break the glass.”
Before serving in the Biden administration, Becerra represented Los Angeles in Congress for more than two decades, ascending through the ranks of Democratic leadership. In 2017, he was tapped to succeed Kamala Harris as California’s attorney general. The following year, Becerra ran for a full four-year term, easily defeating his Republican opponent and winning more overall votes than Newsom, who was elected to his first term as governor that same year.
The son of Mexican immigrants – a construction worker and a clerical worker – Becerra says he wants to restore the “California dream” his parents once lived: building a home, sending their children to college and retiring “with dignity”. It’s a vision of prosperity that he says now feels out of reach for too many Californians.
“We’re at this crossroads,” he said. “It’s tough to believe that a construction worker and a clerical worker today would have that same opportunity.”
Addressing California’s affordability and housing crisis will be at the center of his campaign, though he has not yet detailed his plans.
He enters the race at a moment when Democrats nationally are facing calls for new leadership and fresh ideas, even in deep-blue California, where 2024 saw some of the sharpest shifts to the right. On his podcast, Newsom has said Democrats are getting their “ass kicked” by voters frustrated with the economy and quality-of-life issues.
The unsettled field for governor of the country’s biggest blue state already includes several Democrats – the former representative Katie Porter, the former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and the lieutenant governor, Eleni Kounalakis. The most prominent Republican candidate is Chad Bianco, the sheriff of Riverside county. Yet the question looming over the race is whether Kamala Harris will enter the fray. She is expected to make a decision before the end of summer.
In surveys, Harris holds an early lead, with many Democrats enthusiastic about the prospect of voting for her again. Some Democrats in the race have indicated they would step aside if Harris runs, while others, like the state attorney general, Rob Bonta, bowed out of contention and pre-emptively backed the former vice-president.
Becerra has vowed to press ahead with his campaign, regardless of whether Harris or anyone else enters the race.
“I’m in all the way to the end – and to win,” he said.
In the interview, Becerra spoke warmly of Harris. When he was sworn in as the HHS secretary, Harris, then the vice-president, administered his oath of office. As Biden cabinet officials, they worked together on issues related to women’s reproductive rights and healthcare. And during the 2024 campaign, Becerra said he put “150%” into campaigning on behalf of the Harris-Walz ticket.
“I certainly understand these are decisions that have to be made by everyone,” he said of Harris’s deliberations. “But from my perspective, I took a couple months to talk to my wife, talk to my family and others whom I respect, and once I made the decision, it didn’t matter to me who got in. I’m in.”
As Trump’s tariffs rattle the global economy and the toll of the administration’s cuts to the federal workforce deepens, Becerra is betting that the voters who wanted change will be ready for an executive offering the experience and the leadership to navigate those changes – and possibly chart a new course entirely.
“Americans wanted to shake things up,” Becerra said of Trump’s 2024 election victory. “What I don’t think most Americans expected – and what they’re now seeing – is that he would shake them up.”
Becerra’s pitch, he says, is simple: “It’s shaking up the system, not the people.”
This article and its subheading was amended on 21 April 2025 to clarify that Xavier Becerra is a former attorney general of California.
