Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, is a front-runner in Tuesday’s race to become California’s next governor.
Mr. Becerra, a longtime congressman who served as California’s attorney general during President Trump’s first term, had struggled to gain traction for most of the race, and at one point was polling so low that he did not qualify for a debate.
That changed after the abrupt exit of Representative Eric Swalwell amid sexual assault allegations. The turmoil in April seemed to launch Mr. Becerra to the front of a crowded field, as voters gravitated toward a candidate with extensive experience.
Here are five things to know about Mr. Becerra, 68.
1. He helped draft the Affordable Care Act. After a short stint in the California State Assembly, Mr. Becerra, a lawyer by training, was elected in 1992 to the House of Representatives at age 34. He served for 24 years in Congress, where he fought for immigrant rights, gay rights and against the privatization of Social Security. But his most well-known accomplishment in Congress was helping to shape and whip votes for the landmark health legislation known as Obamacare, which dramatically expanded health care coverage for Americans.
2. He sued the Trump administration more than 100 times. Mr. Becerra took office as California attorney general four days after President Trump’s first inauguration — and immediately went into attack mode. His office filed suit after suit against the Trump administration over construction of the border wall, rollbacks of environmental protections, plans to increase offshore oil drilling and more. He led a 20-state coalition to defend the Affordable Care Act that went all the way to the Supreme Court, where it was upheld.
3. He has faced criticism for his years in the Biden administration. Mr. Becerra was appointed health and human services secretary in March 2021 and led one of the largest federal departments for nearly four years. But some saw him as a weak leader and said he did not set clear pandemic policy. Some thought he did not do enough to resolve conflicts between the strong-willed doctors who led some of the agencies that he oversaw, among them the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health. Notably, President Biden has not endorsed him, or anyone else, in this California primary.
4. He has had a career of firsts. Mr. Becerra was part of a major wave of Latino political mobilization in California in the early 1990s. Since then, he has been named the first Latino to serve on the powerful Ways and Means Committee in the House of Representatives, to be California’s attorney general and to serve as U.S. health secretary. If he wins the governor’s race, he would become the first Latino to be elected to the state’s highest office. But he would not be the first one to serve; that honor went to Romualdo Pacheco, who became the governor of California in 1875 by succession when Gov. Newton Booth left for the U.S. Senate.
5. He was admitted to Stanford after applying on a whim. Mr. Becerra was born in Sacramento to Mexican immigrants, who he says came to the United States with just $12. In high school, Mr. Becerra excelled in science and became good at poker, a skill he says later helped him succeed in politics. When he was in high school, a friend threw away a blank application to Stanford. Mr. Becerra filled it out and was accepted. He ended up earning an undergraduate degree from the school — he was the first in family to obtain a bachelor’s degree — as well as a law degree. Stanford was also where he met his wife, Dr. Carolina Reyes, a Harvard-trained physician with whom he has three children.
