Your last minute voter guide to the 2026 California governor's race

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

58% : Mahan said he wants to enact a “Gas Tax Holiday” that ends or reduces the tax on gas.
57% : Porter supports single-payer healthcare, providing free child care and college tuition and making wealthy corporations pay their “fair share” in taxes.
56% : He supports abolishing ICE.
55% : He also supports single-payer healthcare.Thurmond wants to provide a tax credit to make it easier for Californians to pay for the rising cost of gas, groceries and housing.
51% : A comprehensive guide on the candidate’s full views on housing and homelessness is here.The candidates offered their ideas for making California more affordable during debates in April and May as well as on their websites.Becerra said he will stand up to price gouging and unjustified rate hikes and use the power of the state to lower prices “where the market has failed.”Bianco says he wants to cut taxes for working families and businesses, stop the “over-regulation on California’s economy,” support job growth and unleash the state’s energy resources to lower the price of gas and utilities.
49% : To pay for it, Porter would impose a progressive corporate tax, meaning more profitable businesses and corporations would pay a higher rate.
48% : San José Mayor Matt Mahan plans to demand ICE officers be unmasked, vows to go after agents and immigration agency leadership when they violate the constitution and shield communities from unwarranted harassment.
48% : Steyer said he would like to block corporate mergers in entertainment, defend and expand film tax credits and eliminate the regulations and hurdles for permitting and logistics that “slow down productions.”
47% : Steyer has repeatedly expressed remorse about his former firm’s ties with the company and said he personally ordered the divestment from private prisons before he sold his stake in the hedge fund.State Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond says he plans to levy a new tax on companies that operate ICE detention centers, fight to abolish ICE, protect California’s sanctuary laws and work with Congress to establish a pathway to citizenship.
47% : He also wants to end California’s current tax on tips to ensure tipped workers keep more of their earnings.
45% : But he has also faced criticism from fellow Republicans for supporting a pathway to citizenship for lawful, working undocumented people and telling his constituents that his deputies were not taking part in Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.Former Fox News host Steve Hilton, who legally immigrated to the United States from the United Kingdom, opposes California’s state and local sanctuary policies, and said the state must cooperate with the federal government because the governor’s job is to enforce laws, whether the governor agrees with immigration enforcement activity or not.
45% : She also supports ending income taxes for those who earn less than $100,000.
44% : Hilton said he wants to eliminate income taxes on people who earn less than $100,000 and on the first $100,000 for Californians who earn more than that.
43% : Mahan said he wants to lower developer fees and taxes for infill housing.
37% : He also wants legislation that will grant the state attorney general the authority to hold ICE agents accountable for violent and illegal acts on the job.
33% : The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids that began in California last summer have been hotly debated by Democratic and Republican candidates.Here is what the candidates said during a debate in May or stated on their websites, as well as some criticism they have faced during the campaign.Xavier Becerra vowed to protect and lead the state against the Trump administration’s attacks on immigrants and marginalized communities.
29% : Here’s what each candidate said about the need to address the state’s housing shortage and its stubborn homeless problem:Becerra said he plans to cut “unnecessary red tape” and speed up “approvals for projects that meet affordability and environmental standards.”

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.