Sacramento – At a party of courteous California’s top gubernatorial candidates, four Democrats and two Republicans agreed that although the state has one of the world’s largest economies, many of its residents are still suffering due to the state’s affordability crisis.
However, their strategies on how to improve the state economy were largely embraced by the different views of their respective parties on Wednesday night in the first bipartisan competition in 2026, amid discussions on housing costs, high-speed rail, tariffs, climate change and homelessness.
Former Rep. Katie Porter said: “Californians are innovators. They are builders, designers, creators, and that’s why we have the fourth largest economy in the world.
Conservative commentator Steve Hilton believes state leaders need to end the “shackles” of unions, lawyers and climate change activists in California policy.
He said: “I’ve been traveling in this state. I’m walking around, it’s the same story, the heartbreaking words I get from every business I encounter, every family in the struggles of California.
Six California gubernatorial candidates participated in the bipartisan forum on Wednesday: former Rep. Katie Porter; Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, former legislative leader Toni Atkins, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaragosa, Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and conservative commentator Steve Hilton.
((Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times))
The candidate spoke to about 800 people at a California Chamber of Commerce dinner held at the 80-minute group at the Sacramento Convention Center. The Chamber’s decision on who to invite to the forum is based on which leaders are public opinion surveys and fundraising activities. The layoffs were former Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, Hilton, Hilton, Hilton, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, Porter and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
The sharpest exchange of the night was between Democrat Kounalakis and Republican Bianco.
After the candidate was asked about President Trump’s unstable tariff policies, Kunalakis listed her experience working at her father’s re-establishment company as she criticized Bianco’s argument for a wait-for-waiting approach to the president’s ups and downs.
She told Bianco: “You are not a businessman, you are a government employee.” You have a pension and you will do a good job. Small businesses are suffering from this difficulty, and it will get worse, by the way, it is made by Donald Trump’s fight against the countries he doesn’t like, the countries he wants to annex, or the countries he doesn’t like, and he doesn’t like California, which only makes our people worse, until we don’t like him, until we don’t like him, until we don’t like, until we don’t like, until we don’t like, until we don’t like, until we don’t like, until we don’t like, until we don’t like.
Bianco countered that Kounalakis and other Democratic gubernatorial candidates were directly responsible for the economic hardships faced by Californians because they had an “unbearable desire” to fund their liberal agenda.
“I just feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone. I have a billionaire telling me that my 32 years of public service are OK for my retirement,” he said. “Taxes and regulations are being made in every thing in California. We pay the highest tax, we pay the highest gasoline, we pay the highest housing, we pay the highest energy.”
The Democrats on the stage, though largely agree with the policy, try to set themselves apart. The clearest gap is about whether to raise the minimum wage. On Monday, labor advocates in Los Angeles proposed in Los Angeles County.
Atkins, who reflects the views of most of her Democrats, said that while she wants to see higher wages for workers, “it’s not the time.” Villaraigosa said that while he believes in higher minimum wages, “we can’t just continue to raise the minimum wage.”
However, Kounalakis said it would be inhumane to not increase the minimum wage.
“I think we should work on that number, yes,” she said. “You want to throw the poor under the bus.”
California’s high cost of living is an urgent concern for voters in the state, and the issue is expected to play a major role in the 2026 governor’s appearance.
Almost half of the situation is worse now than last year, and more than half have less hope for their economic well-being.
Next year, the event was the first sharing phase for Democratic and Republican candidates in primary school about a year ago. This is also the first time Republican candidates Bianco and Hilton have appeared.
Despite the state’s left-electing tendency to win the challenge of Republicans winning the game – Californians last elected Republican politicians to run for statewide offices in 2006, Bianco and Hilton are struggling to compete for one of the first two seats in next year’s primary election.
The two expressed similar views on the state’s broad end of liberal policies, such as stopping the state’s high-speed rail projects and reducing environmental restrictions, such as the state’s climate change efforts, which they believe will increase costs while having no meaningful impact on fossil fuel consumption.
A crucial question is whether Presidents of Bianco and Hilton’s Presidents will fully support one of the Republican candidates.
Some have been running for over a year since they compete, and some have been raising funds. But, as seen at the California Democratic Convention last weekend, the contest to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom is becoming increasingly public and intense. Several candidates from the party are struggling around the Anaheim Convention Center, trying to court with the state’s most liberal activists while also in stark contrast to their rivals.
But the democratic field is partially frozen as former Vice President Kamala Harris weighs in on the competition, and the decision is expected to be made before the end of the summer. During the forum, Harris’s name did not appear.
There are a few bright moments.
Porter expressed a general concern among state residents when he talked about the cost of living in the state.
“What really made me run for governor at night was whether my kids could afford to live here, whether they would get out of the car and have their own home,” she said.
