At his victory celebration in Los Angeles on Tuesday night, Becerra, the son of working-class parents from Mexico, reveled in his underdog story, which he called worthy of a Hollywood movie.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlmost immediately, he\u2019s counted out. An afterthought. Overlooked by many. Outspent by a ton. Even called along the way to drop out and save us all the trouble,\u201d Becerra said. \u201cWell, guess what? The underdog stayed in the fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
It will be days before we know for sure that Becerra will make the runoff \u2014 there\u2019s still a chance Steyer could sneak into the top two when all the ballots are counted<\/a>. But for those who said Becerra represents the status quo, play-it-safe, corporate-controlled leadership, remember this: It\u2019s been 150 years since California had a Latino governor \u2014 a Republican named Romualdo Pacheco<\/a> \u2014 as voters have chosen one white man after another to lead the state.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Of course Becerra isn\u2019t governor yet, but he\u2019ll be the odds-on favorite if he faces Republican Hilton in November.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s building a really broad-based, multi-ethnic middle-class coalition, said Mike Madrid, a Latino Republican political analyst who helped found the anti-Trump Lincoln Project. He noted that while Becerra attracted solid support from Latino voters, it was less than Antonio Villaraigosa did in 2018 when he ran a losing campaign for governor.<\/p>\n Madrid sees Becerra\u2019s success as drawing from elements of the historic coalition that has been slipping away from Democrats recently \u2014 working-class, noncollege-educated whites, among others.<\/p>\n \u201cSo there\u2019s something very different happening in the redefinition of Democratic politics in California,\u201d Madrid said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of a reemergence of this sort of FDR wing of the party. And it\u2019s not just an ethnic identity thing; it\u2019s really more of a middle-class identity thing. If there\u2019s an identity, it\u2019s no racial or ethnic anymore, it\u2019s class, which is fascinating.\u201d<\/p>\n If Becerra wins, he\u2019ll become a national figure \u2014 a Latino governor of a state often targeted by a president who has made demonizing, demoralizing and deporting immigrants a fundamental priority.<\/p>\n \u201cCalifornia is bigger than Trump. Our values are undeniable and undeportable,\u201d Becerra said to supporters on Tuesday night. \u201cTo the people and voters of California, this is your state: Este es tu estado. We will not be bought, we will not be bullied, and we are never backing down.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in a San Francisco congressional race with national implications, another candidate with an immigrant background had a successful night. Supervisor Connie Chan, with a major boost from Rep. Nancy Pelosi\u2019s late endorsement and solid union support, vaulted into second place in the 11th Congressional District with 29% of the vote. She\u2019ll face state Sen. Scott Wiener, who finished first with 41%.<\/p>\n Ironically, in her first election 39 years ago, Pelosi narrowly defeated openly gay Supervisor Harry Britt in a special election to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Rep. Sala Burton. Now, Wiener is hoping to be the city\u2019s first openly gay member of Congress. Pelosi\u2019s endorsement came with praise for Chan\u2019s immigrant background, being a mother and understanding budgets (Wiener also chaired the state Senate\u2019s budget committee) as reasons for her support. But some saw her determination to derail the candidacy of Saikat Chakrabarti, another Democrat she clashed with when he briefly worked for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Washington.<\/p>\n Now that she\u2019s accomplished that with Chakrabarti\u2019s distant third-place finish, it remains to be seen how much political capital she\u2019ll spend on what could be an uphill battle to defeat Wiener in November.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll wait for millions of remaining ballots to be counted before we know who will advance to November from the governor\u2019s race to local congressional elections. The state\u2019s top election official knows that can be frustrating, but she\u2019s undaunted.<\/p>\n \u201cI often hear, not only from the governor but from everyone else who (says) \u2018we want you to count faster, Shirley,\u2019\u201d Secretary of State Shirley Weber told KQED this week. \u201cNow what do you want? You want me to go fast, or do you want to be accurate? I choose accurate \u2014 (but) we\u2019ll be accurate and fast at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n Follow our election coverage as additional results come in<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.kqed.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/06\/260602-DISTRICT11CONNIECHAN-03-BL-KQED.jpg\")