Los Angeles (AP) – the former Health Minister of the Biden Administration, Xavier Becerra, was the youngest Democrat on Wednesday, who joined the overcrowded field to become the next governor of California.
The Stanford Law School graduate enters the race with a lengthy resume of the government service, including stints as a attorney in California, a US house member and a state legislator. In December 2020, Joe Biden, the then president, selected Becerra to head the Ministry of Health and Human Services, and put a defender of the Affordable Care Act in a leading role to monitor his government’s Coronavirus reaction.
In a strongly democratic state with punishment for residential and food prices as well as some of the country’s highest gas and supply costs, Becerra said that working families are exposed to an affordability crisis.
“The California dream slips away,” he said in a statement in which he announced his run.
The competition to replace the designated democratic governor Gavin Newsom has already triggered a huge scrum of announced and probably redesigned candidates when Harris decides to look for the state’s top office. Harris, a former Attorney General and US Senator, has not ruled out the governor since a failed presidential offer since she left Washington in January.
The Democrats are expected to keep the seat in a state in which they are inferior to almost 2 to 1 over the registered Republicans. The Republicans have not won a nationwide election in California for almost two decades.
In a statement, Becerra mentioned none of his democratic rivals, to which the former US House member Katie Porter, former mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, and Lt. -Gouvener Eleni Kounalakis belonged.
On the GOP page, the sheriff of Riverside County, Chad Bianco, was the first great Republican in February to announce an offer for the replacement of Newsom, whose term of office runs in early January 2027. Bianco accused Democrats for the ongoing homeless crisis and the out of control.
The reserved Becerra said that he was ready to “take against bullies who are in our way”, an obvious reference to President Donald Trump.
When Becerra worked as a Attorney General in California in the first term of office, he developed the reputation of suing the Republican administration more than any other in questions of health care up to environmental policy.
While Becerra led the Federal Health Authority during the pandemic, California introduced long closures that were to blame for the disorder of education and business. That could make him a goal for conservatives.
Becerra often quotes his parents of the working class as inspiration. His mother was born in Jalisco, Mexico, and emigrated to the USA after having married his father, a native of Sacramento, California, who had grown up in Mexico.
“My parents came to California with $ 12 in my pocket. They built a life that they were proud of,” said Becerra. “This is the promise of California, and I will fight to ensure that it is still within reach for everyone.”
