Xavier Becerra Wins First Place in California Governor Race

Xavier Becerra has won first place in California's primary election for governor. The Democrat used to be the U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary. He will compete against one other person in November's final election. California voters chose him over many other candidates who wanted the job.

California uses a special voting system for primary elections. The two people who get the most votes move on to the final election in November. Right now, only Becerra has been declared a winner. Officials are still counting votes to see who will come in second place.

The race was very close all week long. Becerra competed against Republican Steve Hilton and Democrat Tom Steyer. Steyer is a billionaire who cares about protecting the environment. All three candidates stayed close in the vote count as more ballots were counted.

At first, Hilton was winning the most votes. This continued until Friday when new ballot counts came in. That's when Becerra moved into first place. He got a big boost in April when another politician named Eric Swalwell dropped out of the race.

The cost of living was the biggest issue in this campaign. A recent poll found that 70% of California voters think living costs are too high where they live. The same poll showed that only 7% of voters believe the 'California Dream' is still possible today. Most people don't think they can achieve success in California anymore because everything costs so much money.