California Governor
Tue, Nov 3 · Governor Gavin Newsom Democratic since Jan 2019 (not a candidate in 2026)
Xavier Becerra 57.6Steve Hilton 33.4
Average of 4 polls, Oct 9 to Oct 25, from VoteHub · how it’s calculated
Newest poll
Newest · UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, field dates Oct 19 to Oct 25, released Oct 30, 1,477 likely votersPoll sponsored by Los Angeles TimesPolls fetched Oct 30, 2:02 a.m. ET, from VoteHub
Polls over time
9 polls, through Election Day Nov 3The thick line is the 7-week average, not a forecast. How it’s calculated. All polls. Polls fetched Oct 30, 2:02 a.m. ET, from VoteHub.
The polls in this chart (9)
4 polls released in the last 14 days · latest results range from 54 to 61% (D) and 32 to 36% (R) (newest 5 polls on the chart)
9 of the 9 polls for this race, each with both names, plotted on the field end date.
| Pollster | Field dates | Released | Sample | Becerra | Hilton |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies | Oct 19 to Oct 25 | Oct 30 | 1,477 likely voters | 61 | 34 |
| SurveyUSA | Oct 19 to Oct 24 | Oct 27 | 799 likely voters | 54 | 32 |
| Emerson College | Oct 17 to Oct 19 | Oct 21 | 1,000 likely voters | 60.3 | 32.6 |
| University of California Berkeley Jack Citrin Center for Public Opinion Research/Verasight/TrueDot | Oct 9 to Oct 14 | Oct 21 | 909 likely voters | 55 | 35 |
| UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies | Sep 15 to Sep 20 | Sep 24 | 4,512 likely voters | 58 | 33 |
| SurveyUSA | Sep 15 to Sep 20 | Sep 22 | 742 likely voters | 55 | 33 |
| University of California Berkeley Jack Citrin Center for Public Opinion Research/Verasight/TrueDot | Sep 11 to Sep 16 | Sep 25 | 1,983 likely voters | 54 | 36 |
| UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies | Aug 3 to Aug 9 | Aug 13 | 2,310 likely voters | 55 | 37 |
| Kreate Strategies | Jun 13 to Jun 17 | Jun 18 | 900 likely voters | 58 | 33 |
Side by side
Left column: BecerraRight column: Hilton
- Age on Election Day
- 68
- Not available
How these are counted
What changed in this race
Newest firstNEW POLLCalifornia Governor
California Governor: Xavier Becerra 61, Steve Hilton 34
UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, Oct 19 to Oct 25, 1,477 likely voters
NEW POLLCalifornia Governor
California Governor: Xavier Becerra 54, Steve Hilton 32
SurveyUSA, Oct 19 to Oct 24, 799 likely voters
More about this race
Candidates on the ballot
- Xavier BecerraDemocraticVoting Rights Attorney
- Steve HiltonRepublicanSmall Business Owner
Source: elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov (PDF), dated Aug 27
Vote in California
Trouble voting? Election Protection hotline: 866-OUR-VOTE. A nonpartisan coalition of civil-rights and voting-rights groups, not a government service. 866ourvote.org
Official results for California
History (6 elections for this seat)
- Votes for listed candidates
- 10,933,018
- Election day
- November 8, 2022
Governor, California, 2022, every candidate Candidate Party Votes and share Share DemocraticGavin NewsomWon(incumbent) Democratic 6,470,10459.2% RepublicanBrian Dahle Republican 4,462,91440.8% - Votes for listed candidates
- 12,464,235
- Election day
- November 6, 2018
Governor, California, 2018, every candidate Candidate Party Votes and share Share DemocraticGavin NewsomWon Democratic 7,721,41061.9% RepublicanJohn H. Cox Republican 4,742,82538.1% - Votes for listed candidates
- 7,317,581
- Election day
- November 4, 2014
Governor, California, 2014, every candidate Candidate Party Votes and share Share DemocraticJerry Brown Jr.Won(incumbent) Democratic 4,388,36860.0% RepublicanNeel Kashkari Republican 2,929,21340.0% - Votes for listed candidates
- 10,095,185
- Election day
- November 2, 2010
Governor, California, 2010, every candidate Candidate Party Votes and share Share DemocraticJerry Brown Jr.Won Democratic 5,428,14953.8% RepublicanMeg Whitman Republican 4,127,39140.9% OtherChelene Nightingale American Independent 166,3121.6% LibertarianDale F. Ogden Libertarian 150,8951.5% GreenLaura Wells Green 129,2241.3% OtherCarlos Alvarez Peace and Freedom 92,8510.9% Scattered write-ins 3630.0% - Votes for listed candidates
- 8,679,416
- Election day
- November 7, 2006
Governor, California, 2006, every candidate Candidate Party Votes and share Share RepublicanArnold SchwarzeneggerWon Republican 4,850,15755.9% DemocraticPhil Angelides Democratic 3,376,73238.9% GreenPeter Miguel Camejo Green 205,9952.4% LibertarianArt Olivier Libertarian 114,3291.3% OtherJanice Ellen Jordan Peace and Freedom 69,9340.8% OtherEdward C. Noonan American Independent 61,9010.7% Scattered write-ins 3680.0% - Votes for listed candidates
- 7,476,311
- Election day
- November 5, 2002
Governor, California, 2002, every candidate Candidate Party Votes and share Share DemocraticGray DavisWon Democratic 3,533,49047.3% RepublicanBill Simon Republican 3,169,80142.4% GreenPeter Miguel Camejo Green 393,0365.3% LibertarianGary David Copeland Libertarian 161,2032.2% OtherReinhold Gulke Ai 128,0351.7% OtherIris Adam Nl 88,4151.2% Scattered write-ins 2,3310.0%
2002 to 2022: Cha, Kuriwaki and Snyder, Candidates in American General Elections, version 3.1 (2006-2023 governor rows), retrieved Oct 28, 2026. Compiled by Cha, Kuriwaki and Snyder (Harvard Dataverse) from official returns; not an official source
Governor races before 2002 are not on file.
Data notes (13)
- Source priority per race: (1) a state election office's own certified results parsed in scripts/data/gov_results.py (NJ Division of Elections PDFs, Virginia Department of Elections, the Civera ElectionStats databases run by CT, VA, VT, CO, NY, NM and SC, the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, the NC State Board of Elections archive); (2) the open Cha/Kuriwaki/Snyder 'Candidates in American General Elections' file (Harvard Dataverse, CC0), which copies each state's statement of vote; (3) OpenElections county files and the 2020 Dataverse official-results tables, used only to add named candidates the Dataverse file omitted and to add the write-in count; (4) MEDSL precinct sums, used the same way and only when their Democratic and Republican totals agree with the Dataverse rows to 0.3 percent. Each race's source is listed in web/data/sources/gov-results.json.
- total is the sum of the candidate rows in the file, and pct is votes divided by that total, rounded to one decimal. Blank, void, over and under votes are never in total. Write-in votes are in total as a 'Write-ins' row (writein: true) wherever a source reports them: the official databases, OpenElections, and MEDSL precinct returns. The Dataverse file leaves write-ins out, so MEDSL's write-in sum is added when MEDSL's count for every named candidate equals the Dataverse count exactly (for example AK 2022, 784 write-ins, and AL 2022, 9,432, both matching the state's statement of vote). Each race's source ids are in the race's source and sourceAlso fields and in the gov-results-<st> entry of sources.json.
- 151 races not taken from a state's own results file have no write-in row. Either the state counted no write-ins, or the sources on file leave them out (MEDSL's precinct sums did not match every named candidate exactly, or MEDSL has no file for that year); where they were left out, total is short by the write-ins and pct can run slightly above the state's printed percentage: AK 2006, AK 2010, AK 2014, AL 2006, AL 2010, AL 2014, AL 2018, AR 2006, AR 2014, AR 2018, AR 2022, AZ 2002, AZ 2014, AZ 2022, CA 2014, CA 2018, CA 2022, DE 2008, DE 2012, DE 2016, DE 2020, DE 2024, GA 2014, GA 2018, HI 2006, HI 2010, HI 2014, HI 2018, HI 2022, IA 2006, IA 2010, IA 2014, ID 1998, ID 2006, ID 2010, ID 2022, IL 2010, IL 2014, IL 2018, IN 2004, IN 2008, IN 2012, IN 2016, IN 2020, KS 2006, KS 2010, KS 2014, KS 2018, KS 2022, KY 2007, KY 2011, KY 2015, KY 2019, LA 2007, LA 2011, LA 2015, LA 2019, LA 2023, MD 2006, MD 2014, MD 2022, ME 2006, ME 2010, ME 2014, ME 2022, MI 2006, MI 2010, MI 2014, MI 2022, MN 2006, MN 2010, MN 2014, MO 2020, MS 2007, MS 2011, MS 2015, MS 2019, MS 2023, MT 2000, MT 2004, MT 2008, MT 2012, MT 2016, MT 2020, MT 2024, ND 2008, NE 2006, NE 2010, NE 2014, NE 2018, NE 2022, NH 2008, NH 2010, NH 2012, NH 2014, NH 2024, NM 2010, NV 2006, NV 2010, NV 2014, NV 2018, NV 2022, OH 2014, OH 2018, OK 2006, OK 2010, OK 2014, OK 2018, OK 2022, OR 2006, OR 2010, OR 2014, OR 2018, OR 2022, PA 2002, PA 2006, PA 2010, PA 2014, PA 2018, PA 2022, RI 2006, RI 2010, RI 2014, SC 2006, SD 2006, SD 2010, SD 2014, SD 2018, SD 2022, TX 2014, TX 2018, TX 2022, UT 2008, UT 2010, UT 2012, UT 2020, WA 2008, WA 2012, WA 2016, WI 2006, WI 2010, WI 2014, WI 2018, WV 2008, WV 2011, WV 2012, WV 2016, WV 2020, WV 2024, WY 2002, WY 2006.
- party is D, R, I, L, G, O or N from the party label in the source; party_label keeps the source's wording. The Dataverse file prints short labels (Lbt, Grn, Const, DFL, NPA); those are expanded to Libertarian, Green, Constitution, Democratic-Farmer-Labor and No Party Affiliation. Fusion candidates (NY, CT, SC, and the Democratic-Progressive line in VT) are one candidate with all of their ballot lines added together.
- Names: the Dataverse file stores 'LAST, FIRST MIDDLE (NICKNAME), SUFFIX'; the display name uses the nickname when there is one (Josh Shapiro, Bob Riley) and otherwise the given names. All-caps source names were title-cased by rule and can be wrong for internal capitals (DiGiulio, DeWine). Official lists that print only surnames (NJ 1997; MA tickets from 2010 on) take the full name from the Dataverse row of the same race where the surname and party match, otherwise stay surname-only.
- incumbent is true or false only for races built from the Dataverse file (it carries an incumbency code; code 3, a governor who succeeded to the office, is treated as incumbent). It is null for official-source races and for candidates added from OpenElections or MEDSL.
- Louisiana uses an open primary with a runoff. One race per election is stored: the round that decided it (the October primary when someone won more than 50 percent, otherwise the November runoff, marked runoff:true). Exact dates for those rounds come from the Dataverse/official files where present and are set in the script otherwise (LA_DATES); check them before showing a date.
- Recall elections (Wisconsin June 2012, California September 2021) are not included. Only regular and special general elections for the office are stored; primaries and runoff primaries are not.
- scripts/data/federal_results.py, if it is re-run, rewrites every web/data/results/governor/{ST}.json to []. Run scripts/data/gov_results.py after it, or remove build_governor() from that script.
- CA: No governor general-election result in this file for 3 of 9 expected election years between 1990 and 2025: 1990, 1994, 1998. No open or official bulk source was found and parsed for them yet; they are gaps, not zeroes.
- Candidate name is the sitting governor's officials-file spelling for 16 rows (the race's winner, same state, race within the governor's tenure, same surname and a compatible first name). Text encoding and casing are repaired by scripts/data/names.py.
- Governor races earlier than the first year listed are not loaded yet for 50 states (AK from 2006; AL from 2006; AR from 2002; AZ from 2002; CA from 2002; CO from 1990; CT from 1990; DE from 2008; FL from 1990; GA from 2002; HI from 2006; IA from 2002; ID from 1994; IL from 2006; IN from 2004; KS from 2006; KY from 2007; LA from 2007; MA from 1990; MD from 2006; ME from 2006; MI from 2006; MN from 2006; MO from 2008; MS from 2007; MT from 2000; NC from 1992; ND from 2008; NE from 2006; NH from 2006; NJ from 1993; NM from 2002; NV from 2006; NY from 1994; OH from 2002; OK from 2006; OR from 2006; PA from 2002; RI from 2006; SC from 2006; SD from 2006; TN from 2002; TX from 1994; UT from 2008; VA from 1993; VT from 1990; WA from 2008; WI from 2006; WV from 2000; WY from 2002). The sources on file start later; nothing was filled in from memory. Each governor page says so under History.
- 1 duplicate candidate rows merged: a 0-vote placeholder row beside the real row is dropped. governor/CO 2022 Paul Noël Fiorino
Download and cite
Cite this page
Election Wrld. (2026). Governor of California. https://www.electionwrld.com/ca/governor. Retrieved October 30, 2026.
Sources
Sources: Wikidata SPARQL (governor position holders, party) (CC0-1.0), retrieved Oct 28, 2026, compiled by the Wikidata community (not an official source; to be cross-checked against official governor pages) from official returns, not an official source; 3 U.S.C. 1, 2 U.S.C. 1 and 7: Election Day, first Tuesday after the first Monday in November (US government work, public domain), retrieved Oct 28, 2026; Cha, Kuriwaki and Snyder, Candidates in American General Elections, version 3.1 (2006-2023 governor rows) (CC0 1.0), retrieved Oct 28, 2026, compiled by Cha, Kuriwaki and Snyder (Harvard Dataverse) from official returns, not an official source; Cha, Kuriwaki and Snyder, Candidates in American General Elections, version 4.1 (2024 governor rows) (CC0 1.0), retrieved Oct 28, 2026, compiled by Cha, Kuriwaki and Snyder (Harvard Dataverse) from official returns, not an official source; OpenElections state results repositories (github.com/openelections/openelections-data-<st>) (No license is stated in the OpenElections repositories. OpenElections says its data is free for anyone to use. Written permission requested (docs/PERMISSION-REQUESTS.md). No CC0 claim.), retrieved Oct 28, 2026, compiled by OpenElections volunteers from official returns, not an official source.
DataState data (JSON)Sources: Cha, Kuriwaki and Snyder, Candidates in American General Elections, version 3.1 (2006-2023 governor rows), VoteHub polls (CC BY 4.0), Photo creditsData as of Oct 28, 2026