Dem frontrunner Xavier Becerra leaned into his identity when asked what changes he would bring as California governor — but the exchange quickly grew awkward after he was asked to clarify his origin story.
The candidate suddenly broke into Spanish when he was asked by KCRA how he’d be different from his predecessor, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, if elected.
“That’s one of the biggest differences, actually, who I am and what I bring,” Becerra said in English after flexing his Spanish-speaking ability.
“If you want to know where a leader is going to take you, know where they’ve come from,” he elaborated further. “I don’t know if we’ve ever had a governor who comes from where I come from.”
The former Health and Human Services secretary seemed to be alluding to the fact that he’d be the first Latino elected governor in modern history. California is roughly 40% Latino.
But the reporter chimed in: “Sacramento?”
“Well I come from — born and raised in Sacramento, but I mean in terms of my roots, my background, son of immigrants, working-class family, parents who never had a chance to step into a college classroom,” Becerra clarified.
He then concludes his answer by saying, ultimately, what matters is that “I am my own person.”
The awkward moment, however, was seized upon by critics who had raised red flags over his family background. Becerra has portrayed his late father as an “immigrant” despite the father being born in Sacramento.
Becerra’s campaign has dismissed the criticisms and shared details of his father’s life, where the elder Becerra, who died in 2020, was born in Sacramento in 1928 as the eldest of eight children, according to an online obituary.
His family then moved back to Mexico when he was a child, living in Tijuana before he returned to California as a teen. Becerra’s mother was born in Mexico.
Becerra spokesperson Jonathan Underland said it’s not uncommon in immigrant families for individuals to temporarily move back to their parents’ home countries.
But conservative Latino activists and organizations have blasted Becerra over his repeated description of himself as the son of immigrants who arrived in the US with $12, with some even calling it “immigrant stolen valor.”
“That’s why he tried to act like his parents were from over there because he’s trying to pander to the Latinos,” Jesse Holguin, a former Los Angeles-area gang leader from La Puente, told The California Post. “He just thinks that’s gonna make him sound more Latino to them, and they’re gonna be like, ‘Oh yeah, he’s a real Latino, and he’s really for us.’”
Becerra is currently leading in the polls just a few days away from the November election.
A new poll by the Public Policy Institute of California has Becerra, with 61% of likely voters, dominating his Republican rival Steve Hilton, at 37%, by a 24-point margin. Hilton immigrated to the US from the United Kingdom.
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