The Daily Signal - The California Governor Debate: “The Democrats Had No Solutions” | Drew Allen

Episode Date: April 24, 2026

The California gubernatorial debate went exactly how you would expect. Democrats deflecting blame and re-running the same tired talking points instead of offering real solutions to California’s mounting list of problems. Climate sermons from private jet flyers, tax the rich rhetoric from billionaires, and homelessness solutions from leaders of failed cities who still think more government is the answer, all while blaming Donald Trump for nearly everything. And not a SINGLE mention of the rampant fraud in the state from the Democrats.  Yet another reminder of why so many voters feel frustrated with the direction of the state. 👉For more videos like this, subscribe to The Daily Signal’s YouTube channel and enable notifications to be alerted the second a new video drops: https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sky 7 over the scene of what police are now calling a double homicide. For the first time California Governor Gavin Newsom is publicly acknowledged that he is open to a run for the White House. In L.A., homeless has jumped 16% in a year. Half of Americans living on the streets are in California. Well, I dutifully tuned into the gubernatorial debate in California last night, April 22nd, 2026. and there were no real surprises. It was a showcase of the ineptitude of the left and the Democrat Party and not a single one of the candidates on that there were four Democrat candidates and two Republicans,

and the Democrats had no solutions, which wasn't surprising, which wasn't surprising. I guess one takeaway is that the, Democrat field is so, it was weaker and even more pathetic than I even knew or imagined. Matt Mayhan was a disaster in San Jose. San Jose is a disaster. But because California is so bad, even a terribly run city like San Jose, which Matt Mayhan was the mayor of, you know, somehow that makes him look good. So, you know, I mean, that's what the Democrats are working with. And there was no consensus about who the best candidate would be.

I mean, Matt Mayhan certainly sounded like the least radical of the candidates. But that's not saying much again. He's still radical. But what I did take away was some nicknames for the Democrat candidates. We did learn a lot about them. Tom Steyer, I mean, he's the self-styled anti-billionaire billionaire. and he was asked a question at one point about being a billionaire, et cetera. You know, what's stopping you from paying more taxes?

You want to tax the rich? Why don't you do that? Well, well, you know what I mean? It doesn't do anything if I'm the only one that, you know, pays into it. That doesn't solve the problem. If one billionaire, we got to get my... I think that Tom Steyer is probably the worst candidate, Democrat candidate running, which again is saying something because they all are horrific.

I think Tom Steyer is even worse than Bacera. There's just no self-awareness whatsoever with Tom Steyer. I mean, he's trying to be something that he's not. I mean, you know, Donald Trump, in contrast, is a billionaire and owned it. He was proud of his success, but, you know, Tom Steyer can't make up his mind because, of course, he made his billions

in a capitalist system off of oil and gas. And now he runs against those things. But he made his money off of it. And now, of course, the reason he's positioned himself against oil and gases, because now he's got companies that make money off of the green new scam. So now he's working the other angle. So he's just tone-tef, tone-deaf. He's really cringe-inducing to watch him try and do this.

Do you go in these communities? I mean, the guy's totally out of touch. He can't relate to anybody. and he is one of the most radical candidates on there. I mean, his whole shtick is, I'm the most progressive candidate. I'm the most progressive candidate. We're the most progressive state, which is why this state sucks so bad. And he's trying to run further left than Gavin Newsom's reign of terror over the last, you know, two terms.

So he's the self-styled anti-billionaire billionaire. Katie Porter, she's the climate alarmist, I'm calling her. She was asked about, you know, should we cut the gas tax? They're all asked that. And, you know, she launched into a climate sermon saying, we don't breathe clean air. So that's Katie Porter. And then Matt Mayhan. And by the way, Katie Porter is proud to be poor.

I mean, that's kind of her stick as well. If you have Tom Steyer, who's the self-professed anti-billionaire billionaire billionaire, you know, Katie Porter's the I'm poor and proud of it kind of thing. Matt Mayhan, I mean, he's the San Jose, you know, used car salesman, the San Jose success salesman. Every time he's asked a question, it's about his record in San Jose. You know, look, San Jose is the model for California. So imagine if San Jose was the model for the country. Woo, we'd be in bad shape. But again, it's California.

So he's the San Jose guy. I've got San Jose mayoral experience. look how wonderful San Jose is. I can do the same for California. No, thanks. I don't live in San Jose for a reason, Matt. Then you got Xavier Bacera. He's the experience candidate.

And every time he was asked a question, he talked about how he has experience. You know, he'd say things like, well, Steve Hilton's never run the government before. He's never worked for the government. Yeah, that's fantastic. I mean, that's why we elected Trump, too. You know, he hadn't worked in the government.

That's what we wanted. an outsider. So, you know, it's funny, the lack of, again, self-awareness, Bacera's running like him being the establishment, you know, Sacramento swamp creature, that that's something to be proud of. And I don't think these people, any of them, can really read the room. I mean, California are fed up with this stuff. And, you know, all we got from the Democrat candidates to one degree or another,

it was just a script of blame, you know, calls for more subsidies, more government expansion. It was clear the divide because the two candidates, obviously, the Republicans, both Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton, they made it clear that government was the problem. And on the other side, with all four of the Democrats, it was clear that they believed that government is the solution. and in most cases, they refuse to acknowledge that the government was responsible for any of the problems in the state. And if they did acknowledge it was a problem, they had no solution except the same failed solution. But on the gas tax, Tom Steyer, you know, blame the war in Iran. Incredible.

Prices aren't, have always been above the national average in California because of the, regulatory policies, refineries that have left, the fact that we don't even use our own oil in the state, we ship it in from, you know, the Middle East. And, you know, Steve Hilton did a good job of pointing that out. But blame the war in Iran, which is just like offensive, insulting to someone's intelligence. Katie Porter, again, climate sermon. Matt Mayhand was the only one that acknowledged that the gas tax is regressive. He said he would suspend it because that's what they're all asked. Would you suspend the gas tax to give relief to California families? And Matt Mayhan, you know, he, to his credit, said, yeah, he would suspend it.

But then he pivoted. He couldn't get out of his leftism. He pivoted to this class warfare theme about making corporations and, you know, the wealthy bear more of the burden on that. They were talked, you know, they talked about this electric vehicle mileage tax as well. You know, Xavier Bessera, he fixated on potholes. You know, I mean, people don't want to run over potholes in this state. We can't cut the gas tax. And then he blamed Donald Trump.

This was Bacera also. Bacera was the quintessence. I mean, he blamed Trump every time. I mean, they all did to some degree as well. But Bacera, every time he's asked a question, it had nothing to do with Trump. He had to say something about, you know, it being Donald Trump's fault. You know, they all try to position themselves as the anti-Trump candidates. And by the way, you know, Trump's going to be out of office.

And you're serving a four-year term as governor. So Trump's not going to be in office. So, you know, what are you running against for the? that section of time, too. It's just so crazy. But Bissar also mistakenly cited the war in Iraq instead of Iran. He said Iraq. But he offered no actual solution.

He fell back on his experience. So, you know, only Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton spoke plainly to work in Californians. They both pointed out the truth that the regulatory policies have crippled the oil and auto industries. And they pointed out the fraud, you know. the money that we're paying for the gas tax anyway, there's no visible signs of it helping the California residents anyway. Why don't we deal with a fraud? And no Democrat had anything to say about the fraud in the state or solving that.

You know, I think it was Chad Bianco that nailed the core problem that said that Sacramento doesn't have a revenue shortage. It has a reckless spending addiction. And so, you know, this defined every single issue on homelessness. I mean, it was unbelievable. that they asked him to grade Gavin Newsom on his job with homelessness. And obviously, despite spending, you know, more than $20 billion since 2019 to solve homelessness, we have more homelessness today than we did when Gavin Newsom came into office, 180,000 people.

You know, Mahan, you know, cited his San Jose model, the San Jose salesman. Porter gave a B and hilariously called herself a notoriously hard grader. It's just a housing problem, she kept saying. People are homeless just because there aren't enough houses. that's that's not why they're homeless they can't even diagnose the root cause it reminds me of kamla harris going down to the border what's the root cause of the open border i don't know the open no no we got to figure it out it's because other places it's climate change or something that's forcing them here that's the root cause what and so katie porter can't figure it out either that it's

drugs other policies people can't read and write in the state people don't have opportunity so that leads to homeless it's not because there aren't enough houses although we do need houses But there was another shocking moment where they were showed a video of this CHP, California Highway Patrol person that was giving the English proficiency test to somebody who on the side of a road. And obviously the individual, the man in the video, couldn't speak English, couldn't identify the signs. And every Democrat seemed to suggest effectively. I mean, they basically don't care.

They don't care. I mean, they're the open border crowd. They don't think that speaking English is relevant to, you know, sustaining a sovereign country and obviously, you know, a state that's part of that. But it was just amazing. The clear consensus, again, you know, the Democrats, their solutions, more regulation, more subsidies, more taxes on the wealthy, more government intervention.

That's the answer to every challenge. Steyer positions himself as the change agent. you know, while dodging how much more he should pay in taxes. And again, that was just so incredible. That was just incredible. No, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, what's stopping you from giving money your money? Well, you know, my wife and I've talked about this.

We're going to give all our billions away one day. Okay, but yeah, you say, you know, tax the billionaire. So what's stopping you from donating to, you know, Sacramento, putting the defun? Well, you know, I mean, that's not going to change anything. Okay. But, you know, Bacera was kind of the most, I don't know, it was kind of a toss-up between Tom Steyer and Bacera because Bacera repeatedly boasted about his experience fighting crises. But it ranks so hollow because anybody who knows Bacera's history knows that as California Attorney General, he targeted pro-life activists and pregnancy centers. He spent his whole tenure as AG just trying to fight the Trump administration, weaponizing.

You know, his position. And then his HHS secretary under Biden, I mean, he lost contact with over 85,000 unaccompanied migrant children. You know, he was invisible during the COVID response, during monkeypox. And of course, his own chief of staff alluded his dormant campaign fund to the tune of $225,000. And he said, it was outside of my vision. Everything's outside of this guy's vision.

So this guy's the experience guy, but his experience shows that he's not qualified. So, you know, I watched that debate, and it's clear that after 16 years of one-party rule, it's time for change. It wasn't evident before. It was certainly evident after. And the Democrats offered no solutions. And the choice is really clear for Californians, I think. I mean, in the June two top two primary, you can double down on the familiar path of excuses of endless subsidies and green virtue signaling, or you consider the alternative, which is something different, spending discipline, regulatory

restraint, common sense, honest accountability to results, and that would certainly deliver a better outcome. So Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton were both impressive. They were the only voices on stage that were willing to name the issues we face and clearly articulate the problems, which is Democrats in Sacramento, and also to articulate solutions, which they did really well. So, you know, Californians, we've all lived through the consequences of this 16-year hell under Democrat rule. So now we get to decide whether fantasy or reality is going to guide the state's next chapter. And that's what we saw on stage. We saw fantasy land with the Democrats and then reality with Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton. So Californians have a chance to think different. They have a

chance to vote different. It's a really unique opportunity. And if we squander it, you know, things are going to get even worse, if you can believe it or not in California. But the cycle of failure doesn't need to be permanent. This is Drew Allen with the Daily Signal. Thank you.