Some candidates focused on expanding housing production, lowering prescription drug costs and protecting healthcare access, while others argued for cutting regulations, reducing taxes and scaling back the state's role in the economy.
Anchors and reporters across CBS LA, CBS Bay Area and CBS Sacramento led moderated discussions on topics including California's affordability crisis, the environment and social issues.
How to restore the "California Dream"
CBS LA anchor Pat Harvey opened Tuesday's debate by asking candidates what they'd do to restore the "California Dream" as prices soar and residents struggle to afford the rising cost of living.
Fellow Republican Bianco, the sheriff of Riverside County, said the state legislature's progressive agenda is "destroying California." He added that Democrats in the statehouse — where the party holds a supermajority — would have to work with him to carry out the mandate of voters if he's elected.
"It's not how I'm going to respond to them, it's how they're going to respond to me," Bianco said.
(L/R) Democratic candidate Tony Thurmond, Republican candidate Chad Bianco and Democratic candidate Tom Steyer participate in a California gubernatorial debate at Bridges Auditorium on the campus of Pomona College in Claremont, California, on April 28, 2026. The eight candidates for California governor are participating in the second televised debate, ahead of the June 2, 2026 primary elections. Patrick T. Fallon /AFP via Getty Images"We will build two million housing units using surplus property that school districts have in every single county in this state," Thurmond said. "And we will build two-point-three million units by the year 2030."
"We need to work to shorten and reduce the cost of permitting," he said. "We need to drop the cost of construction."
Katie Porter said that to meet the housing crisis, California has to build faster.
Becerra — who noted he worked on the Affordable Care Act when he served as California attorney general — said the first thing he would do in order to help protect California against future cuts to healthcare funding is "stop Donald Trump."
He then took a shot at Republican candidate Steve Hilton, referring to the president as Hilton's "daddy."
Hilton offered a sharp response to Becerra: "I think what you just saw there is actually what's wrong with our politics in California."
Bianco offered a different perspective, arguing that Californians shouldn't worry about what the federal government is doing.
Tackling California's gas prices, the highest in the nation
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan renewed a promise to suspend the gas tax in California as prices continue to skyrocket amid the war in Iran.
Meanwhile, former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said cutting the gas tax would upend the state's budget for infrastructure projects. He said he wants "everyone who is sitting here to drive on the roads, cross our bridges, make sure transit is working."
Becerra said he'd instead focus on building homes and lowering prescription drug prices.
"That war has driven up prices for everybody in California… and the cost to the oil companies has not gone up a penny," he said.
"What I said was that we should have the ability to outsource everything because we are under the thumb of the oil companies who are jacking up prices," Steyer responded when asked to clarify.
Watts noted that oil companies have pushed back against claims of price gouging.
Porter, Bianco spar over California's FAIR Plan
Bianco interrupted Porter's response and called the plan "single-payer."
Bianco then called the FAIR Plan a "failed environmental policy" that forced insurance companies to flee the state.
"There are ways that we can put California state dollars at play to bring down the cost of reinsurance, which would help more people come back into this market and write more affordable policies," she said.
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