Tech money spent a fortune in the primary — and a new account of how it organized says most of it backed people who lost. This is the California Governor's Race for Tuesday, June 16th. The bracket's certified, it's Becerra versus Hilton — and today we're following the Silicon Valley dollars that got there first. And there's a whole donor class that's politically homeless this morning. Let's start with the Signal chats. The LavX piece gives us the first sourced look at how tech money organized against the billionaire tax — secret Signal chats, actual coordination, millions spent. And they lost. That's the part I can't get over — organized, funded, documented, and backing losing horses up and down the primary ballot. That takes us straight to the donor map. Some of these are the same networks that spent in the primary — so let's name the candidates they backed and how those bets landed. They landed face-down. So now I want CAL-ACCESS every night, because that money hasn't re-filed yet and it has to go somewhere by November. Here's the part nobody filed cleanly: AP called Becerra second place on June 5th, Hilton not until June 10th. Five days. And in that gap, the conventional wisdom hardened into Becerra-inevitable before second place was even decided. Exactly. The Emerson and Berkeley IGS split was flashing all week, and everyone wrote the obituary early anyway. Put that next to the FPPC number — $50.8 million spent specifically to oppose Steyer. The LavX reporting makes that figure legible instead of just large. Pull up the CBS News and San Francisco Examiner debate from May 15th — the last time all seven were on one stage. That transcript is now a document of a race that doesn't exist anymore. Pull what Hilton and Becerra each said on the billionaire tax that night. The LavX piece just turned that into the live wire of the general. Put May up against June. Hilton's whole anti-Sacramento pitch runs straight into one yes-or-no — would he sign a wealth tax or kill it? And now we've got receipts on who's funding which answer. The BBC interview made him look like a legitimacy play — the Signal-chat backstory complicates who's actually in the room. So watch where Hilton does his next press — after the wire call, with a documented tech coalition standing behind candidates he beat. That's where we leave it today. LiveNOW from FOX, with Andy Mac:
Xavier Becerra and Steve Hilton have both advanced to the November 2026 general election in the race for California Governor. This comes as the Associated Press projected Hilton to finish second and take the second and final spot in the Nov. 2026 ballot. Becerra was projected to advance on June 5.
It's certified. AP projected Becerra on June 5th, Hilton on the 10th, and that closes the bracket — Democrat versus Republican, the matchup CalMatters called weeks ago. But sit with that five-day gap, Sarah. Everybody locked in Becerra-inevitable on June 5th — and second place wasn't even decided until the 10th. That's the story nobody filed. And Steyer — billionaire, two-time presidential candidate — finishes third and he's out. Third by a hair, per the AP. A guy who can self-fund forever, eliminated. The money didn't buy the bracket. We'll see who it does buy in November. LavX News writes:
Tech titans organized in secret Signal chats, backed losing candidates, and spent millions trying to kill a wealth tax. The effort exposed their inexperience in politics. A coalition of California's wealthiest tech executives spent eight months trying to stop a proposed 5% tax on their net worth. They organized secret chats, backed political candidates, and poured money into new PACs. Their efforts failed at nearly every turn.
Sergey Brin, Marc Andreessen, Garry Tan, Patrick Collison — all in one Signal chat, and somebody floats just buying the union's signature-collecting company outright. Eight months, millions spent, and they lost at nearly every turn. For once, we have a sourced account of how tech money actually organized this cycle. Not inference, not a vibe — names in a chat that, per LavX, read like a Forbes list. And the part that matters for November: this money backed losing candidates in the primary. So there's now a documented donor class that's politically homeless. CAL-ACCESS should start showing where those dollars reroute. Which complicates the Hilton picture from the segment we just hit. He's now the certified Republican on the ballot — and these are some of the networks that spent against his rivals. Now watch which room he ends up in. Right, because Hilton's whole pitch is anti-Sacramento, common-sense overhaul. The wealth tax is on the November ballot. Does he sign it or kill it? That's the first real policy fight with receipts attached. And remember the scale here — SEIU United Healthcare Workers West pulled 1.6 million signatures, nearly double what they needed. The tech coalition wasn't fighting a fringe measure. They were losing to a well-organized one. Here's what KPIX, CBS News Bay Area, is reporting. Go back to that CBS California and San Francisco Examiner debate from May 15th — seven candidates, Julia Morgan Ballroom. Watch it now and it's a document of a race that doesn't exist anymore. Seven on that stage. Two survived. That transcript is the baseline — everything Becerra and Hilton said on the record before they knew who'd be standing next to them in November. And it's the immigration and homelessness exchanges that age the fastest. What Hilton said with five rivals crowding the wings versus what he's saying now, alone, with a general-election audience — I want that before-and-after, line by line. The one I want is the billionaire-tax moment. After that LavX piece we just hit — secret Signal chats, tech money torching millions to kill the wealth tax — whatever Hilton said on that stage in May is suddenly a live wire. Does he sign it or kill it? The receipts are out now. And Becerra in the same frame. He had to perform for a primary electorate that included Steyer and the progressives. Now the field's collapsed to him and Hilton. The debate tape is the cleanest record of who he was pretending to be. Pretending is generous. It's the only stage all seven shared — May 15th is the last time you can measure them against each other instead of against the spin they're running this week. If you’re following the California governor’s race with us, make sure you’re subscribed wherever you’re listening. And if you have a moment, leave a review — it really helps other listeners find the show.
Next, we're watching November 2026, when California voters decide the governor’s race between Xavier Becerra and Steve Hilton. Also on the November ballot: the Billionaire Tax Act, after SEIU United Healthcare Workers West qualified the measure.
We’ve put links to every story in the show notes, so if one caught your ear, you can dig in there. That’s it for California Governor’s Race today. This is a Lantern Podcast.