Becerra Elected Governor as California Takes $1.4B for Broadband

SACRAMENTO & DIABLO VALLEY, Calif. — California’s executive transition and its federal regulatory posture came into sharp focus on Tuesday night, November 3, as the Associated Press called the 2026 gubernatorial election for Democrat Xavier Becerra over Republican Steve Hilton and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) formally accepted $1.4 billion in federal broadband funding while refusing to surrender the state’s net neutrality and affordability laws.

Associated Press Calls 2026 California Governor’s Race for Xavier Becerra

As reported by Patch and the Associated Press, California voters elected Xavier Becerra—the former California attorney general and former U.S. Health and Human Services secretary under President Joe Biden—to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, extending 16 years of Democratic leadership in Sacramento.

Becerra defeated Republican Steve Hilton, a former Fox News commentator and former political adviser to British Prime Minister David Cameron, in a state where approximately 90% of ballots in the 2022 gubernatorial election were cast early or by mail. Political scientists noted that Becerra will immediately confront fiscal pressures tied to California’s reliance on capital gains and technology sector income taxes: Matt Lesenyie, assistant professor of political science at California State University, Long Beach, pointed to October 29—when Google parent company Alphabet suffered its worst single-day stock drop in history—and warned that Becerra could find himself in "fiscal handcuffs with the budget" as he addresses housing affordability, healthcare, transportation, and federal relations.

California Accepts $1.4 Billion in Federal BEAD Broadband Funds While Challenging Terms

Even as voters chose the next governor, The Almanac and Mountain View Voice (via CalMatters, which partners with more than 130 local media outlets) reported that California became the last state to accept its $1.4 billion allocation from the federal Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program—created in 2021 to connect 270,000 unserved and underserved residents—while simultaneously challenging conditions updated 1 year ago by the Trump administration that would bar states from enforcing net neutrality or broadband affordability rules.

Open-internet advocacy group Public Knowledge estimates that surrendering California’s broadband protections could cost residents up to $16 billion through 2040. In a letter sent Monday alongside the signed award notice, CPUC President John Reynolds declared that the commission "cannot be bound by any terms or conditions that are unconstitutional or not authorized by law" and confirmed California will not distribute BEAD funds to providers such as Comcast, Pacific Bell, SpaceX, and Verizon until the dispute with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is resolved.

While NTIA spokesperson Stephen Yusko responded Tuesday that "no part of the letter outlining CPUC’s concerns is incorporated into or made part of the award," Governor Newsom spokesperson Anthony Martinez affirmed that "California’s laws, including our net neutrality protections, still stand," and Stanford University law professor Barbara van Schewick and California Democratic Party Rural Caucus member Phil Grosse of Sonoma County praised the CPUC for withholding carrier contracts until the legal conflict over emergency cellular backup power and equal connection speeds is settled.