California Gubernatorial Election - Villaraigosa And Becerra Early Favourites

Betting sites believe there are six viable candidates to win the 2026 California gubernatorial election – five of which are Democrats.

Antonio Villaraigosa and Xavier Becerra are the current frontrunners to succeed Gavin Newsom in the Golden State.

California has backed Democratic candidates for governor ever since Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger left office in 2011.

Residents will head to the polls on November 3, 2026 to vote for their next governor while also voting in the US midterm elections.

And betting apps are confident a Democrat will again take office, even though there’s one Republican outlier who could upset the odds.

California Gubernatorial Election Odds:

California Gubernatorial Election Betting:

The latest California election odds from William Hill clearly suggest a Democrat will win the race. 

However, the Dems will have to go through primary elections before discovering who will face their Republican counterpart.

And this opens the door for political betting sites to offer odds on more than one candidate.

A Democratic primary poll conducted in February 2025 revealed Katie Porter as the most popular choice, with former vice president Kamala Harris well backed in a hypothetical contest. 

Harris has since declined to run.

With so much to come before the election in November 2026, betting apps are naturally unwilling to throw their weight behind one candidate.

Yet there’s a clear consensus that a Democrat will win the California governorship. Here’s a quick breakdown of the six best-priced candidates.

Antonio Villaraigosa – Democrat

At 3/1, former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is one of the early frontrunners to win the seat. 

Villaraigosa is highly influential in the Democratic party and his political career in California stretches back to the mid-1990s.

No Californian mayor has ever succeeded in becoming state governor but, even at 72, Villaraigosa reckons he can do it. 

He lost out to Newsom in 2018 with just 13.2% of the primary vote. 

However, this time he’s likely to get more party support and has the name recognition from three decades in California politics to fall back on.

Xavier Becerra – Democrat

Xavier Becerra worked in Joe Biden’s administration as Health and Human Services Secretary. 

He’s also a former Attorney General of California. 

Those two positions alone give the 67-year-old an enviable network of supporters and potential donors for his gubernatorial campaign.

Becerra (3/1) announced his candidacy in April 2025 with a promise to “rebuild the California Dream”. 

Like Villaraigosa, Becerra has been in politics for decades and remains hugely influential in California.

At the federal level, he helped pass the Affordable Care Act and sued the first Trump administration more than 100 times. 

That could make him popular with Californians, 70% of whom disapprove of the president.

Katie Porter – Democrat

Katie Porter currently leads the handful of polls conducted on the California gubernatorial race. 

She’s narrowly behind Villaraigosa and Becerra at 7/2.

Porter is currently a member of the House of Representatives for California’s 47th district. 

Having served as a lawmaker since 2019, she has plenty of connections within the party and a record to point to. 

However, she failed to win the primary for California’s 2024 US Senate race. 

That was a blow to her political aspirations and arguably the reason she’s shifted focus to the state governorship now.

She says she’s running to “hold Trump accountable” and is certainly more media-savvy than her rivals in the primary.

Rick Caruso – Democrat

Rick Caruso lost the 2022 Los Angeles mayoral election and hasn’t yet confirmed if he’ll run for state governor. 

However, it looks likely that the former Republican will join the race.

Caruso’s billions couldn’t win him the LA mayoralty three years ago but it could help catapult him to the governorship.

He has the funds and reasonable name recognition required to challenge Porter and co. 

However, he risks looking out of touch by criticising his former opponent, the LA mayor Karen Bass, at a time when the city is fighting back against Trump’s ICE raids.

But if Caruso can pitch himself as a business-savvy outsider willing to go against the political establishment, he could carve a niche for himself and see his 10/1 odds drop.

Toni Atkins – Democrat

Another outside Democratic candidate at 10/1 is Toni Atkins, the former California State Senate President pro Tempore and ex-Speaker of the California State Assembly.

Atkins is a hard-nosed politician. She has strong name recognition and bedrock support within the LGBT community. 

She’s already begun campaigning and is popular in her home city of San Diego.

However, she’ll need to gain support from across California if she’s to rival the bigger candidates from Los Angeles.

Chad Bianco – Republican

Chad Bianco is the only Republican in the top six candidates to win the 2026 California gubernatorial election. 

Fellow Republican Steve Hilton is running too, but the bookies are yet to set a price on the political commentator.

Bianco is 20/1 to become California’s next governor. The Riverside County sheriff faces a monumental challenge to get elected.

His pitch is a commitment to do things differently from “those sitting in the Sacramento echo chamber”.

It’s fairly typical opposition politics but it rings true for many voters.

Bianco will have to get past Hilton in the GOP primaries first. If he does that then his odds to win the gubernatorial election will fall.

His endorsement of Trump and affiliation with the president’s politics won’t endear him to the left. 

But Bianco is hoping to gather enough right-wing support to tip him over the line.