California’s average gas price crossed $6 a gallon this week, and the state’s wide-open governor’s race just became a referendum on who is responsible for the pain.
During the May 5 CNN debate, Democrats on stage did what California Democrats always do: they pointed the finger at Washington. Xavier Becerra and other Democratic candidates blamed President Donald Trump and the Iran conflict for soaring pump prices. It is a tidy explanation. It is also missing the most obvious fact in the room.
Steve Hilton supplied it.
🚨 WOW! California Gubernatorial Candidate Steve Hilton (R) just CALLED OUT Democrat candidates to their FACES for blaming CA's high cost of living on TRUMP
"Donald Trump is the president in ALL the other states of America, where the cost of living is WAY LOWER than in… pic.twitter.com/rjc7fkN4Ve
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) May 6, 2026
Hilton’s point is not complicated, which is exactly why it landed. President Trump is president everywhere. Texans are not paying $6 a gallon. Floridians are not paying $6 a gallon. The national average is nowhere near $6 a gallon. If the White House were the variable, the price would be the same coast to coast. It is not. The variable is Sacramento.
The Associated Press reported on the debate, which took place while Californians were already receiving and returning mail ballots ahead of the June 2 top-two primary.
The sprawling field included well-known Democrats, Republicans, and independents competing to replace Governor Gavin Newsom, and the evening quickly centered on the pressure voters feel from housing, energy, and daily expenses. Gas prices became the cleanest flash point. California’s statewide average had crossed $6 per gallon, a figure tied to AAA data, giving the candidates a specific number to fight over instead of another abstract complaint about affordability. Xavier Becerra and other Democrats pointed at President Trump and the Iran war as reasons prices were rising. Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco rejected that explanation, arguing that California’s prices have been far higher than the rest of the country for years. Hilton’s rebuttal was direct: President Trump is also president in the other states, where the cost of living and pump prices are lower than California. The exchange turned the debate from a generic affordability discussion into a test of whether California Democrats could keep blaming Washington for California-specific pain.
Sheriff Chad Bianco brought that same energy to the immigration portion of the debate, clashing directly with Becerra over ICE enforcement and protest violence in a moment that showed just how far apart the two parties are on basic law and order.
🔥 Republicans are absolutely DOMINATING in the California Governor Debate tonight over ICE
BECERRA (D): "There are two [protestors] dead in Minneapolis for doing their civic duty"
BIANCO (R): "Your civic duty is bringing a gun and FIGHTING with cops?! Your civic duty is trying… pic.twitter.com/VFDaKQNwBG
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) May 6, 2026
Becerra framed protesters killed in a Minneapolis confrontation as people “doing their civic duty.” Bianco’s response was blunt: civic duty does not involve bringing a gun and fighting with police. The exchange was raw, and it crystallized a divide that California voters will carry into the ballot booth over the next four weeks.
Then there was Katie Porter, who managed to say the quiet part out loud on immigration and population growth.
🚨JUST NOW: California governor candidate Katie Porter FLAT OUT ADMITS IT
Illegal aliens “are one of the only ways California has been GROWING in recent years” 🤯
And they’re moving to let them vote.
Many of them are likely voting already.
PASS THE SAVE AMERICA ACT pic.twitter.com/gyLrmbQSxD
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 6, 2026
Porter’s admission that illegal immigrants “are one of the only ways California has been growing in recent years” is the kind of line that campaign consultants beg their clients never to say on a debate stage. It concedes the entire conservative argument about why Democrats fight so hard against border enforcement. If your state is hemorrhaging taxpaying citizens to Texas and Florida and the only replacement population is people who entered illegally, the incentive structure writes itself.
The broader picture here is simple. California has one of the highest gas tax burdens in the nation. It has the most aggressive emissions regulations in the nation. It has a regulatory apparatus that makes refining capacity expensive and expansion nearly impossible. None of that is President Trump’s doing. None of it arrived with the Iran conflict. All of it was built, layer by layer, by the same Sacramento Democratic supermajority that now wants voters to look anywhere but in the mirror.
Steve Hilton did not need a white paper to make the case. He just asked one question the other candidates could not answer: if the president is the problem, why is every other state cheaper? Mail ballots are already dropping. California voters will have nearly a month to think about that question before the June 2 primary, and Democrats on that stage gave them no reason to stop asking it.
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