Oil money is taking center stage in the California governor’s race

Oil companies are making a cash splash to back Xavier Becerra in the final stretch of California’s race for governor. And Tom Steyer wants you to know it.

Chevron’s contribution early in the campaign to Steyer’s top primary opponent, Becerra, was already a controversial wedge issue. Then this month, California Resources Corporation, the state’s largest oil and gas producer, contributed $500,000 to an independent committee backing Becerra. Chevron did the same last week.

That gave Steyer, a billionaire climate activist who has pledged not to accept fossil fuel industry cash, a fresh opening to hammer the issue.

In the past week, his campaign has dispatched trucks mounted with billboards describing Becerra as being “fueled by Chevron,” labeled the former Biden administration cabinet secretary as “Big Oil Becerra” in press releases and run a new ad criticizing Becerra for receiving oil money support.

The messaging underscores Steyer’s increasingly fervent efforts, as he confronts public polling showing Becerra opening a lead, to yank the conversation back to the environmental issues he’s built his reputation on over the past decade. Never mind the fact that the oil cash represents a small share of the monumental spending in the race.

Becerra said in an interview that he sees Steyer’s criticisms as hypocritical, given that the former financier has self-funded his campaign using the enormous fortune that he accumulated, in-part, via investments in fossil fuel companies. And he bristles at the suggestion that he’s an oil industry ally.

“I’m not only an environmentalist, but I’ve been one of the most aggressive and one of the most productive environmentalists in the country,” Becerra said.

During his tenure as California Attorney General amid President Donald Trump’s first term, Becerra sued the Trump administration over rollbacks to clean car standards, successfully challenged an oil company acquisition on antitrust grounds and established a Bureau of Environmental Justice.

“I think I’m a far better environmentalist and champion against the fossil fuel industry than [Steyer],” Becerra said.

Many California environmentalists don’t share that conviction, illustrated by the fact that influential green groups including the Sierra Club, NRDC Action Fund and the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund endorsed Steyer over Becerra.

“Becerra’s record is mixed,” Karuna Jaggar, CBD Action Fund’s California political director, said in an interview, adding that she wishes he had more aggressively pursued oil companies during his tenure as attorney general.

That’s a perception that Steyer has been trying to stoke in the final days of the primary campaign.

“The idea that California in 2026 could elect a governor who’s supported by oil companies … seems to me to be hard to believe,” Steyer said Wednesday during a press conference. “Going backwards to the 1950s, and to fossil fuels, and to pollution, and to ignoring the climate crisis, that doesn’t make any sense for the state of California.”

Fossil fuel companies have made it clear with their spending that they fear a Steyer governorship more than a Becerra victory.

One leader from the oil and gas industry, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, highlighted an early-May debate during which the candidates were asked if they would sign a bill to increase oil production in Kern County and the Central Valley.

Steyer said no.

“Versus importing? Yes,” Becerra said.

“I think that’s really kind of the threshold issue for [our] industry,” the source said in an interview. “Is your campaign looking to push workers out of Kern County and [send] those jobs 9,000 miles away, or are you going to help retain industry?”

Becerra is also signalling flexibility on the guillotine hanging over California oil firms: the state’s 2045 goal to phase out fossil fuels.

“We should absolutely have ambitious goals to phase out fossil fuels … it’s just, what will our pace be?” Becerra said in an interview. “Can we make the 2045 goal? Sure would like to, but I’m not going to hang up our economy and families’ cost of living if we find that we’re not able to meet that goal.”

As primary day approaches, Steyer has leveraged his track record of green advocacy and objection to new oil drilling in the state to consolidate support from climate groups. But in the end, both candidates are angling to win over a broad swath of the electorate, not just climate-focused voters.

And polling from the California Democratic Party shows that since Becerra made his semi-viral comment during an April interview that “you need Chevron, I need Chevron,” emphasizing the state’s continued reliance on gasoline vehicles, he has risen from a tie with Steyer to become the Democratic frontrunner.

“The fact that you’re seeing Becerra continue to lead, if not grow his lead … I think is arguably evidence that Californians are concerned about affordability and they do understand where their fuel comes from that they rely upon,” Rob Stutzman, a veteran conservative strategist who has worked with the oil industry, said in an interview. “Companies like Chevron and CRC are not black hats, but essential to daily lives.”