As California’s gubernatorial race heats up, five leading candidates said at a forum on Thursday that they are committed to deepening the state’s partnership with Israel and fighting efforts to boycott the Jewish state. 

The candidates — Democrats Antonio Villaraigosa, a former state lawmaker and Los Angeles mayor; Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA); Tom Steyer, a billionaire businessman and former presidential candidate; and Matt Mahan, a tech entrepreneur and mayor of San Jose; along with Republican Steve Hilton, a conservative commentator who was once an advisor to former British Prime Minister David Cameron — appeared together Thursday night at a Los Angeles candidate forum hosted by Jewish California (formerly JPAC), the Bay Area Jewish Community Relations Council, the Los Angeles Jewish Federation and the Skirball Cultural Center.

“I’ve been to Israel half a dozen times. I’ve been all over the region. I’ve seen the innovation in energy. I’ve seen the innovation in water technology, and of course, California should partner with Israel to meet our own energy and water needs,” Swalwell, who represents a Bay Area district, said. “I will bring back as many values and technologies from Israel that can help Californians. That’s the job of the next governor.” 

Hilton praised the business relationship between California and Israel, and said “that foundation of prosperity and cooperation is how we build a stronger future for Israel and for us here in California.”

Villaraigosa also outlined his many past trips to Israel. “I’ve been to Israel half a dozen times, including the last time three years ago, when I wasn’t in office anymore. As governor of this state, I will work with the State of Israel,” he said. 

Mahan called California’s relationship with Israel “an important one for our country and for our state.” 

“In Silicon Valley,” he continued, “I’ve lost count of how many brilliant entrepreneurs [and] investors I’ve met from Israel who have brought incredible innovation to our state. And that exchange is something we need to continue to invest in.” 

Steyer, like the other Democrats on stage, drew a line between the Israeli people and the Israeli government. 

“Are we talking about the people of Israel? Or are you talking about the administration that runs the State of Israel? As far as I can tell, Mr. Netanyahu is quite a close confidant, ally and co-believer with our president. There’s nothing about our president, literally, that I agree with,” said Steyer. “How do I feel about the people of Israel, a scrappy group of people trying to build a country, build their families, build businesses? That’s a completely different question.” 

A recent Public Policy Institute of California poll showed a crowded, closely contested race, with five candidates neck-and-neck in the all-party primary, each with 10-14% of the vote. 

Hilton led the pack with 14%, followed by former Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) with 13%, and then Republican Chad Bianco, sheriff of Riverside County, with 12%. Swalwell was at 11%, with Steyer at 10%. The top two finishers face off in the November general election.

A spokesperson for Porter told Jewish Insider she could not attend due to a scheduling conflict.

“Rep. Porter spoke to Jewish California last year about her vision to address the many issues facing California as Governor, including the increase in antisemitism, and she looks forward to continuing the conversation,” the spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for Bianco did not respond to a request for comment, but SF JCRC CEO Tyler Gregory told JI he also had a scheduling conflict. Democrat Xavier Becerra, the former secretary of Health and Human Services, also did not participate. 

All five candidates at the forum on Thursday said they oppose the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Hilton and Mahan, citing the state’s anti-BDS law, said they would push back on efforts by municipalities to boycott or divest from Israel.

“They’re illegal. I will make sure that, as governor, my attorney general, sues these cities to stop them breaking the law,” said Hilton. 

“We should push against any attempt to unwind our prohibition of it,” Mahan said of the BDS movement.

Each of the candidates also criticized how public universities in the state responded to anti-Israel and antisemitic protesters during the spring 2024 encampments. 

“I’m a proud graduate of UCLA, but I’ll tell you something, I’ve never been so embarrassed and ashamed about what I saw happen on a UC campus, and as governor, we will not tolerate that,” Villaraigosa said. “The fact that it took so long to extricate these people that tried to intimidate people and wouldn’t allow them to go to class, wear their yarmulke, was absolutely unacceptable.” 

Mahan criticized a questionnaire from a union representing thousands of professors and lecturers in the California State University system that asked candidates last year to say they would refuse donations from AIPAC and JPAC.

“That tells you how bad it has gotten. As governor I will actively call that out,” said Mahan. “One of the most powerful things the governor has is the bully pulpit, and it’s important as governor to speak directly to that divisiveness and call it out and explain that it is wrong and that we will not tolerate it in our public institutions. We also have to talk about curriculum.” 

Steyer called freedom to protest “one of the hallmarks of higher education” in the U.S., but said “when protest moves into discriminating against other students, that’s when protest is no longer acceptable.” 

Swalwell recounted a recent conversation with a friend who said his daughter had taken some schools off her college list because of fears about antisemitism.

“A metric of success for me is that Jewish California students feel safe in every California university and college,” said Swalwell. “Yes, California and our colleges have always led some of the best movements in our history. However, that does not give you license to hate, discriminate, to commit violence.”

Hilton described visiting UCLA after the encampments to speak to Jewish students and called on the other candidates in the room to bring their messaging of fighting antisemitism to other audiences, not just Jewish ones.

“It’s still going on, this sense of fear and intimidation, and we’ve got to take a stronger stance,” Hilton said. “Our elected leaders in this state aren’t quite as clear on some of these issues, and give succor to the hate and the ideology that’s causing this fear among our Jewish population. So I would like them to speak with the same strength and clarity against this ideology everywhere, not just in this audience.” 

Other questions touched on immigration, homelessness, affordability and the impact of artificial intelligence. The state’s gubernatorial primary will take place on June 2, and the top two vote-getters, irrespective of party, will advance to the general election. 

Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz’s decision to drop out of the 2026 gubernatorial race in a state heavily favored for Democrats marks a significant political fall for the party’s 2024 vice presidential nominee. 

Walz, 61, said while announcing on Monday that he would no longer seek a historic third term as governor that he had “every confidence” that he could have won his reelection bid — despite facing intense scrutiny for a state welfare fraud scandal that has gained national attention and become a political flashpoint in Minnesota. Still, Walz acknowledged that the fraud allegations, which have mostly been leveled at members of the state’s Somali community, and the broader scandal played a role in him ending his campaign.

The outgoing governor used his announcement to again criticize President Donald Trump and Republicans for “vile, racist lies and slander towards our fellow Minnesotans,” accusing them of highlighting the large number of Somalis under investigation and indictment to demonize the immigrant community. 

Despite the scandal, Walz began the campaign as the favorite to win the governor’s race, the result of the state’s Democratic lean and the fact that Republicans have not won a statewide election there since 2006, when former Gov. Tim Pawlenty won his bid for a second term. 

But Walz only won his 2022 reelection bid by eight points, which made his bid for a third term in 2026 precarious as Republicans looked to amplify the fraud allegations. 

The decision to end his campaign means Walz will cap off two decades in elected office next January, less than two years after former Vice President Kamala Harris selected him as her running mate and thrust him onto the national stage. 

While holding a moderate voting record as a member of Congress, Walz largely governed as a progressive, and was the preferred choice of progressive Democrats critical of Israel in the 2024 veepstakes over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. 

On the campaign trail, Walz praised anti-Israel protesters and urged the U.S. to exert more leverage on Israel. He also drew scrutiny for appearing at events with an antisemitic and pro-Hamas Muslim cleric. He said last year after the election that war in Gaza was “rightfully” a “central focus” of the 2024 campaign.

Last year, Walz did not respond to inquiries about then-Minneapolis mayoral candidate Omar Fateh’s campaign, which employed senior staffers who celebrated Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel. 

And, criticizing Israel for striking Iran last June, Walz suggested that China was better positioned to act as a broker for Middle East peace than the Trump administration.

The positions and approach to governance mark a notable evolution for Walz from when he first entered political life. Walz was elected to the House during the Democratic midterm wave of 2006, scoring an upset in a GOP-leaning rural district. Walz held onto the southern Minnesota seat for six terms, assembling a pragmatic voting record in the process that included support for gun rights, Israel and the Keystone XL pipeline. 

That voting record earned him the endorsement of the National Rifle Association, something the advocacy group revoked during Walz’s successful 2018 gubernatorial campaign, when he ran on a platform of tightening gun restrictions. 

Walz’s leftward shift began after first being elected governor, but he accelerated his progressive push when his party won full control of the state legislature in 2022.

Minnesota is home to a sizable Muslim population, many of whom are represented by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), a vocal Israel critic, in the Minneapolis area. More than 18% of the state’s Democratic primary voters in 2024 chose to write in “uncommitted” rather than support former President Joe Biden as a means of protesting his support of Israel. 

Walz said at the time that the party needed to focus on winning back those anti-Israel voters rather than dismiss their criticisms, though he also argued that centrist voters were also in play. 

“These are voters that are deeply concerned, as we all are. The situation in Gaza is intolerable, and I think trying to find a lasting, two-state solution, certainly the president’s move towards humanitarian aid and asking us to get to a ceasefire, that’s what they’re asking, to be heard,” Walz told CNN on the evening of Super Tuesday. “That’s what they should be doing. … We start bringing these folks back in. We listen to what they’re saying. That’s a healthy thing that’s happening here.”

“Take them seriously. Their message is clear that they think this is an intolerable situation and that we can do more, and I think the president is hearing that,” he added

Ever since President Donald Trump ran surprisingly close to Vice President Kamala Harris in New Jersey during last year’s presidential race, Republicans have been looking at the state’s gubernatorial race as a chance to capitalize on the party’s momentum in the blue state.

Jack Ciattarelli, the GOP’s nominee for governor, also came tantalizingly close to defeating Gov. Phil Murphy in the state’s last gubernatorial race. He’s running again, and hoping to get over the finish line against Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), in part by courting the state’s sizable Jewish community, which has swung to the right in recent elections.

“People now know, because of the closeness of my race, that we can win. There’s just an attitude change because they feel like the Democrats have really failed them on a number of issues, and antisemitism is one of them,” Ciattarelli told Jewish Insider in an interview ahead of his visit to Israel this week. 

Ciattarelli, 63, who built two medical publishing companies in New Jersey while serving as a state lawmaker, said, “I see myself not so much as a politician, but a successful CEO who is looking to be the CEO hands-on governor that we need.”

As part of his Jewish communal outreach, Ciattarelli traveled to Israel on Sunday for a five-day visit, which he organized in a show of solidarity. He also spent time on his visit pursuing opportunities for economic investment from leading Israeli companies in the technology and medical sectors. 

“Any students in violation of university policy, I think, should be expelled. Any student that’s broken the law should be arrested, and any student here on an academic visa from another country should be sent back to where they came from if they’re going to engage in that kind of behavior,” Ciattarelli said. “I will pressure our college and university presidents to be working in partnership with me to make sure that kind of behavior isn’t tolerated.”

He told JI that one of his goals with the visit was to boost the state’s economy “by forging a closer economic relationship with a number of nations” that are close U.S. allies. “Israel is first and foremost on the list, but as governor, I will certainly look to Canada, Mexico and India as well to increase our bilateral trade,” Ciattarelli said. 

Fighting antisemitism, Ciattarelli said, will be a priority of his if he’s elected. Ciattarelli said he has “made very, very clear” that he supports codifying the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism into state law, will “appoint an attorney general and a superintendent of state police that are both sensitive to the needs and worries of New Jersey’s Jewish community” and will establish an Advisory Council on Jewish Relations to guide him on ways to the best support the community. 

“Any students in violation of university policy, I think, should be expelled. Any student that’s broken the law should be arrested, and any student here on an academic visa from another country should be sent back to where they came from if they’re going to engage in that kind of behavior,” Ciattarelli said. “I will pressure our college and university presidents to be working in partnership with me to make sure that kind of behavior isn’t tolerated.”

Ciattarelli described the December 2023 House Education and Workforce Committee hearing, where the presidents of Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology declined to say that calling for the genocide of Jews qualified as bullying and harrassment, as a “watershed moment” that brought the issue of antisemitism to the forefront of Jewish voters’ minds. 

“I will do what others have done, including Democratic leaders, and that’s condemning Mamdani, condemning his candidacy, and doing all they can to make sure that a threat to communities such as this is not elected,” Ciattarelli told JI. “There is no space for someone like this in the public sphere, let alone in public office, and I’m going to do everything in my power to protect all 9.3 million citizens here in New Jersey, and particularly members of the Jewish community who feel threatened by a person such as this.”

“They want to see a governor who’s going to demonstrate zero tolerance for antisemitism and call it out for what it is when we see it and hear it,” Ciattarelli said of Jewish voters in the Garden State. 

The New Jersey Republican has also sought to tie Sherrill to Zohran Mamdani, the far-left Democratic nominee in New York City’s mayoral race who has resisted condemning “globalize the intifada” rhetoric. Ciattarelli’s campaign cut a digital ad highlighting Sherrill’s nationally televised indecision on whether she would support Mamdani’s mayoral campaign. 

“I will do what others have done, including Democratic leaders, and that’s condemning Mamdani, condemning his candidacy, and doing all they can to make sure that a threat to communities such as this is not elected,” Ciattarelli told JI. “There is no space for someone like this in the public sphere, let alone in public office, and I’m going to do everything in my power to protect all 9.3 million citizens here in New Jersey, and particularly members of the Jewish community who feel threatened by a person such as this.”

The race is competitive, with Jewish voters (who make up about 6% of the state’s population) potentially emerging as a swing voting bloc. 

“This race is shaping up to be fairly tight, with both candidates making notable outreach efforts to the Jewish community. Jack’s visit to Israel and his strong support for IHRA have had a particularly positive impact,” one Jewish leader in the state told JI.

“Mikie has also engaged significantly, and that effort has been noticed, but concerns remain based on her support of Mamdani in the city and the way she recently framed the call for a ceasefire in Gaza. She still retains goodwill within the Jewish community, but has a long way to go in strengthening trust and confidence,” the leader explained.

A Jewish community leader in Central Jersey, also granted anonymity to speak freely, offered a similar take.

“It’s definitely a race that’s very closely watched in the Jewish community, more than any time in the past, I would say. I think seeing Jack going to Israel, out of all places, just three months before the general election, I think that shows you how important the Jewish vote is going to be this time around, and Jack is losing no time and trying to get the Jewish vote on his side,” the source said.

“I often say that in New Jersey, you have to run for governor as though you’re running for mayor,” Ciattarelli said, adding of his outreach to Democratic and unaffiliated voters, “The biggest compliment I get is when I can come down off a platform or stage, if somebody comes up to me and says, ‘Are you Republican? Are you Democrat?’”

Ciattarelli told JI that he views Bergen County, the state’s most populous county, as a must-win area for his campaign, making the support of Democratic and independent voters necessary in his path to victory. The area, which is represented by Gottheimer in Congress, is also home to around 100,000 Jewish residents, a majority of whom are registered Democrats or independents. 

“Bergen County has a greater population than eight states and it’s the key to winning a statewide election. I did very well, just coming a little short in ‘21, but I do sense a change amongst a great number of people who may not have considered me last time, may not have voted last time that are looking to make a change here in New Jersey,” Ciattarelli said. 

“I often say that in New Jersey, you have to run for governor as though you’re running for mayor,” he continued, adding of his outreach to Democratic and unaffiliated voters, “The biggest compliment I get is when I can come down off a platform or stage, if somebody comes up to me and says, ‘Are you Republican? Are you Democrat?’”

Since narrowly losing his first campaign for governor, Ciattarelli worked hard to unify the party around his repeat bid, making particular effort to secure support from the MAGA wing of the Republican Party. His efforts paid off in the primary, which he won without much serious GOP opposition.

For her part, Sherrill handily defeated five other Democrats, including Gottheimer, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka,and Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, in the Democratic primary. 

With that backdrop, both parties are watching the November gubernatorial contest closely to see if the rightward shift in the Garden State has held since Trump took office in January. For his part, Ciattarelli says that while the issues animating New Jersey voters have not changed since his 2021 race, he believes “what is different is the political landscape.” 

“The issues I was talking about in ‘21, including antisemitism, have now come to a complete boil. They were simmering back then,” Ciattarelli told JI. “I’m not competing with a pandemic this time around. It’s not easy to campaign when there’s a shelter-in-place order. I’m not running against an incumbent. There’s a lot less indifference.”

As part of his strategy to encourage voters to hit the polls in November, he said he was focusing his messaging around “four issues across the state that are raging that apply to all people”: the affordability crisis, affecting housing and energy costs; public education; public safety; and the overdevelopment of the interior of the state, where suburbs without the infrastructure to become a city are being overinvested in at the expense of New Jersey’s cities. 

Regardless of which community he’s engaging with, the New Jersey Republican says the voters he’s spoken to have been more concerned with “how it is I go about solving issues” than national political matters. 

“People get excited by ideas. They don’t want to hear the use of polarizing rhetoric. I think they find it a breath of fresh air when somebody stands up and is speaking to the issues and how they’re going to solve them,” Ciattarelli explained, describing this approach as “the secret to the sauce for me in the seven elections I won prior to November ‘21.”

Both parties are also investing heavily as the race emerges as one of the most competitive statewide elections of 2025. 

The Democratic National Committee said earlier this month that it would provide more than $1.5 million for Sherrill’s campaign to devote to field staffing and ground game efforts. Greater Garden State, a super PAC connected to the Democratic Governors Association, announced plans in July to spend $20 million on ads for Sherrill. That dollar amount is greater than Murphy and outside groups supporting him spent on ad buys during the entire 2021 general election. 

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, the chairman of the Republican Governors Association, visited North Jersey earlier this month for a series of fundraising events for Ciattarelli that brought in $1 million.