Antisemitism emerges as a defining issue in 2026 California governor’s race
A candidate forum organized by Jewish groups came the same week as three high-profile antisemitism lawsuits against California institutions
Five California gubernatorial candidates — from left, Steve Hilton, Matt Mahan, Tom Steyer, Eric Swalwell and Antonio Villaraigosa — appear on stage at the Jewish California Governor Candidate Forum at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, where antisemitism emerged as a defining issue in the 2026 race. Photo by Asaf Elia-Shalev
By Asaf Elia-Shalev February 27, 2026
(JTA) — In a state where housing costs, wildfires and water shortages usually dominate campaign rhetoric, the 2026 race for California governor is being shaped to a significant extent around a different flashpoint: antisemitism.
At a packed gubernatorial forum Thursday night at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, five leading candidates — Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, entrepreneur Tom Steyer and Republican businessman Steve Hilton — competed to present themselves as the strongest defenders of Jewish safety.
Three other candidates who met the forum’s viability criteria — former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and former Rep. Katie Porter — were invited but did not attend.
The event, organized by a coalition of major Jewish groups including Jewish Federation Los Angeles, Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area and Jewish California (formerly The Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California), drew more than 1,000 attendees and was livestreamed on YouTube. With Gov. Gavin Newsom term-limited and widely seen as a likely 2028 presidential candidate, the contest to succeed him is one of the most closely watched gubernatorial races in the country.
California is home to an estimated 1.2 million Jews — second only to New York among U.S. states — and its public schools and universities have become central battlegrounds in the national debate over Israel and antisemitism since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
That tension was on vivid display this week. The forum coincided with three major antisemitism lawsuits filed in rapid succession against California educational institutions.
On Thursday, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights and StandWithUs sued the state of California, its Department of Education and several school districts, alleging that officials allowed antisemitic harassment of Jewish and Israeli students to “fester” in K-12 schools. The lawsuit seeks court-ordered oversight of campus antisemitism and limits on funding for districts that fail to enforce nondiscrimination policies.
Earlier in the week, the Trump administration’s Justice Department filed suit against UCLA, accusing the university of permitting a hostile work environment for Jewish and Israeli employees following pro-Palestinian encampments in 2024. And at UC Santa Barbara, former student body president Tessa Veksler sued the university, alleging it failed to protect her from antisemitic harassment after she condemned the Oct. 7 attacks.
Against that backdrop, antisemitism was the dominant theme at Thursday’s forum.
Candidates pledged to enforce Assembly Bill 715, a law signed last year aimed at combating antisemitism in K-12 schools, and to ensure its implementation across districts. They denounced the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and affirmed Israel’s right to exist, even as some voiced criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Swalwell made protecting Jewish Californians central to his pitch. “My job is to protect all Californians and with antisemitism on the rise and violence on the rise, that especially includes the Jewish community,” he said. Calling Los Angeles home to a Jewish population larger than Jerusalem’s, he added, “This is a large community that is living under fear and insanity right now.”
Villaraigosa rooted his response in biography. “As some of you know … I came out of the civil rights movement,” he said. “I have stood against racism, antisemitism, homophobia, my entire life because of the learning and education I got back in Boyle Heights” Recalling growing up alongside Jewish neighbors he said he had attended “a bris” and “bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs” and learned early about the Holocaust’s impact on local families.
Hilton, the lone Republican on stage, framed antisemitism as part of what he described as a broader ideological problem in public institutions. After describing visiting UCLA following campus protests, he said, “This is unacceptable,” arguing that “we have an attitude, a mindset, an ideology that infected so many of our institutions in this state. We’ve got to root this out.”
Mahan struck a managerial tone, emphasizing implementation. “Passing rules, passing new laws, doesn’t matter if we don’t fully implement and enforce them,” he said, promising that on “day one” he would accelerate staffing for the state’s antisemitism prevention coordinator and civil rights office.
Steyer placed antisemitism within what he described as a larger breakdown in democratic norms. He argued that combating antisemitism requires coalition-building across communities. “Let’s have a positive way of reaching out for a different vision of what this state stands for,” he said, “so we’re not just dealing with the problems. We’re creating the solution in our behavior and our language.”
Despite sharp disagreements over immigration, artificial intelligence and how to relate to President Donald Trump, the candidates were largely aligned in tone and substance when it came to Jewish safety.
For Jewish leaders, that alignment reflects both political clout and deep anxiety.
Jews comprise roughly 3% of California’s population but account for a disproportionate share of reported hate crimes in the state. In recent years, high-profile campus protests, lawsuits and heated school board battles over ethnic studies curricula have made antisemitism a defining concern for many Jewish parents and students.
In his opening remarks at the forum, Tyler Gregory, the CEO of the JCRC Bay Area, said the evening’s event offered a model for how to respond to the challenge.
“We will not overcome the headwinds that we face as a community if we face them divided or face them alone,” Gregory said. “It is only by forging trust relationships across diverse communities and with our elected leaders, like we’re doing tonight that we will succeed in ensuring our Jewish future in the state of California.”
