Becerra is headed to the November 2017 election alongside Hilton in the governor’s race, the survey said.

SACRAMENTO – Democrat Xavier Becerra has pulled ahead of Republican Steve Hilton as California’s governor’s race heads into the November election, a new poll shows.

The two candidates won the gubernatorial primary in a crowded field on June 2, giving them the opportunity to face each other in the national election.

Among registered voters in the state, 52% supported Becerra in a head-to-head battle with Hilton, who was backed by 31%, according to a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll sponsored by the Los Angeles Times. The rest were undecided.

“It looks like a traditional, party-based general election, with a majority of Democrats, more than 80%, behind Becerra as the campaign begins,” said IGS Poll Director Mark DiCamillo. “Although Hilton has more than 80% Republicans, Democrats outnumber Republicans by 20 points in the state, and that gives members of the Democratic Alliance a huge advantage, which Becerra is clearly taking advantage of in this election.”

The survey of California voters was conducted before the start, from May 19-24.

The poll found that Democratic and Republican voters are more loyal to their party’s representative. Among Democrats, 82% said they would support Becerra in the general election, while 84% of Republicans said the same about Hilton.

Becerra also had an edge among voters who registered as independent or registered with other parties — who make up about a third of the state’s electorate. Of those voters, 43% supported Becerra, 28% supported Hilton and 29% were undecided, the survey said.

Across age, gender, race and state lines, voters preferred Becerra to Hilton almost across the board. The only local district where voters preferred Hilton over Becerra was in the North Coast/Sierra region, which made up about 2% of voters, DiCamillo said.

Hilton, who was an adviser to former British Prime Minister David Cameron before moving to the United States, in April received the endorsement of President Trump, which helped him gain enough support among Republican voters to overtake his GOP rival, Sheriff County Sheriff Chad Bianco.

More than a third of Republicans, 37%, said Trump’s endorsement made them more likely to support Hilton. But while it helped Hilton consolidate the Republican vote in the primary, helping her finish in second place, it could hurt her in the general election, DiCamillo said. Trump remains deeply unpopular in California; A survey released on Thursday revealed that 69% of voters do not agree with the president’s performance and 29% agree.

“The majority of Californians have a very negative view of the president, so Hilton’s endorsement of the president won’t be nearly as beneficial as it originally was,” he said.

A former Biden Cabinet secretary, state attorney general and Los Angeles congressman, Becerra has been languishing in low poll numbers for less than three months. His luck changed when former Representative Eric Swalwell, one of the leading Democratic Alliance, dropped out of the governorship race after being accused of sexual harassment and misconduct, which he denies.

Democratic voters and interest groups quickly rallied behind Becerra, who was seen as a long-standing stalwart and resume in California politics with a record of fighting the Trump administration. In two months, he went from polling 5% in the March IGS election to 25% in late May and finished first in the illegal primary vote count.

With 91% of the vote counted as of Wednesday afternoon, Becerra led with 27.9% of the vote compared to Hilton’s 25%, according to the Associated Press, which declared Becerra and Hilton the two winners. Billionaire hedge fund founder-turned-environmentalist Tom Steyer came in third with 22.5% – putting the Democrat out of contention for the November election.

DiCamillo said Swalwell’s exit from the race “gave Becerra an opportunity and he made the most of it.”

The poll also showed that in the end, “Becerra was the only major candidate to finish the race with a positive image among voters overall, even with all the negative ads Steyer was running” against him, DiCamillo said.

Just before the primary, 44% of primary voters polled had a favorable opinion of Becerra compared to 38% who viewed him negatively.

Hilton and Steyer were neck and neck – 31% had a favorable view of Hilton compared to 38% unfavorably, and 39% had a favorable view of Steyer while 43% viewed him unfavorably.

Although Steyer had spoken aggressively to progressive voters and received support from leftists and groups such as Rep. Ro Khanna (D-San Jose) and Our Revolution, a group founded by Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.), the last IGS poll before the election showed progressive voters end up supporting Becerra.

Of those who identified as progressives, 39% said they would support Becerra and 29% preferred Steyer, according to a recent May poll.

“It’s really one of the things that caused Steyer’s campaign to fail,” said DiCamillo. Progressive voters “were Steyer’s target audience, but Becerra was able to have an opportunity there.”

The survey was conducted online in English and Spanish among 8,578 registered California voters. The poll has a margin of error of 2% either way.