On Tuesday, California chooses between two men with very different records on our children's health. One ran Biden's HHS while it mandated shots and lost track of vulnerable kids. The other has spent six years saying parents, not the state, should make medical decisions for their families. For MAHA voters, this is the clearest choice on the ballot. See an excellent breakdown on the MAHA vote in California and what’s at stake by Scarlett Fang.
Scarlett Fang includes the missteps by the former head of HHS now in the Governor race, Xavier Becerra, including failed COVID policies, the loss of the immigrant children, and more. Her article features clips of Steve Hilton talking at the Make California Healthy Again Gubernatorial Townhall around important MAHA topics including vaccine injury, glyphosate, healthy food for kids, and more. Read here.
Xavier Becerra's record at HHS
Before he asked to be our governor, Xavier Becerra ran the Department of Health and Human Services, the job Secretary Kennedy holds now. Here's what happened on his watch.
He mandated the shots. In August 2021, Becerra ordered COVID-19 vaccines for HHS health workers (Reuters). Across the federal government, workers who said no lost their jobs. Exemptions were hard to get and easy to deny.
He dismissed what doctors and parents were seeing. At a September 2021 Senate hearing, Sen. Rand Paul pressed Becerra on natural immunity; Becerra deflected rather than engage (RealClearPolitics). Early-treatment questions were labeled misinformation, and parents raising concerns about vaccine injuries were told to trust the experts.
The system lost track of migrant children. HHS was responsible for the care and custody of unaccompanied children who crossed the border. The Homeland Security Inspector General found more than 32,000 of them failed to appear for court from 2019 to 2023, and 291,000 more were never given a court date, leaving no assurance they were safe from trafficking or forced labor (DHS OIG). HHS's own inspector general flagged gaps in how sponsors were screened and followed up on. Secretary Kennedy has said he is working to find the children Becerra's HHS lost.
As governor, Becerra would inherit a Sacramento that has spent the last two years building its own vaccine rules to resist federal reform. California's health director has already said Secretary Kennedy's executive order on childhood vaccine recommendations will not change anything here. Becerra would keep it that way.
Xavier Becerra
Steve Hilton's record: consistent before it was popular
Steve Hilton was questioning lockdowns in March 2020, when it cost him to say so. He argued then that working families would be crushed by an open-ended shutdown the powerful could afford. He brought Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, now NIH Director, to make the scientific case against prolonged lockdowns. In 2021, he debated vaccine mandates on live TV, holding the same line he holds today: vaccines as a private choice, never a government order.
On the campaign trail, he has called California's SB 277 regime tyranny. In the September CNN debate, he argued that places with fewer mandates actually see higher vaccination rates, because parents don't feel bullied.
Steve Hilton
What Hilton told MAHA families
At the Make California Healthy Again Gubernatorial Town Hall in April, Hilton answered the questions our families care about most. (Full town hall)
Religious and medical exemptions: He vowed to protect parental rights and restore both.
Vaccine injury: He said the gaslighting of parents with vaccine-injured children has to stop.
COVID accountability: He plans a COVID Accountability Commission so emergency powers are never used against our rights again.
School lunches: He promised to get industrial processed food out of public schools and bring back wholesome meals.
Farm chemicals: He wants farmers, scientists, and families at the table to phase out harmful chemicals like glyphosate while protecting California agriculture.
Corporate capture: He vowed to expose behested payments and end the medical industry's grip on Sacramento.
Secretary Kennedy is finally moving HHS toward informed consent and honest science. But California has made clear it will resist. A governor who shares Kennedy's convictions could open the door to restoring exemptions here at home. A governor who ran Kennedy's agency the opposite way would slam it shut.
This election isn't about party. It's about whether California's parents get their rights back.
Before Tuesday
Vote, and check that your ballot was received at Where's My Ballot.
Reach the MAHA voter who's sitting this one out. Turnout is low, and that's where this race is won.
Share the town hall clips with every parent in your circle.
Let's make California healthy again, starting with our kids. Get out and vote.
Election Day is Tuesday, November 3.
