Xavier Becerra Wins Governor Race as CSUEB Scales Back STEM Lab

California elected a new chief executive this week while East Bay university students navigated changes to campus academic tutoring and Oakland voters gathered to track local, regional, and national election returns.

Xavier Becerra Elected Governor of California Over Steve Hilton

Democrat Xavier Becerra—a former California attorney general and former U.S. Health and Human Services secretary under President Joe Biden—won the 2026 California gubernatorial election over Republican Steve Hilton, a former Fox News commentator and adviser to former British Prime Minister David Cameron, according to The Associated Press and Patch Livermore. Born in Sacramento to a mother from Mexico and a father born in California and raised in Mexico, Becerra will become the state's first elected Latino governor and its first Latino governor since the late 19th century, extending 16 years of Democratic governance in a state where approximately 90% of ballots in the 2022 gubernatorial election were cast early or by mail.

Celebrating at a Tuesday night rally near Sacramento, Becerra thanked union households and voters, while Hilton addressed supporters in Huntington Beach and pledged to continue pressing for change. California State University, Long Beach political science assistant professor Matt Lesenyie noted that Becerra will confront immediate fiscal pressures tied to capital gains and technology stocks following Alphabet's October 29 single-day stock drop as outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom prepares for a potential 2028 presidential run.

CSU East Bay Restricts Braddock Center STEM Lab to Lower-Level Courses

On the Hayward campus of California State University, East Bay, The Pioneer reported that the STEM Lab in the Braddock Center has scaled back its walk-in tutoring to assist only lower-level mathematics and statistics courses. The change leaves upper-division science majors without walk-in peer support ahead of midterm exams that can account for more than 50% of their overall course grade.

STEM Lab staff member Piusha Pandey explained that the lab's learning assistants previously served students on an open-door, no-appointment basis Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in person. Upper-division science students are now directed to faculty office hours and the Student Center for Academic Achievement (SCAA), which operates on an appointment-only schedule with daily booking caps.

Oakland Voters Gather at New Parkway Theater for Election Night Returns

In Oakland, reporter Francesca Fenzi of KALW 91.7 chronicled voters gathering at the New Parkway Theater on Tuesday night before polls closed at 8:00 p.m. Alongside national Senate races—including two attendees who wrote letters for a Democratic candidate in Texas—voters debated Oakland's Measure EE strong-mayor charter proposal, the Regional Transit Measure (RTM) supporting BART service, and California's Proposition 40 billionaire tax.