Man shot while seated in parked vehicle in Long Beach, California

Catholic voters helped elect Xavier Becerra as California governor, according to The AP Voter Poll, a survey of roughly 100,000 midterm voters. Becerra, a Democrat and former U.S. health and human services secretary, became the state’s first elected Latino governor. With his win, California has elected five consecutive Catholic governors. Beginning with Gray Davis, who took office in 1999, four of those five have been Democrats.

Catholic voters in California are politically varied. About 2 in 10 voters in the governor’s race were Catholic, and about 6 in 10 of them supported Becerra, while about 4 in 10 voted for his Republican opponent, Steve Hilton. About 7 in 10 Latino Catholics voted for Becerra, and white Catholics were split between the two candidates. Nationally, Catholics were split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, a modest shift from 2024, when just over half of U.S. Catholics voted for Trump, according to AP VoteCast.

Becerra said earlier this year that “the sanctity of life is something that’s really ingrained in you,” and he described his support for abortion rights in terms that some found confounding. David Gibson, director of Fordham University’s Center on Religion and Culture, said “there is no Catholic vote,” noting that white evangelicals and Black Protestants are more reliably aligned with one party. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who strongly supports abortion rights, announced that he planned to change more than 500 death sentences in the state to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The California Catholic Conference, the public policy organization representing the church in the state, celebrated that decision. Newsom said in a public letter, “I take this action because I firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values.”

California is home to more Catholics than any other U.S. state. A 2024 Pew Research Center poll found that 25% of adults in California identify as Catholic, accounting for almost half of the state’s Christians. Many are immigrants from Latin America and the Philippines. Tracy Creighton, whose ancestry goes back to the missions founded more than two centuries ago by Spanish Franciscan priests, said that as the mother of teenagers she has tried to pass on the importance of serving others and respecting nature. “I feel in the last several years we have lost our way in terms of being of service to others,” she said, citing Saint Francis of Assisi as a model. “That is why I stay Catholic.” Her emphasis on serving others reflects the call to care for neighbors in need (Matthew 25:35).

The legacy of the missions remains contested. Cecilia González-Andrieu, a theology professor at Loyola Marymount University, said the missions’ legacy “is a mixed one and has problematic implications.” William Deverell, a historian at the University of Southern California, said the mission system spread disease and contributed to a steep decline in the Indigenous population. A law signed by Newsom took effect last year requiring schools to teach how missionaries mistreated Native Americans and to share Native perspectives. Many of the missions still operate as Catholic parishes, and the history is included in the statewide public fourth-grade curriculum.

Catholic influence also shows up in daily life. Creighton said Mission San Luis Rey in Oceanside, near San Diego, is a landmark that is important to the identity of the area, and that even non-Catholics often take photos there. Brian Murillo, a state employee in Fresno who describes himself as a lapsed Catholic, said he stopped attending Mass because he felt the American church’s leadership was too aligned with Republican politics. He still says a Hail Mary or an Our Father whenever he leaves the house. “It’s been such a part of my growing up, even to this day,” he said.

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