Xavier Becerra, currently the leading Democrat in the crowded California governor’s race, remains little known to many voters, despite having served as state attorney general and as health secretary in the Biden administration.
A new clip of him trying to steer a television reporter’s interview went viral on Tuesday, drawing widespread criticism — not exactly the broader introduction he was hoping for.
“By the way, this is a profile piece, this not a ‘gotcha’ piece, right?” Mr. Becerra asked the reporter, Annie Rose Ramos of KTLA, before she began her interview, which aired on Tuesday.
“I think these questions are fair,” she responded. “It’s in order to learn about you as a candidate.”
KTLA, a Los Angeles broadcaster, posted the exchange online, and anchors discussed it with Ms. Ramos. Clips quickly made the rounds on social media, and Mr. Becerra’s opponents were swift to attack him.
In a statement, the Becerra campaign defended its candidate.
“Unlike other candidates in the race, Becerra sticks around even when the questions get tough,” Jonathan Underland, a campaign spokesman, said in a statement. “He’s proven over decades in public service that he will always show up, take questions and defend the right of journalists to do their jobs.”
In a little over a month, Mr. Becerra went from polling at less than 5 percent to overtaking a crowded field to become the Democratic front-runner, according to recent polls.
Mr. Becerra has leveraged his staid persona and deep political résumé to jump ahead in a Wild West race defined by newcomers, scandals and general chaos.
His campaign experienced a bump after Eric Swalwell, a fellow Democrat, dropped out and resigned from Congress amid allegations of sexual abuse.
As his profile has risen, Mr. Becerra has faced new scrutiny about his ability to handle the spotlight that comes with governing the country’s most populous state.
“A candidate for governor of California shouldn’t just expect ‘gotcha’ questions, they should welcome them and thrive on them,” said Dan Schnur, a longtime political analyst who teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Southern California.
He added: “Given questions that have been raised on his ability to handle high-profile, pressure situations, this isn’t what he needs right now.”
Former Biden administration officials who served alongside Mr. Becerra have been critical of his time as health secretary and said they were perplexed at his front-runner status.
He has faced questions in particular about a New York Times investigation into his agency’s handling of unaccompanied migrant children. In the interview with KTLA on Tuesday, he dismissed Ms. Ramos’s questions about the investigation as Trump talking points.
The commotion around Mr. Becerra’s interview was emblematic of a hotly contested, free-for-all race that could turn on any one candidate’s mistake.
Another Democrat, Katie Porter, a former congresswoman who is one of the more prominent candidates, has yet to recover from a viral exchange late last year in which she sparred with a local television reporter and threatened to end an interview.
Her campaign was also imperiled by a another clip in which Ms. Porter is seen yelling at a staff member.
Mayor Matt Mahan of San Jose, a Democrat running for governor, was quick to release a video on Tuesday that spliced together the Becerra and Porter clips. “By the way, part of being Governor is answering tough questions,” the Mahan campaign wrote on X.
And late last week, the internet laid into Steve Hilton, the Republican front-runner, after he posted a video on his social accounts calling a hard-shell taco from the Del Taco fast-food chain a “street taco.”
The video, his critics said, revealed a glaring unfamiliarity with the cuisine of the state home to the nation’s largest Hispanic population.
In the interview with Ms. Ramos, Mr. Becerra explained what kind of story he was expecting from KTLA.
“The way I describe ‘profile’ is you talk about all the things that I’ve done, things I want to do, and along with some tough questions,” Mr. Becerra told the reporter. “But not only tough questions.”
Orlando Mayorquín is a Times reporter covering California. He is based in Los Angeles.
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