Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and three other Democratic candidates of color have been excluded from a March 24 gubernatorial debate at the University of Southern California — and they are calling it a deliberate act of exclusion by the event’s organizers, USC, KABC and Univision.
Also left off the invitation list: former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and former State Controller Betty Yee. Together they represent every significant candidate of color in the California governor’s race.
The six candidates who were invited — including billionaire businessman Tom Steyer, former Fox News host Steve Hilton, Rep. Eric Swalwell, former Rep. Katie Porter, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco — qualified under polling and fundraising thresholds set by the organizers. Thurmond, a twice-elected statewide official who leads the largest public school system in the nation, did not meet those thresholds. A candidate polling at 3% did.
“California has never had a governor of color. Now, with one of the most diverse candidate fields we’ve ever seen, debate organizers have put together a stage that shuts out candidates of color. That’s a choice.”
Thurmond delivered his sharpest criticism in a video statement from the State Capitol, framing the selection process as both a political failure and a historic one. “This is exactly how the system protects power,” he said. “Billionaires and insiders deciding who gets seen.”
Four Democrats urged their rivals to boycott the USC event in solidarity. In parallel, Thurmond, Villaraigosa, Yee and others participated in the Housing California Gubernatorial Forum in Sacramento — livestreamed, open, and operating without billionaire-backed polling criteria.
Thurmond told supporters the movement would not stop at the debate stage. “They can’t shut us out of this movement,” he said, “not if we keep showing up and building a California that reflects all of us.”
