JTA — In a state where housing costs, wildfires and water shortages usually dominate campaign rhetoric, the 2026 race for California governor is being shaped to a significant extent around a different flashpoint: antisemitism. At a packed gubernatorial forum Thursday night at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, five leading candidates — Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, entrepreneur Tom Steyer and Republican businessman Steve Hilton — competed to present themselves as the strongest defenders of Jewish safety. Three other candidates who met the forum’s viability criteria — former US...
Monitoring Antisemitism Intel
