Bonta was appointed attorney general by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021, replacing Xavier Becerra, who became U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. The state’s first Filipino American attorney general, Bonta previously spent nine years representing Oakland in the state Assembly, where he pushed criminal justice reforms and was a reliable progressive Democratic vote. He sought to strike a balance in this campaign between his progressive roots and his role as the state's top law enforcement officer.
Bonta on Tuesday thanked voters for their “vote of confidence” and said he is readying to battle potentially renewed Republican influence at the federal level, much as when his predecessor filed dozens of lawsuits challenging initiatives by then-president Donald Trump.
With Trump signaling that he could soon announce a run to regain the office in 2024, Bonta criticized the former president’s "legacy of lawlessness" that he said has "left a wound that continues to deepen."
"What is next for our nation remains unknown, but what is known is that no matter what happens in Washington, D.C., no matter what radical Republicans try to throw our way in statehouses, your attorney general will go to court, sue and fight back," Bonta said.
Bonta's wife, Mia Bonta, won a special election last year to replace her husband in the state Assembly. Her election made the pair one of the state's top power couples.
Challenger Hochman, who has worked both as a federal prosecutor and a private defense lawyer, tried to strike a centrist tone even as he staked out positions far to the right of Bonta on public safety issues. He centered his campaign on prosecuting fentanyl dealers and on his opposition to criminal justice reforms, including Proposition 47, a 2014 ballot measure that Bonta supported.
But Hochman's tougher-on-crime message didn't resonate enough with voters for him to overcome the structural party advantages Democrats enjoy in California.
Bonta, who received support from the entire Democratic establishment, raised nearly $9 million for his campaign, to Hochman's $3.8 million.
Bonta released a single online ad two weeks before Election Day that emphasized his defense of reproductive rights, while never even mentioning his opponent. He also recently announced forming a California Reproductive Rights Task Force along with 14 local law enforcement officials to confront abortion restrictions in other states and protect access and privacy in California.
“We seek to be the strongest reproductive freedom state that there is in the nation," Bonta said.
He also recently stood before a large, colorful mural depicting a victim of a deadly shooting to announce that he was creating a first-in-the-nation Office of Gun Violence Prevention within his state Department of Justice. The office, Bonta said, represents "a paradigm shift," and aims to "prevent gun violence from happening in the first place."
This story includes additional reporting from the Associated Press.
