By Alexei Koseff for CalMatters

As Californians wait to find out whether one prominent veteran of the Biden administration is running for governor, another jumped into the crowded race on Wednesday.

Xavier Becerra, the former attorney general of California and longtime member of Congress who most recently served as secretary of health and human services under President Joe Biden, announced his campaign with a short video in which he promised to “rebuild the California Dream.”

In an interview with CalMatters, Becerra lamented that California has become too expensive for working people to live near their jobs and that the experience of his parents, who raised their family on the salaries of a construction worker and a clerical worker, is no longer achievable.

“I’m a native son of this state. I’ve done everything I can most of my career for this state. It’s in my blood,” he said. “We’ve reached this break-glass point.”

Becerra said that as governor he would work with the building industry to reduce barriers to housing construction and potentially seek to provide more down payment assistance to buyers. But his initial pitch to voters is light on specific policy proposals and heavy on the “tough fights” he’s taken on, including guiding the country through the coronavirus pandemic.

“You need someone who knows not just how to lead, but someone with the experience who knows how to deliver the results,” Becerra said.

In just over a minute, his announcement video runs through highlights from his more than three decades in politics: helping to pass the Affordable Care Act, negotiating with the pharmaceutical industry to lower prescription drug prices and, as attorney general, suing the first Trump administration more than 100 times, a nod to Democratic voters’ seething anger against the newly reinstalled president.

Becerra told CalMatters that if he is elected governor, resisting the second Trump administration would only be as much of a priority as the president makes it.

Becerra said that as governor he would work with the building industry to reduce barriers to housing construction and potentially seek to provide more down payment assistance to buyers. But his initial pitch to voters is light on specific policy proposals and heavy on the “tough fights” he’s taken on, including guiding the country through the coronavirus pandemic.

“You need someone who knows not just how to lead, but someone with the experience who knows how to deliver the results,” Becerra said.

In just over a minute, his announcement video runs through highlights from his more than three decades in politics: helping to pass the Affordable Care Act, negotiating with the pharmaceutical industry to lower prescription drug prices and, as attorney general, suing the first Trump administration more than 100 times, a nod to Democratic voters’ seething anger against the newly reinstalled president.

Becerra told CalMatters that if he is elected governor, resisting the second Trump administration would only be as much of a priority as the president makes it.