Xavier Becerra Bio
Xavier Becerra (born 26 January 1958) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 25th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services from March 2021 to January 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as California’s attorney general from January 2017 to March 2021 and represented California in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2017. He chaired the House Democratic Caucus from 2013 to 2017. In April 2025, Becerra declared his candidacy for governor of California in the 2026 election.
Early Life and Background
Xavier Becerra was born in Sacramento, California, on January 26, 1958. He is the son of Manuel Guerrero Becerra, who was born in the United States and raised in Tijuana, Mexico, and Maria Teresa, who was from Guadalajara, Mexico. Becerra grew up in a one-room Sacramento apartment with his three sisters. He has spoken about being the first in his family to finish college, an experience that shaped his later work on education and opportunity.
He graduated in 1976 from C.K. McClatchy High School in Sacramento. After high school, Becerra studied abroad at the University of Salamanca from 1978 to 1979. He then attended Stanford University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in economics in 1980, becoming the first person in his family to graduate from college. He went on to receive his Doctor of Jurisprudence from Stanford Law School in 1984 and was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1985.
Path to US Politics
Early in his legal career, Becerra worked at the Legal Assistance Corporation of Central Massachusetts on cases involving individuals with mental disorders. He returned to California and, in 1986, became an administrative assistant for Democratic State Senator Art Torres of Los Angeles. From 1987 to 1990, he served as a deputy attorney general in the California Department of Justice under Attorney General John Van de Kamp, building a foundation in state-level public law.
In 1990, Becerra won a seat in the California State Assembly, representing the 59th district. He served one term before launching a successful campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1992. His path from Sacramento to Sacramento’s statehouse, and then to Washington, set the stage for more than two decades in federal office.
Xavier Becerra Career
Early Career (1986–1992)
After passing the bar in 1985, Becerra moved into public service as an administrative assistant to State Senator Art Torres in 1986. He then spent three years at the California Department of Justice, working on behalf of the state’s top law officer. These roles gave him hands-on experience in legislative policy and state-level enforcement work.
When incumbent state assemblyman Charles Calderon sought a state senate seat, Becerra entered the 1990 race for the California State Assembly. He won the Democratic primary against Calderon’s aide and the general election with 60 percent of the vote. He served a single term in the 59th district from 1990 to 1992, gaining the political profile needed to run for Congress.
U.S. House of Representatives Breakthrough (1993–2017)
First elected to the House in 1992, Becerra won the Democratic primary in California’s 30th district with 32 percent of the vote and defeated Republican Morry Waksberg 58 percent to 24 percent in the general election. He won re-election in 1994 with 66 percent of the vote and continued to hold the seat through repeated redistrictings, including a move to the 31st district after 2000 and to the 34th district in 2012, when he defeated Republican Stephen Smith 85.6 percent to 14.4 percent.
Within the House, Becerra became a leading voice in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, serving as its chairman during the 105th Congress. He was appointed assistant to the Speaker of the House for the 110th Congress and, in 2009, won election as vice-chair of the House Democratic Caucus for the 111th Congress, defeating Marcy Kaptur of Ohio 175 to 67. He was re-elected to a second term as vice-chair in 2011 and rose to chairman of the House Democratic Caucus in 2013, a post he held until 2017.
California Attorney General Era (2017–2021)
On January 24, 2017, Xavier Becerra was sworn in as California’s attorney general, becoming the first Latino to hold the post. In 2018, he won a full four-year term by defeating Republican Steven Bailey with 61 percent of the vote. In 2019, he delivered the Democratic Spanish-language response to President Trump’s State of the Union address, expanding his national profile.
As attorney general, Becerra filed 122 lawsuits against the Trump administration. He led a coalition of 21 attorneys general defending DACA, helped preserve the Affordable Care Act’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions, joined 15 other states suing over the national emergency declaration to fund a border wall, and sued the Bureau of Land Management over new oil and gas lease sales in California. He also created an environmental justice bureau at the California Department of Justice and, in 2020, joined 47 other states and the Federal Trade Commission in an antitrust lawsuit against Facebook.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Era (2021–2025)
President Joe Biden nominated Becerra to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, and on March 18, 2021, the Senate confirmed him 50 to 49, the narrowest vote for any of Biden’s cabinet picks. He was sworn in on March 22, 2021, as the 25th HHS secretary and served until January 2025. He quickly released a statement praising the Affordable Care Act and encouraging continued enrollment in its programs.
During his tenure, Becerra worked to preserve reproductive rights nationwide and helped expand Medicaid and CHIP postpartum coverage in more than half of U.S. states. He cited curbing health care costs, advancing women’s health, and closing access gaps as central priorities. He supported Medicare price negotiations under the Inflation Reduction Act, finalizing negotiations on 10 high-cost drugs in 2023 with discounts of 38 to 79 percent, and announced 15 additional drugs for negotiation in 2025, with reduced prices set to take effect in 2027. He also led one of the largest reform efforts of HHS sub-agencies in decades, including changes at the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. His tenure drew criticism over public communication during the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2022 monkeypox response.
Notable Events and Milestones
Among Becerra’s signature moments were his 2017 swearing-in as California’s first Latino attorney general, his 2019 Spanish-language response to the State of the Union, the filing of 122 lawsuits against the Trump administration, and the narrow Senate confirmation that made him HHS secretary in 2021. He was also a finalist for the 2016 Democratic vice presidential nomination, and in April 2025, he declared his candidacy for governor of California in the 2026 election.
Xavier Becerra Career Wins
Over a public career spanning more than three decades, Xavier Becerra built a record of electoral wins, legal victories, and policy achievements in state and federal office. His work as California’s attorney general and HHS secretary brought major court rulings, expanded health coverage, and new drug pricing rules.
U.S. House of Representatives Highlights
Becerra first won California’s 30th district in 1992 and was repeatedly re-elected, including in 1994 with 66 percent of the vote. After redistricting he represented the 31st district and, in 2012, won the 34th district with 85.6 percent of the vote. His House career ended in 2017, after which he was elected attorney general in 2018 with 61 percent of the vote.
Other Wins and Achievements
Beyond electoral wins, Becerra’s office helped preserve the Affordable Care Act’s pre-existing condition protections before the U.S. Supreme Court, defended DACA in court, joined a 48-state antitrust suit against Facebook, and helped negotiate Medicare drug prices for 10 high-cost medications in 2023 and 15 more in 2025.
Xavier Becerra Family
Family Background and Political Lineage
Becerra is the son of Manuel Guerrero Becerra, who was born in the United States and raised in Tijuana, Mexico, and Maria Teresa, who was from Guadalajara, Mexico. He grew up in Sacramento with his three sisters in a one-room apartment, and he has often described his parents’ working-class roots as a driving force behind his career in public service. He was the first in his family to graduate from college.
Personal Life
Xavier Becerra has been married to physician Carolina Reyes since 1989, and the couple has three daughters. He is a member of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, and he is Roman Catholic. In 2025, Politico reported on a scheme in which his closest aides, including his chief of staff, allegedly siphoned about $225,000 from his campaign accounts over two years; Becerra was not accused of wrongdoing.