Humiliation for California governor candidate Xavier Becerra as photo shows empty West Hollywood bar

Polls may be showing Xavier Becerra narrowly in the lead for the California governor’s race with less than a week to the primary.

But according to photos posted on social media, he’s still having a hard time exciting the crowds — with a “Get Out The Vote” event he hosted Thursday attracting just a smattering of people.

Five minutes past a noon starting time, a Fox News reporter shared online a photo from the West Hollywood bar Micky’s.

There were around five rows of mostly empty seats with only a few people sitting around and waiting in front of a stage that had a “Becerra for Governor” screen.

“There’s more media here,” noted reporter Matt Finn, who estimated around 10 attendees. “Organizer just asked people to get on social media and invite more supporters.”

Around 35 minutes later, Finn updated his followers that most of the seats had been filled. The final attendance count “seemed to be less than a few dozen,” he said.

Jonathan Underland, a spokesperson for the Becerra campaign, replied to Finn’s post at 1:15 p.m. with an image showing the room decently crowded.

“Full house at the iconic Micky’s in West Hollywood for Xavier Becerra!” Underland posted. A Becerra account later shot back at the reporter: “Cool. We can take pictures before an event starts too.”

Images of other Becerra events in the past weeks have shown decent attendance. Still, the initial lack of a crowd on Thursday reignited questions about how much genuine enthusiasm there was for the Democratic candidate.

“This is why we can’t believe the polls suddenly showing Becerra as the second coming of Jesus,” one user posted. “Nobody likes him, even a lot of Latinos who I know.”

Becerra’s rise to the top as the June 2 primary nears has been unusual. His surge came after former congressman Eric Swalwell — who was considered the frontrunner in early April — saw his gubernatorial bid implode due to sexual misconduct allegations.

Since Swalwell’s fall, Becerra became the biggest benefactor as voters shifted to him as a backup. A number of allies of termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom seemed to step into his campaign. Becerra previously was mired in the single digits in polls for a long time.

The sudden shift, which was only a few months ago, raises questions of how committed his current voter base actually is as competitors, like progressive billionaire Tom Steyer, try to win them over.

Dan Pfeiffer, the host of Pod Save America podcast, said last week that Becerra’s campaign hasn’t had a singular clear message, which is “emblematic” of his bid. Voters gravitated toward Becerra, Pfeiffer suggested, simply because he was just the best alternative to Steyer and other candidates who have tired voters.

Former Newsom campaign strategist Addisu Demissie agreed with Pfeiffer that the crowded field of Democratic candidates lacked star power to energize voters that past candidates like Newsom previously had.

“I think it’s still fluid,” Demissie said of the current state of the race. “You can’t tell me that 15% of voters that moved from Swalwell to Becerra 10 days ago or two weeks ago are, like, suddenly think that Xavier Becerra is God’s gift to the earth.

“They’re there because he’s a palatable good option, good résumé, good person, but something could happen to shift them off,” the strategist added.

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