Multiple Democratic California gubernatorial candidates called out Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday evening for not personally going to Stockton after a mass shooting killed three children and one adult.
A massacre erupted at a children’s birthday party Saturday evening in Stockton, killing two 8-year-old girls, a 14-year-old boy and a 21-year-old man, and injuring others. Despite the tragedy and media attention, Newsom did not go to the scene.
When asked by KCRA Political Director Ashley Zavala about the governor’s decision, three Democratic gubernatorial candidates and one Republican criticized Newsom’s absence.
“I believe the governor, he should have gone down to Stockton. I exchanged messages with the mayor of Stockton and she told me how horrible this is for her community and the fear of retaliation and what that was going to mean for her and her community. And this is an area in the Central Valley that already feels like their flyover country,” Democrat candidate Ian Calderon said.
“Nobody cares about us. You fly over us. You only come here when you’re campaigning. They can’t continue to feel like that. And they need to know that they can have a relationship with the governor and the state that when something significantly tragic like this happens,” Calderon added.
Democratic candidate Antonio Villaraigosa also answered Zavala’s question, saying he “showed up” during his tenure as mayor of Los Angeles from 2005 to 2013. (RELATED: Several Mass Shooters Have Taken Psychiatric Drugs. RFK Wants Answers.)
“I’ll tell you what I did when I was mayor. I always showed up. I showed up when a cop was shot. I showed up when families lost loved ones,” Villaraigosa said. “Actually, when I was a council member, I went to every single homicide in the two years that I was a council member in my district. When I was mayor, there were too many, but we reduced it to 1950 levels, as I said. But I think it’s important to show up. And I’m not criticizing anyone. I don’t know where he was at. But I could tell you for me, you show up.”
Law enforcement responds to the scene of a shooting on November 30, 2025 in Stockton, California. (Photo by Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images)
A third Democratic candidate, Betty Yee, emphasized the importance of demonstrating support for a community that has “lost loved ones and lost community members” and starting a conversation about why the incident happened. When Zavala pressed Yee on whether she would have gone to the scene if she were governor, Yee immediately responded yes.
Newsom’s office did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Riverside County Sheriff and Republican gubernatorial candidate Chad Bianco also criticized the governor, questioning why Newsom has not called for an end to the violence or demanded accountability.
“Why isn’t the leader of the state there saying that this absolutely must stop and that the perpetrators will be held accountable? As the governor of California, I absolutely would make sure that I was there. I would make sure that I’m there for the families and we will be doing everything we can to make sure that California is the safest state in the country,” Bianco said.
“This selfishness of our elected officials that they only do things that benefit themselves, and sometimes they don’t have the ability to sacrifice or sacrifice their own ambitions, his vacation or his political speech that he was going to give in another part of the country, because a community in California was suffering, it says a lot,” Bianco added.
According to the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office, authorities received reports of a shooting shortly before 6 p.m. and confirmation that 14 people had been struck by gunfire and four were deceased. By Tuesday, the four killed were confirmed as 8-year-old Journey Rose, 8-year-old Maya Lupian, 14-year-old Amari Peterson and 21-year-old Susano Archuleta, with the total number of injured rising to 17, according to CBS News.
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