Antonio Villaraigosa

Snapshot

Antonio Villaraigosa is a two-term former mayor of Los Angeles (2005–2013) and former Speaker of the California State Assembly making his second run for governor after finishing third in the 2018 Democratic primary with 13.3%. A onetime union organizer and ACLU chapter president who rose to lead the nation’s second-largest city, he runs in 2026 as a center-pragmatist with deep building-trades labor ties and growing business and real-estate backing — the “proven leadership” lane.

His central pitches are an affordability agenda heavy on housing production, an “all-of-the-above” energy stance that breaks with parts of the climate-left, and an unusual one-term pledge framing him as a get-it-done figure who will not seek a second term. Despite name recognition and a long resume, he has failed to gain traction in a crowded field, polling consistently in the 1–4% range and raising a comparatively modest $707K in the Jan–Apr 2026 period. He is broadly viewed as a long shot for the top two, with his most plausible path resting on a late surge among Latino and Southern California voters that polling does not currently show.

Background

Antonio Villaraigosa was born Antonio Ramón Villar Jr. on January 23, 1953, in East Los Angeles and raised in the City Terrace neighborhood by his mother after his father, an immigrant from Mexico, left the family. He adopted the blended surname “Villaraigosa” upon marrying Corina Raigosa in 1987, combining her surname with his.

He graduated from UCLA with a history degree in 1977, then attended the unaccredited People’s College of Law. He failed the California bar exam four times and never practiced law, instead building a career in organized labor — as a field organizer for United Teachers Los Angeles, with SEIU, and as president of an American Federation of Government Employees local and of the Southern California chapter of the ACLU. His personal life has been a recurring theme: he and Corina Raigosa had two children and divorced in 2007 amid his affair with a television reporter; he married Patricia Govea in 2016 and separated in 2018.

Record

As Assembly Speaker (1998–2000) — one of the youngest and first modern Latino speakers — Villaraigosa co-authored legislation banning the sale of assault weapons and cheap “Saturday night special” handguns, championed Healthy Families (a children’s health-insurance expansion), and built a reputation as a budget-compromise negotiator.

As mayor of Los Angeles, his signature achievement was Measure R (2008), the half-cent sales tax that generated up to $40 billion over 30 years for transit and the foundation of LA’s modern rail buildout; by the end of his tenure four new transit lines had opened and four more were under construction. LA Metro became the first transit agency in the nation to adopt both a Project Labor Agreement and a Construction Careers Policy — the bedrock of his enduring building-trades support. His campaign says violent crime fell 48% during his tenure, and he pursued Million Trees LA and a coal phase-out at the city utility. His most contested initiative was an attempt to seize control of the Los Angeles Unified School District: he backed AB 1381 (2006), which a court ruled unconstitutional, then founded a nonprofit partnership running many low-performing campuses — drawing a 2009 “no confidence” vote from teachers at eight of ten campuses and a lasting rupture with the teachers’ union. A 2009 Los Angeles Magazine cover titled “Failure” questioned his focus, and he left office in 2013 with a 47% approval rating amid recession-era deficits.

Coalition & base

Geographically, Villaraigosa’s base is Southern California and the LA metro, where his mayoral name ID is highest. Demographically, his strongest natural constituency is Latino voters — he would be California’s first Latino governor in modern history — though that lane is contested by Becerra, who has consolidated much of the establishment-Latino support. Ideologically he occupies the center-pragmatist, pro-growth, pro-labor (building-trades) lane, drawing business and real-estate money uncommon for a Democrat. His coalition is notably missing the teachers’-union and progressive-advocacy wings — a legacy of the LAUSD fight — and lacks the statewide elected-official endorsements that signal momentum. His labor support runs through the State Building and Construction Trades Council, PORAC, and a non-exclusive California Federation of Labor endorsement shared with three other Democrats.

Controversies & scrutiny

• The Mirthala Salinas affair (2007). As mayor, Villaraigosa had an affair with Mirthala Salinas, a Telemundo news anchor who had reported on him. After his wife filed for divorce citing adultery, the affair became public; an NBC Universal investigation found Salinas violated company conflict-of-interest rules — she had read on air the news of the mayor’s own separation — and she was suspended without pay for two months before later leaving the station. Villaraigosa said he regretted that “decisions I have made in my personal life have been a distraction.” It is the most-cited personal vulnerability.
• Herbalife advisory role. Post-mayoralty, he served as a paid advisor to Herbalife Nutrition, drawing criticism from consumer advocates over the company’s multi-level-marketing model.
• “Failure” / unmet ambitions. The 2009 LA Magazine cover and a 47% exit approval feed a narrative that his big-ticket initiatives — mayoral school control, the “Subway to the Sea” timeline — outran his delivery, alongside recession-era LA budget deficits.
• Repeat-candidate framing. This is his third statewide-tier run (a 2001 LA mayoral loss, a 2018 governor third-place finish, and 2026), feeding a “yesterday’s candidate” critique; he is 73, and the one-term pledge partly preempts age concerns.
• Climate record vs. stated position. As LA mayor he was an aggressive green-energy champion. His 2026 platform — “all-of-the-above” energy treating natural gas as a transitional fuel, a refinery-retention tax credit, carbon-capture fast-tracking, and an overhaul of the California Air Resources Board — is notably more accommodating to fossil-fuel infrastructure, reflecting a deliberate tack toward affordability and building-trades framing rather than a reversal of any prior vote.
• Debate temperament. At the May 2026 debate, after he interrupted Becerra on homelessness, Becerra told him to “calm down” — a moment opponents used to paint him as combative.

Campaign & messaging

Villaraigosa runs as the seasoned “problem solver” with proven executive experience — the speaker who balanced budgets and the mayor who cut crime and built transit. His differentiators are the one-term pledge (transformation over careerism), an affordability-first frame centered on housing production and gas-price relief, and a willingness to break with climate orthodoxy to court working-class and business voters. He leans on building-trades labor and real-estate money rather than small-dollar progressive energy. Stylistically he is combative in debates and unafraid to attack the front-runner — at the May debate he and Mahan jointly accused Becerra of “failing” on immigration during his time as HHS secretary. The constraint of that style: in a field with Steyer’s money and Becerra’s surge, “experience” reads to many voters as the past, and he has not generated a viral moment or a distinctive enough lane to break out of low single digits.

How they differ

Villaraigosa contests the Latino and LA-establishment lane directly with Becerra, attacking Becerra’s federal HHS record on immigration and framing himself as the executive who actually ran something locally. Against Steyer and Porter, he sits to their right on energy and regulation — refinery subsidies, a CARB overhaul, an all-of-the-above stance — and is funded by trades and real estate rather than climate-left or small-dollar bases. Against Mahan, both run as Newsom-critical “change” pragmatists, but Villaraigosa offers a labor-anchored coalition and a far deeper resume versus Mahan’s Silicon Valley tech-moderate profile. His signature distinction is the one-term pledge, which no other major candidate has made.