Ezra Klein

On Friday, I moderated a forum with the top five Democratic candidates for governor in California.

We invited the Republicans too, but they didn't show up.

On housing costs and housing affordability and what can actually be done about it.

I think if you're in California particularly, but even if you're not, seeing how the Democrats running to lead the largest state in the nation with arguably the worst housing crisis in the nation, seeing and hearing how they're thinking about actually trying to solve it is really, really instructive for where our politics might be going.

Enjoy.

It is my total honor and privilege to introduce to you Mr. Ezra Klein and the candidates who are participating in this event.

All right, hello Oakland.

All right, welcome to the beautiful Calvin Simmons Theater.

We are thrilled you're here.

The candidates on the stage tonight are, according to the polls, the five top Democratic candidates in this race.

Tom Steyer, Javier Becerra, Katie Porter, Matt Mahan, and Antonio Villaraigosa.

Give them a hand.

I should say we invited the top Republicans too.

Unfortunately, they could not make it tonight.

There have been, there have been a lot of debates lately, a lot of debates this week.

This is not one of them.

What we're doing here tonight is a forum and on one topic, a topic that deserves 90 minutes of our attention, which is California's housing crisis.

We're gonna have three sections.

Each section, I'm gonna spend about six minutes talking with each candidate in turn.

I'll ask follow-ups if we have time.