Longtime Huntington Beach City Attorney Michael Gates is running for California attorney general, accusing Democratic incumbent Rob Bonta of failing the state on public safety, parental rights and protecting children.
Gates first won election as Huntington Beach city attorney in 2014 and served more than a decade. In February 2025, the Trump administration tapped him for the U.S. Department of Justice. Ten months later, he resigned and announced his run for attorney general in January.
In an interview with the SoCal Daily Pulse, Gates laid out his campaign priorities and vowed a much different approach if elected.
“Whether that’s high crime rates in underserved communities, where we have, even in especially the Latino communities, where they’re underserved. Whether it’s economically or through local government services or through education programs,” Gates told the Daily Pulse.
“Likewise, when it comes to children, our children are under attack everywhere we turn, whether it’s in the classroom being subjected to teachers discriminating against little Christian children,” Gates added. “They’re not allowed to even talk about their church or their religion or they get in trouble.The LGBTQ campaigns that are going on in the classroom that are pushing very, very hard, this agenda on these young children about a lot of this woke stuff, that’s an issue.”
Zeroing in on Title IX battles and the push to keep biological males out of women’s locker rooms and bathrooms, Gates also focused on Bonta’s pushback of hospitals attempting to end their transgender surgeries on minors. (RELATED: Governor Newsom Snubs Joe Rogan, Yet “Facebook of Podcasting” Still Dominates)
“We’re seeing with the recent lawsuits that were filed by Attorney General Rob Bonta against hospitals, including a children’s hospital, to force those medical facilities and doctors to perform trans surgeries on minors,” Gates said.
In early 2025, Rady Children’s Health, one of the state’s largest pediatric hospital systems, merged with Children’s Hospital of Orange County and its affiliates. After the merger, Rady said it would close its Center for Gender-Affirming Care and stop providing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and related treatments to minors.
However, Bonta responded by suing Rady, arguing the hospital must resume offering gender-affirming care to patients under 19 per their merger agreement.
“We’re going to be dismissing all of these lawsuits that Attorney General Bonta just recently filed, forcing hospitals, including a children’s hospital, to perform mutilation surgeries on children,” Gates said.
But for Gates, the lawsuit is part of a bigger issue. He told the Daily Pulse that he sees the problem as a Sacramento pattern in which its leaders are more focused on fighting President Donald Trump than fixing the state’s problems.
“While Bonta’s talking about Trump, I’m talking to everyday Californians about kitchen table issues,” Gates told the Daily Pulse. “Californians are suffering a lot. Everybody who’s here loves California, but we don’t like living in California. And for some families, it’s worse than that.”
“They’re suffering from high gas prices. They’re suffering from high taxes. They’re suffering from high homeless rates in their communities, which is putting people at risk and putting people in danger. And they’re suffering from high crime rates,” Gates continued.
Democratic politicians like Bonta and California Gov. Gavin Newsom have zeroed in on the Trump administration since the president took office again. Bonta has at least 54 lawsuits against the Trump administration since January 2025.
Despite those attacks, a recent PPIC poll found that 54% of California adults and 52% of likely voters believe things in the state are headed in the wrong direction. Gates pointed to a noticeable culture shift he has seen on the ground.
For example, even when discussing transgender ideology with people who are typically sympathetic, parents, nurses and athletes have been “shocked and dismayed” by the policies put in place by Democrats in the state, Gates said.
Gates recounted speaking with a veteran nurse who witnessed mutilation surgeries and a recently retired professional soccer player who described men entering women’s locker rooms and dominating the field.
In his promise to take action, the attorney general candidate said he will take every legal step possible to help detransitioners and hold medical professionals accountable.
“I’m actually going to be prosecuting doctors in hospitals who seek to mutilate children,” Gates told the Daily Pulse. “If a parent can’t even consent to have their child get a tattoo, how can they consent to have their child mutilated?”
Hoping to fix California, Gates said the state has suffered from a lawlessness that has trickled down from Sacramento to effectively harm communities as a result.
“Our system is broken, but it really stems from, you know, we live in a pretty lawless society in California,” Gates said. “It comes from the top. And it’s been lawless for many years. And these are the types of problems that we end up with.”
