Democrat Xavier Becerra leads Republican Steve Hilton by 25 percentage points in California's race for governor, according to a statewide poll released Thursday.

The Public Policy Institute of California survey found 61% of likely voters would support Becerra and 36% would back Hilton if the Nov. 3 election were held now.

The Democrat leads across every age, gender, homeownership, household income, and racial or ethnic group measured, as well as across California's major regions.

Party loyalty remains strong, with 93% of Democrats supporting Becerra and 90% of Republicans favoring Hilton.

Independent voters lean toward Becerra, 60% to 34%, giving him an important advantage in the contest to succeed term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat.

The survey also found environmental policy is poised to play a major role in the campaign, with 85% of likely voters saying the candidates' positions on the environment are important to their choice.

That total included 48% who called the issue "very important" and 37% who said it was somewhat important.

Sixty percent of Democrats described the candidates' environmental positions as "very important" compared with 29% of Republicans and 44% of independents.

Becerra supporters were also likelier to hold that view, with 59% calling the issue "very important" compared with 28% of Hilton supporters.

Wildfires topped the list of environmental concerns among California adults at 19%, followed by climate change at 16%, government overregulation at 14%, and water supply at 14%.

Fifty-eight percent said state and local governments are not doing enough to address wildfire prevention and recovery, while 47% called the wildfire threat a big problem in their part of the state.

The poll found Californians divided over the economic effects of environmental rules, with 55% saying stricter regulations are worth the cost and 43% saying they cost too many jobs and hurt the economy.

Despite that support, 55% said California should ease land-use and environmental restrictions to increase the housing supply, while 42% favored maintaining existing rules even if they raise construction costs.

Artificial intelligence infrastructure also faced broad resistance.

Seventy-three percent of adults opposed building an AI data center in their area, including 44% who strongly opposed one, while 26% supported such construction.

Sixty-three percent said they were worried about the environmental effects of building more AI data centers.

Becerra, a former U.S. health secretary, California attorney general, and congressman, and Hilton, a conservative commentator and former adviser to British Prime Minister David Cameron, advanced from California's June 2 top-two primary.

California has not elected a Republican governor since Arnold Schwarzenegger won reelection in 2006, and Democrats retain a substantial statewide voter-registration advantage.

PPIC surveyed 1,578 California adults online from June 29 through July 6 in English and Spanish, including 1,003 likely voters.

The sampling error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points for all adults and plus or minus 3.8 points for likely voters.