Joe Biden served alongside Xavier Becerra for years in Washington. He put Becerra in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services during a pandemic. And now, with Becerra running for governor of California, Biden won't lift a finger to help him win.

The former president recently told his onetime chief of staff Ron Klain that he would sit out the California gubernatorial primary entirely, offering no endorsement to any candidate in the jam-packed Democratic field, the New York Post reported. The decision leaves Becerra without support from the man he served as a top official, heading into a June 2 primary where every advantage counts.

Klain relayed Biden's reasoning in terms that were polite but unmistakable in their meaning.

"He told me that he is a big fan of Xavier, he likes Xavier, appreciates the job he did, but that there are other people in the race who he also has a relationship with. He's just going to stay neutral."

Translation: Biden likes Becerra fine. Just not enough to say so publicly when it matters.

A pattern of silence from Democratic leaders

What makes Biden's neutrality so conspicuous is the contrast with his behavior elsewhere. Biden has endorsed Keisha Lance Bottoms in a high-profile Georgia race and Dan Koh in Massachusetts. He has shown he is willing to spend political capital on candidates he believes in. Becerra, apparently, does not make that list.

And Biden is not alone. Governor Gavin Newsom, the man Becerra hopes to succeed, has not endorsed him either. Neither has Kamala Harris, the former vice president and Becerra's fellow Californian. That three of the most prominent Democrats in the country have all declined to back a former California attorney general and Cabinet secretary tells a story that no amount of spin can paper over.

The broader dynamics inside the Democratic Party only sharpen the picture. Harris herself occupies an uncertain position heading toward 2028, as recent polling shows her clinging to a narrow lead in the Democratic field even after Biden stepped aside for her in the 2024 cycle.

The Becerra problem

Becerra's tenure at HHS drew persistent criticism from inside the administration he served. The New York Times reported on frustrations within the White House over delays in handling migrant children crossing the southern border, a crisis that fell under Becerra's department. The White House itself directly managed much of the pandemic response, a dynamic that former COVID response coordinator Ashish Jha described as creating "tensions" even as he defended Becerra's handling of a difficult role.

After a CNN debate, former Justice Department spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa offered a blunter assessment, saying Becerra "was not effective in government." Klain called such attacks "profoundly unfair," but the fact that Klain is the one defending Becerra, rather than Biden himself, only underscores the isolation.

Becerra entered the governor's race and surged in polls after Eric Swalwell's campaign imploded amid rape and sexual assault allegations. That surge made Becerra a leading figure in the Democratic field. But leading a field is not the same as commanding loyalty from the party's power centers, and the endorsement drought makes that distinction painfully clear.

Now Becerra faces a close fight with progressive billionaire Tom Steyer, while polls show Steve Hilton in the overall lead. Without a single major Democratic endorsement to his name, Becerra heads into the June 2 primary relying on whatever goodwill voters still attach to his résumé.

What Biden's silence really says

Biden's refusal to endorse is not a minor procedural choice. This is a man who dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and immediately endorsed Harris as his successor, a decision Democrats hailed at the time as selfless leadership. He proved he is capable of making big, public endorsements when he wants to. He simply does not want to here.

The question is why. Biden's stated reason, that he has relationships with multiple candidates, is the diplomatic version of declining to vouch for someone's work. If Becerra had been a standout HHS secretary, if his management of the southern border crisis had drawn praise rather than frustration, if his debate performances had silenced critics rather than generating new ones, it is hard to imagine Biden would have needed the escape hatch of "neutrality."

The pattern of Democratic endorsement politics in recent years has been revealing. When the party's leaders believe in a candidate, they rally fast and publicly. When they don't, they find reasons to stay quiet. Biden, Newsom, and Harris have all found their reasons.

The relationship between Newsom and Harris itself carries its own complicated subtext, with Newsom publicly insisting the two get along while deferring to her on 2028 ambitions, a dynamic that reveals more about Democratic succession anxieties than about genuine unity.

A party still searching for direction

Becerra's predicament is a symptom of something larger. The Democratic Party remains fractured over what it stands for and who should lead it. The progressive wing, represented by figures like Steyer in California and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez nationally, pulls in one direction. The establishment wing, Biden, Newsom, Harris, pulls in another but cannot even agree on which of its own members deserves support.

Becerra did everything the party asked of him. He served as California attorney general. He took the HHS job during a pandemic. He managed a department at the center of the border crisis. And when he came home to run for governor, the party's biggest names looked the other way.

That kind of abandonment does not happen by accident. It happens when the people who know your record best decide it does not hold up under scrutiny. The Democratic Party's broader struggle to diagnose its own failures plays out in miniature here: a former Cabinet official left to fend for himself because the leaders above him won't attach their names to his performance.

The endorsement that isn't

Klain's attempt to frame Biden's decision as simple neutrality does not survive contact with the facts. Biden endorsed in Georgia. He endorsed in Massachusetts. He endorsed Harris for president within hours of dropping out of the race himself. Neutrality is a choice, and in California, Biden chose it for a reason.

Becerra now enters the final stretch of a competitive primary without the backing of the president he served, the governor he wants to replace, or the vice president who shares his home state. He has a résumé. He has name recognition. What he does not have is anyone in power willing to say he did a good job.

When your own team won't vouch for you, voters tend to notice.