The two candidates running for California governor will meet Wednesday for a nationally televised debate that is likely to be their only face-off before the Nov. 3 election. After a wild primary campaign this year, the governor’s race has settled into a low-key affair. Xavier Becerra, a Democrat who served as health and human services secretary under President Joseph R. Biden Jr., is a heavy favorite in a state dominated by his party. He is facing Steve Hilton, a Republican who was once a Fox News television host and an aide to David Cameron, the former British prime minister. CNN will host the debate at 6 p.m. local time, just days before ballots begin landing in voters’ mailboxes. Univision, the Spanish-language network, told The New York Times that both candidates have also agreed to participate in a town-hall-style forum on Oct. 20. But the candidates will not appear at the same time at that event.

Mr. Hilton, 57, who has lagged in polls and fund-raising, stands to gain more than Mr. Becerra from the national exposure that Wednesday’s debate will provide. He has been traveling the state to hold campaign events and sit for media interviews, trying to catch voters’ attention however he can. By comparison, Mr. Becerra, 68, has made limited public appearances since the June primary. It’s been two decades since California voters elected a Republican to statewide office, so many Democratic candidates in the state have come to wage fiercer fights in the primary against party rivals and then kept a lower profile in less competitive general elections.

The two men are vying to lead a state during a moment of economic pessimism, recent polling shows. Price increases and high housing costs are straining many households, and reducing the cost of living is a top priority for a plurality of likely voters. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who must leave office in January because of term limits, made sparring with President Trump a core part of his strategy as governor. The candidates running to replace him are taking cues, as Mr. Trump remains deeply unpopular in California. Mr. Becerra has attacked Mr. Trump’s moves to restrict voting access while serving as an adviser on a lawsuit against a Republican sheriff who seized ballots and while campaigning against a California ballot measure to require voter identification. Mr. Becerra was California’s attorney general before he worked for the Biden administration.

“It’s really a threat to our democracy, and he’s working hard to protect people’s right to vote,” said Jonathan Underland, a spokesman for Mr. Becerra. Mr. Hilton got Mr. Trump’s endorsement, which may have benefited him in the primary but now requires a difficult balancing act. He is trying to appeal to California voters who dislike the president while still keeping MAGA voters in his camp. “Can you be anti-Trump but still vote for me?” Mr. Hilton asked in a full-page newspaper ad this summer that outlined the reasons he believed voters who oppose the president should still support him. He said he’s met many voters on the campaign trail who tell him, “One-party rule just isn’t working, and we need a bit of balance.” “I hear that often,” Mr. Hilton said in an interview.