Steve Hilton is far behind Democrat Xavier Becerra in the polls for governor. But he can use Wednesday’s nights CNN debate to make a big impact.

The most important line of attack is on gas prices. Becerra and Governor Gavin Newsom have tried to blame President Donald Trump for rising costs at the pump. And there’s no doubt the Iran war has been a factor.

But the fact remains that California drivers pay almost $2 per gallon more than the national average. That’s not Trump’s fault.

And there’s no one more responsible for the high gas price than Xavier Becerra himself.

Hilton needs to remind voters that Becerra has refused to lower the gas tax. He claimed during the primary debates that California needs the money to repair the state’s roads.

But with a budget of over $350 billion, California has plenty of money. The problem is that the state wastes money on high-speed rail instead of fixing the roads. And it makes drivers pay for that madness at the pump.

Not only that, but Becerra abused his power to stop California voters from repealing a gas tax hike in 2018 when he gave a ballot measure a misleading title.

Next, Becerra needs to go after Becerra’s campaign donations from Chevron.

There’s nothing wrong, in principle, in accepting money from Big Oil.

But it’s interesting to note that the one issue on which Becerra has broken from the left is on gas-powered cars.

Newsom declared that California would ban the sale of gas-powered cars by 2035.

Becerra says California should take its time, and that oil companies like Chevron aren’t the bad guy.

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He’s right, but he’s also taking massive contributions from Chevron.

It suggests that Becerra doesn’t really have principles. His policies are for sale to the highest bidder.

Hilton should hit Becerra over corruption — especially the ongoing scandal around his former aides, who took money from Becerra’s state campaign account to pay his chief of staff a side salary when the candidate joined the Biden administration in Washington.

Hilton should insist that there’s no way Becerra didn’t know. The whole alleged scheme was designed to benefit him.

In the past, Becerra’s been able to get away with saying that he was not a target of the federal investigation.

Hilton should say: “Look into that camera and tell the people of California you didn’t know your chief of staff was getting extra money.”

He won’t do it. And that will raise doubts.

There are also doubts about Becerra’s competence — and Hilton should raise those.

The California Post reported this week that Susan Rice, the director of domestic policy in the Biden White House, used to yell at Becerra for showing up to meetings unprepared.

Becerra also allegedly referred to migrant children as “little Juanitos and Juanitas” while he was leading the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which is responsible for refugee resettlement.

Becerra denies it, but he can’t deny that HHS lost track of tens of thousands of migrant kids on his watch. Some ended up doing slave labor.

In the primary, Becerra claimed that those accusations were lies by President Donald Trump.

But they were documented by The New York Times.

Will these tactics be enough to move the needle in the polls? They might, depending on Becerra’s response.

But the crucial thing is for Hilton to show a fighting spirit.

No matter what the result in the governor’s race, Hilton needs to get out the vote for downticket races and ballot initiatives.

That’s why he has to fight hard, even in a long-shot race.

Joel Pollak is Opinion editor of the California Post.