Steve Hilton advances in California governor race
Ex-UK Cameron adviser and Fox News figure faces Xavier Becerra in November, Trump endorsement meets a state built for Democrats
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Steve Hilton speaks to reporters outside the Capitol in Sacramento, California on Wednesday. Photograph: Rich Pedroncelli/AP
theguardian.com
Republican Steve Hilton has advanced to California’s governor general election, setting up a November contest against Democrat Xavier Becerra after the state’s nonpartisan primary, The Guardian reports. The Associated Press projected Hilton would take one of the top two spots, leaving him in second place behind Becerra as counting progressed.
Hilton is not a typical California Republican: he is a former UK political operative who advised David Cameron, later becoming a Fox News personality, and only moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2012, according to The Guardian. He became a US citizen in 2021 and ran with Donald Trump’s endorsement—an asset in Republican primaries but a complicated brand in a state where Democrats have taken about 60% of the vote in each of the last three governor’s races and hold a large voter-registration advantage.
The vote count itself became part of the campaign narrative. The Guardian says Hilton initially led when the first votes were counted, Trump prematurely declared him the winner, and then accused California of election-rigging without evidence after Becerra overtook Hilton as more ballots were tallied. That sequence is now a ready-made script for either side: for Hilton, a way to keep national attention and fundraising flowing; for Democrats, a way to frame him as a Trump-aligned candidate in a heavily Democratic state.
Hilton’s advancement also shows how modern state politics can be nationalised by media exposure and celebrity adjacency. The Guardian describes his campaign imagery—beach shots, a Trump rally appearance, and a fast-food photo-op—designed to signal cultural alignment as much as policy. His slogan that he will make California “Califordable” points at a real voter grievance around cost of living, but the state’s institutional reality is that a governor faces a legislature and bureaucracy dominated by the opposing party.
Tom Steyer, a billionaire hedge fund investor running as a progressive, finished behind Hilton and conceded, the paper reports. Hilton said the morning after the election that “change is coming,” but the arithmetic of California’s electorate has not changed with it.