Republican Steve Hilton has advanced to the November general election in California’s race for governor, setting up a statewide contest against Democrat Xavier Becerra after a primary shaped by a crowded Democratic field and voter concerns over the cost of living.
Hilton, a British American former Fox News host, received about 25% of the vote in the June 2 primary, with roughly 88% of ballots counted as of Tuesday evening. Under California’s top-two primary system, the two highest vote-getters move on to the general election regardless of party.
Becerra, a longtime Democratic politician who previously served as California attorney general and U.S. Health and Human Services secretary, emerged from a large field of Democratic candidates to claim the other November spot.
In a statement, Hilton said his campaign would lead a movement for change in Sacramento and portrayed Becerra as a continuation of years of Democratic control in California.
“My mission is clear: to go to Sacramento, clean up the corruption, cut your costs, help your business, and fix our schools,” Hilton said. “We can’t keep voting the same way and expect different results.”
Hilton’s second-place finish pushed billionaire Democrat Tom Steyer out of the race despite Steyer spending $215 million of his own money on a populist campaign that heavily emphasized television advertising. Steyer had hoped to turn the governor’s race into a fight within the Democratic Party, but the November election will instead become a more traditional Democrat-versus-Republican matchup in a midterm year likely to be framed by Democrats as a referendum on President Donald Trump’s administration.
Steyer conceded Tuesday evening and endorsed Becerra. In his statement, he said he was proud that his campaign had made “enemies” of state utilities, technology companies and Big Oil. He also said he understood voters who “just couldn’t stomach voting for a billionaire.”
“It is absolutely essential that (Trump’s) handpicked candidate does not hold the keys to California,” Steyer said, referring to Hilton.
Hilton led in polling for much of the primary as Democrats split support among several candidates. His campaign appealed to conservative voters with promises to reduce income taxes and the gas tax, encourage more oil drilling and roll back environmental rules, including California’s greenhouse gas reduction requirements.
He has argued that Californians struggling with high housing, energy and transportation costs are ready to end what he calls “16 years of one-party rule.” The last Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, left office in 2011.
“The people of California have really been generous in giving the Democratic Party the opportunity to show that their ideas work,” Hilton said last week during a Sacramento news conference where he declared victory early. “I think the patience is running out, really.”
Still, Hilton enters the general election as an underdog in a state where Democrats hold a nearly two-to-one voter registration advantage over Republicans. GOP candidates have reached the general election in every California governor’s race over the past two decades, but Democrats have dominated statewide contests since Schwarzenegger’s tenure.
Hilton has also been endorsed by Trump, who remains deeply unpopular with many California voters. Hilton, however, has embraced the support and argued it could benefit the state.
“I think it’s going to be very helpful to Californians to have a governor who has a good working relationship with the president and his team,” he said.
A central piece of Hilton’s campaign is a proposal to eliminate state income taxes on the first $100,000 in earnings and apply a flat tax rate above that amount. He said last week his campaign may consider raising the threshold after reviewing California’s cost of living. Either version would substantially reduce state revenue, and Hilton has said he would make up the difference by cutting one-third of state spending.
He has not detailed how he would move such a plan through the state Legislature, where Democrats hold supermajorities in both houses.
Hilton was born in London to Hungarian immigrants and began his political career with Britain’s Conservative Party. He became a key adviser in the rise of Prime Minister David Cameron in 2010. Hilton moved to Silicon Valley in 2012, where his wife worked as a Google executive, and later became involved in startups. In 2017, during Trump’s first presidency, he launched a weekly Fox News program, “The Next Revolution,” which ran until 2023.
Original source: CalMatters
