The Fox News Host Running For Governor of California
Former Conservative British Prime Minister advisor Steve Hilton is running for governor of California. Per the Associated Press, Hilton formally launched his campaign on April 23 in Huntington Beach, California. He announced his run at an event in Republican stronghold Orange County. Hilton also served as host of Fox News program The Next Revolution (2017–2023).
Without a doubt, Hilton faces an uphill battle.
A native of London, England and current resident of Atherton, California, Hilton will run as a Republican. Hilton intends to replace incumbent Democrat Gavin Newsom, who is subject to term limits.
The fact that California has not elected a Republican governor since 2003 is the tip of the iceberg. That said, he aims to reach voters disillusioned with California. After all, their state has the highest homelessness and poverty rates in the country. On top of that, we’re at the mercy of exorbitant housing costs while children statewide suffer from sub-par education. All this in spite of the Democrats having control of both houses of the Legislature since 1997 and of the governor’s office since 2011.
It’s no wonder he launched his campaign in Huntington Beach, where Pride flags are banned from being displayed on city property, and masks and vaccine mandates in response to COVID-19 are nixed.
However, Joe Garofoli, a senior political writer from the San Francisco Chronicle called Hilton out for talking out of both sides of his mouth. For example, despite his grievances about the Democratic party having destroyed California, he calls it the “greatest state in the nation” and frequently said he was “living the California Dream” after emigrating Stateside in 2012.
Furthermore, Garofoli points out that in his book, More Human: Designing a World Where People Come First, Hilton identifies with John Kasich. Kasich, the only slightly moderate Republican former Congressman and Ohio governor, is known for restrictive anti-abortion policy. Hilton is also fond of Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), who opposes same-sex marriage while couching this stance in the notion that the federal government should mind its own business. Perhaps most perplexing, Hilton also admires left-wing Senator and two-time candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination Bernie Sanders, who is very much the opposite of the other two.
Steve Hilton: Future Governor of California?
Steve Hilton gets defensive when fielding questions about Donald Trump. Even so, he greeted the entirely Republican Huntington Beach City Council as “the MAGA-nificent Seven” during his campaign launch by the city’s pier. In 2020, Steve Hilton also called the results of the election into question during a Fox News broadcast following Donald Trump’s defeat. That faux-pas may pose a problem for Hilton’s campaign.
Although Donald Trump received tens of thousands more votes in California in 2024 than he did in 2020, the majority of California voters, including moderate Republicans, despise him. And if moderate Republicans are aware of Hilton’s support for Trump since 2016, there’s no way in hell he will gain any credibility with them. It also doesn’t help matters that two of the major metropolitan areas in California, Los Angeles and San Francisco, both influential in gubernatorial elections due to their population density, both primarily lean Democratic.
I’d like to think San Francisco voters would for the most part reject Steve Hilton as a candidate for governor. We are only a third of the way through the second quarter of 2025 and just better than ninety days into the second Trump regime and already, Trump’s policies are creating chaos in San Francisco, particularly among small business owners in Chinatown and in the affordable housing industry. Though it’s early, the more disastrous Trump’s policies prove to be for the City by the Bay, the more likely voters will be pissed at Donald Trump and the entire Republican party. And the more voters fed up with Trump and his party, the better.
Let’s hope the Republican party fails at its usual tricks, like influencing the media by promising tax cuts to billionaires or spreading false information created with artificial intelligence. Come November 3, 2026, tell Steve Hilton to get fucked.
Howdy! My name is Katy Atchison and I'm an Associate Editor for Broke-Ass Stuart.
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