Conservative commentator Steve Hilton announces a run for California governor

Speaking to a boisterous crowd adjacent to the Huntington Beach pier on Tuesday, conservative commentator and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Steve Hilton took aim at California Democrats, alleging that their leadership has resulted in the destruction of the “California dream.”

Hundreds of supporters — many wearing “Make America Great Again” hats and American flag apparel — gathered at the beachfront amphitheater for Hilton’s first major campaign event, which comes a day after he announced his 2026 run for governor.

“What we’ve seen here in the last 15 years of Democrat one-party rule is an ideological experiment,” he told the crowd. “They’ve turned our beautiful state into the Wuhan lab of far-left extremism. They’ve been cooking up this virus. It’s infected us. It’s gone out to the rest of the country as well. All the bad ideas that have done so much damage, they all started here.”

Hilton, who announced his campaign in a video posted online Monday, faces steep odds. Californians last elected statewide Republican candidates in 2006, and the state’s residents have become more liberal since then. However, there is mounting frustration about issues such as crime, inflation and the cost of living.

Hilton told The Times in an interview he was compelled to run by his ability to climb the economic ladder after his family immigrated to the United Kingdom and his fears that this is no longer possible in California because Democrats control the state.

“We can’t go on like this,” Hilton said in an interview. “If you look at California, imagine another 15 years of this one-party rule and the consequences of that are unthinkable.”

“That dream has been snatched away,” he said. “I feel really, really motivated to turn that around because I can see how people are suffering. People are desperate for change, crying out for change.”

On Tuesday, Hilton criticized the Green New Deal, the eventual ban of new gas-powered cars starting in 2035, alleged ballot harvesting and “the extremism on race and gender,” saying the issues started in California. He pointed to the state’s long-delayed bullet train project — the cost of which has grown steadily over the years — as an example of the challenges facing the state under democratic leadership.

He proposed removing the state income tax for every Californian earning $100,000, building more houses to make property ownership attainable for the working class and boosting student test scores in math and English.

“We are going to make 100% of our students meet state standards and math and English and everything they need by making our public schools focus on education, not indoctrination,” he told the cheering crowd. “We’re going to hold teachers accountable. We’re going to reward the best teachers and remove the worst.”

His campaign rollout included some questionable claims, such as California having the highest unemployment in the nation. In March, while the state’s seasonally adjusted 5.3% unemployment rate was among the nation’s highest, Washington, D.C., Michigan and Nevada had higher rates of unemployment, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Despite positioning himself as a populist who has supported policy from both parties, Hilton’s vocal support of President Trump, including calling for an investigation into potential voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election will certainly be raised in the campaign.

On Monday, Hilton declined to answer whether he believed President Biden was legitimately elected in 2020.

“That was two federal elections ago. The focus has to be on our own election. I don’t even want to talk about any of that ancient history,” he said, arguing that “it’s a gotcha question. That’s the favorite of the media to make everything about President Trump.”

Trump has not weighed into the gubernatorial election, but Trump ally Vivek Ramaswamy, who is running for governor of Ohio next year, endorsed Hilton on Monday and appeared via video chat at Tuesday’s rally. Trump allies Rep. Kevin Kiley and former Rep. Matt Gaetz were also present at the event. Conservative activist Charlie Kirk endorsed Hilton via a video message played at the rally.

California Republicans who recognize their party’s challenges in statewide elections say Hilton represents their best hope forward.

“Fortune favors the bold. It is an uphill battle for a Republican to win statewide office, but if bold people like Steve don’t emerge, Republicans aren’t going to win,” said Conyers Davis, an advisor to former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Davis first met Hilton when conservative leader David Cameron of England visited then-Gov. Schwarzenegger’s cigar-smoking tent at the statehouse in Sacramento in 2008 and worked with him on Cameron’s successful 2010 campaign to become prime minister.

Additionally, the state’s jungle primary system, in which the two candidates who receive the most votes in the June 2026 primary move on to the general election regardless of party, mean Republicans have a decent shot of securing one of the spots on the November ballot.

That’s partly because the Democratic vote may be fractured by the large number of Democrats running — Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, state schools chief Tony Thurmond, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, former state Controller Betty Yee, former Rep. Katie Porter, former state Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and businessman Stephen Cloobeck.

Additionally, former Vice President Kamala Harris is weighing a bid and expected to make a decision by the end of the summer.

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On the Republican side, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco is the sole prominent GOP candidate who previously announced he would run. So if Democratic voters splinter, Bianco or Hilton could win one of the top two spots, despite the state’s deep blue tilt.

Hilton, 55, is the son of Hungarian immigrants who fled their homeland during a revolution in 1956. He was born in England and after graduating from Oxford, Hilton worked in politics and advertising. He then founded “Good Business,” a consulting firm that advised companies such as Nike and McDonald’s about ethical capitalism.

Described as “part Svengali, part spin doctor, part strategist” by the London Standard in 2006, Hilton was a senior adviser and close confidant of Cameron, who served as Britain’s prime minister from 2010 to 2016.

Hilton was credited with modernizing the British conservative movement, remaining true to free-market ideals while also supporting liberal social policy, such as backing gay rights and fighting climate change.

News reports about Hilton’s time at 10 Downing St. paint him as a charismatic but eccentric figure, routinely wearing wrinkled T-shirts, jeans or tracksuit pants, cycling gear and no shoes as he wandered around the prime minister’s stodgy formal residence.

Hilton immigrated to California in 2012 with his wife, Rachel Whetstone, who has worked as a public relations executive at Google, Uber, Facebook and Netflix. He became a U.S. citizen in 2021, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and was a vocal critic of shutdowns. The couple live in the affluent Silicon Valley community of Atherton and have two children.

Since he moved to the United States, Hilton has taught at Stanford University, hosted a Fox News show called “The Next Revolution,” and co-founded Crowdpac, a nonpartisan political fundraising website. He and the company parted ways in 2018 after his full-throated support of Trump caused controversy.

Hilton’s Silicon Valley relationships with billionaires such as venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya and former Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt could also be a boon to his gubernatorial campaign.

In 2023, Hilton founded Golden Together, a research group focused on restoring the California dream. Among the group’s policy focuses are the state’s business climate, homelessness, crime, affordable housing and wildfire management.