California’s November election will see a TV personality running, after all.
One day after Spencer Pratt was eliminated from the Los Angeles mayoral race, former Fox News host Steve Hilton finished second in California’s gubernatorial primary and will face Biden-era Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra in the general election. The British-born freshman candidate edged out progressive Tom Steyer, who was trailing Hilton as votes flowed in, but was never able to completely close the gap.
The Republican Hilton led by at least 300,000 votes and four percentage points over Steyer largely since the primary a week ago, even as Becerra passed him for first place several days later. On Tuesday, with a new drop in votes of more than 600,000 ballots, Steyer narrowed the gap slightly. But Hilton still maintains her lead by 200,000 votes and 2.5 percentage points after the decline in votes. With only 9% of the votes remaining to be counted, the AP late Tuesday called the race.
The move ends progressive billionaire Steyer’s attempt to reform California with a series of activist, labor-centered, artificial intelligence and environmentally aggressive regulatory policy proposals, as well as a strongly opposed stance on Paramount’s purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery. He spent a national high of more than $200 million on the effort, but still acquitted himself well by more than 2 million votes. Liberal screenwriters will wonder whether Congresswoman Katie Porter will end up receiving more than 400,000 votes — enough to give Steyer the victory had her fellow liberal Democrat dropped out.
A former strategist for Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron in England, Hilton arrived in Silicon Valley with his wife Rachel Whitson in early 2010 where she worked in a series of high-level communications jobs at Google, Uber and Netflix. During that time, Hilton was an entrepreneur and also hosted the Sunday Fox News show for six years; While he advocated conservative positions, he emerged on the network with a more inclusive and less biased vibe than some of his colleagues.
Hilton also enjoyed a different kind of TV fame in the UK with buzzword-loving actor Stuart Pearson in Armando Iannucci’s political satire The Thick of itaccordingly.
Hilton faces a tough challenge in trying to stop Becerra — in addition to having the support of Donald Trump in an often anti-Trump state, Hilton must also defy partisan gravity. No Republican has won the governorship since Arnold Schwarzenegger last did so in 2006 — in fact, a Republican has failed to reach 41% of the vote count since that time.
Hilton will seek to build a campaign on precisely this fact, arguing that California’s challenges stem from long-standing Democratic dominance. During the primary, he struck that tone forcefully, pointing to Democrat Gavin Newsom’s eight-year (term-limited) term. To be sure, Hilton’s policies differ sharply from even those of a moderate Democrat like Becerra — he favors cutting taxes, cutting regulations, and even building low-density housing to solve the state’s housing crisis.
Hilton has also distinguished herself on the Hollywood front, promising a major entertainment tax credit program of up to 60% per project with no annual cap and post-production eligibility. Becerra has taken a much more moderate approach, though it remains to be seen whether this will sway many Democratic entertainment workers into party hopping. Becerra also has much more electoral experience, having won 14 California elections (several easy ones as a congressman).
Whoever wins can take solace in the prospect of remaining in office for a while. In an electoral peculiarity in California, every governor since 1942 has served more than one term.
