The top two Republican candidates for California governor, Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton, made a stop in Bakersfield on Saturday to answer questions, share their intentions to lead a state they both profess a deep affinity for and to express themselves without a Democratic candidate sharing the stage.

Bianco and Hilton have been part of three nationally televised debates in the past two weeks, but this event, the California Young Republicans Governor’s Forum, was their opportunity to speak at the Liberty Center to a mostly local audience of Kern County voters, politicians and members of the California Young Republican Federation and Kern County Young Republicans.

“I think enforcement of the (debate) rules may not be as necessary as Chad and I have had to face the last few debates with the Democrats there,” Hilton said during his opening statement. “They’ve been somewhat more aggressive with them than we need to be because here’s the bottom line, we agree. I don’t know what percentage we’d put on it, but there’s a very strong agreement between us about what’s wrong with California, what needs to be fixed and how we need to fix it.”

Said Bianco: “It’s been an interesting campaign, it has been an interesting two weeks with the TV debates and it’s everything (Hilton) said. It’s completely obvious to everyone in California that if we are going to make a change, if we are going to make anything in our state better, it’s going to be with a Republican governor because not one of those other people on the stage with us is going to do anything to make our lives better.”

They both want to end the current 16-year streak of a Democrat leading the state’s decisions from Sacramento. The two candidates with the most votes in the June 2 primary — regardless of political party — go on to the general election in November.

The last Republican to hold the position was Arnold Schwarzenegger, a bodybuilder and actor in “Terminator” action movies. He won a special election when Gray Davis was recalled in 2003, and then won a full term and remained in office until 2011.

Matthew Martin, chairman of the Kern County Young Republicans, said that group and the California Young Republicans were honored to host the first gubernatorial debate featuring the two Republican candidates in person, giving Central Valley voters a chance to hear directly from Bianco and Hilton.

“The candidates addressed a wide range of issues, including homelessness, unchecked spending in Sacramento, housing and job opportunities for younger generations — and discussed how, if elected, they would help restore the American Dream and revitalize the Golden State,” Martin said.

Current polls show Hilton, Bianco and Democrats Xavier Becerra, Katie Porter and Tom Steyer, among voters’ top choices in the primary.

The 58-year-old Bianco, who serves as the sheriff of Riverside County and has been in law enforcement for 33 years, spoke often about his experience and his desire to bring accountability, run government with transparency and make the state a better place to live, work, raise a family, improve education and more. To do it, he often repeated a list of action words designed to stick — the need to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse.

“The cost of living is the biggest problem everyone has in California. The drivers of those are housing, gasoline and taxes. You have to lower those, attack them if we’re really going to lower the cost of living,” the sheriff said. “My plan is that California will be oil independent. We will have the closest to, if not the cheapest, gas in the state. When you do that, when you combine that with the waste, fraud and abuse that we know is happening and you eliminate that, eventually that funding used from our own oil will eliminate state income tax.”

The 55-year-old Hilton, born in London, is a political commentator who hosted “The Next Revolution” on Fox News (2017-23) and served as a top adviser to former U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron from 2010-12. Hilton, who came to California in 2012, started businesses and became a U.S. citizen in 2021, has the endorsement of President Donald Trump. Hilton spoke adamantly about the need for change of the “one-party rule” in California.

Hilton also has several actions that he wants to get through to ease life for residents of California — one way is a kind of buzzword, “Califordable.” He highlighted such items as $3 gas, cutting electricity bills in half, making the first $100,000 tax-free, finding ways to make housing more affordable and more.

Both focused on high taxes and far too many regulations, saying they need to be examined. Both candidates sharply criticized the government climate in Sacramento. They believe it will be a difficult job ahead, but both believe if they are elected it will be a necessary change that voters, too, want to see.

Asked about the prospect of working with the current Democrat supermajority in the state Legislature, both said that as Republicans, it be might be more about how Democrats have to adjust to a new Republican governor in office.

“I want to have the correct attitude toward it,” Hilton said. “Number one, it’s not a legit supermajority. They have two-thirds in each chamber but when did they ever get two-thirds of the votes statewide? Never. This is gerrymandering. Let’s just be clear about that. We should be setting ourselves a goal, and I have, of breaking the supermajority and we should be trying to do it this year. We should be fighting to elect Republicans at every level in the Assembly and the Senate to break this supermajority. We can’t just sit here and accept it.”

Bianco took a hard stance, too.

“I have been saying this for 16 months, that they will work with me because they put me in (as governor) to be in position to change it. I’ve already been doing this for the last seven years. I live in a blue county. There’s a 4-1 blue board, where I am sheriff, there are 17 city councils with 17 blue mayors. It is blue in Riverside County, and based on their own polling, they are stuck with me.

“I’m the most popular elected official in Riverside County history. It’s certainly not because I’m a Republican. It’s because I do everything in my power to make sure government is operating as it is supposed to be.”