President Trump’s voter fraud accusations in California are already highlighting the tricky terrain facing gubernatorial nominee Steve Hilton as he navigates running as a Trump-endorsed Republican in a state where the president is hugely unpopular.

The British political adviser-turned-U.S. politician touted what is the most sought-after endorsement in GOP politics at every turn on the primary campaign trail. But now that support looks like an obstacle as he seeks to become the state’s first Republican governor in 20 years.

Republicans are already facing a difficult national environment. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Tuesday found the president’s approval rating at 35 percent nationally, while California polls have shown his approval rating in the high 20-percent range.

Trump re-upped his unfounded voter fraud claims while speaking about Hilton in the Oval Office on Wednesday, arguing it was his warning about voter fraud that helped Hilton get “approved” for the nomination.

“After a week, they determined that a kid who’s leading and had all the mojo, all of the sudden he doesn’t make the runoff, and then I hit them hard on that,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, referring to former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt.

“I started talking about Steve Hilton, who’s a fantastic guy, and I saw them say it was going to be two weeks before they knew, and I started hitting them,” he continued, recounting that he said, “it’s going to happen to Steve Hilton.”

“And they approved Steve Hilton very quickly,” he said, adding, “there was too much heat on them.”

California officials warned it would take days or even weeks to finalize the outcomes of the June 2 primaries because of the state’s rules surrounding how it handles mail-in ballots. California allows ballots to be counted if they are postmarked on or before an election day and arrive no later than seven days after it.

While some Trump allies backed his claims of voter fraud, other senior Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune (S.D.), acknowledged what they said were the issues with the state’s ballot count system but did not call it fraud.

Some Democrats, including Rep. Ro Khanna (Calif.), have also pushed back on fraud claims but have said the states need to figure out how to count and tabulate votes faster so the process does not drag.

Hilton, for his part, has somewhat distanced himself from claims of voter fraud but said the state’s system of tabulating votes needs to be changed.

“There’s so many things wrong with the system. I’ve been saying all along that we take it very seriously because we don’t want to let people down, and we’ve been very vigilant,” Hilton said in an interview with CNN on Monday. “We’ve seen nothing that would give us cause to intervene in that way.”

Trump’s voter fraud claims in the state’s election are indicative of the fine line Hilton and other Republicans running statewide — particularly those endorsed by the president — have to walk.

“Hilton walks a delicate line here because obviously you can’t reject the endorsement of the sitting president of the United States because you turn off your base,” said Matt Klink, a California-based Republican strategist.

Democratic nominee Xavier Becerra has already sought to tie Trump to Hilton.

“Last week, Californians sent a clear message: more than four million voters chose a different path than the one Steve Hilton and Donald Trump are offering. That’s the mandate I’ll carry into November,” Becerra said in a post on social platform X following the final results Wednesday.

The Democrat also reposted an X post from Hilton thanking Trump for his endorsement, writing, “all you need to know.”

But most Republicans say Trump’s endorsement of Hilton is the least of the Republican nominee’s problems in deep blue California.

A University of California, Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll released Thursday showed Becerra leading Hilton 52 percent to 31 percent among registered voters.

“Democrats in California are always going to link any Republican to President Trump whether or not he endorses them or not,” said Tim Rosales, a veteran California Republican strategist.

Hilton also faces a voter roll challenge running as a Republican statewide in California — most notably the advantage Democrats have over Republicans. According to state data, Democrats make up just under 45 percent of the registered voters while Republicans make up 25 percent.

“Sure, Trump’s a drag on him, but registration numbers are the bigger drag,” said Rob Stutzman, a California political consultant and onetime aide to former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R).

Hilton has presented himself as a change agent in the state after 16 years of Democratic control.

He brushed off questions about Trump’s low approval ratings during an interview on “The Hill Sunday” last month, arguing that the state’s economic woes have nothing to do with Trump, rather “Democrat policies after 16 years of one-party rule.”

“This election is going to be about the future of California and the fact that we’re desperate for change in California,” Hilton told host Chris Stirewalt.

Stutzman argued that ultimately the decision to embrace Trump may not make a difference. Former Republican Senate candidate Steve Garvey distanced himself from Trump during his race against now-Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) in 2024, even garnering the ire of Trump himself.

Ultimately, Garvey lost to Schiff by more than 17 points.

“You can run away from Trump as a Republican, and it still only gets you to an 18-point loss instead of a 21-point loss,” Stutzman said.

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