{"id":199215,"date":"2026-03-01T11:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T11:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/199215\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T11:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T11:32:10","slug":"inside-california-politics-feb-28-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/199215\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside California Politics Feb. 28, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Inside California Politics) \u2014 Fresh off a pair<\/a> of polls<\/a> showing him narrowly atop a crowded field of governor candidates, Republican hopeful Steve Hilton told Inside California Politics host Nikki Laurenzo that Californians are fed up with 16 years of Democratic dominance.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone can see it\u2019s time for change, time for some balance in our politics,\u201d he said in a one-on-one interview. \u201cI think that\u2019s what\u2019s being reflected in all of these different polls.\u201d<\/p>\n

A former Fox News commentator and advisor to British Prime Minister David Cameron, Hilton has led in several recent polls \u2014 though each survey shows a muddled race with no clear frontrunner.<\/p>\n

Hilton weighed in on the state\u2019s top-two primary system \u2014 something he believes should be abolished. This year, though, it\u2019s also a structure that could lead to two Republicans advancing if Democrats don\u2019t rally behind a frontrunner.<\/p>\n

Although it\u2019s mathematically possible, Hilton said he doubts both he and Republican Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco advance to the general election.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s much more likely you\u2019ll get two Democrats, because the Republicans right now are splitting the vote,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

If Hilton advances to the general election, he said there\u2019s not a preferred Democratic opponent he would like to face.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to be honest, they\u2019re not particularly impressive candidates,\u201d he said. \u201cNone of them, it seems to me, are laying out with any kind of clarity or conviction the kind of change we need in California.\u201d<\/p>\n

Discussing Democratic candidate Matt Mahan, Hilton said he doesn\u2019t believe the moderate mayor had made positive changes to San Jose during a recent visit to the Bay Area city \u2014 \u201cI always think it\u2019s important to be polite,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m always interested in learning and I want to see what works,\u201d Hilton said. \u201cAnd I went with Matt. We had a very nice visit. I like him personally, by the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also criticized Bianco, including for a viral video of the law enforcement leader taking a knee with activists during protests against police brutality in 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m afraid Chad has got more baggage than LAX,\u201d Hilton said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of baggage there, including his positions on immigration that are very different to mine. And I think that that will be used by the Democrat machine to get Republican voters to stay home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hilton said he is friends with President Donald Trump and \u201chalf the cabinet,\u201d relationships he believes would benefit California. While some Republicans shy away from associations with the president, Hilton said he would welcome a potential endorsement from Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be an honor,\u201d he said. \u201cLook, I\u2019m a proud American, a new American citizen. To have the support of the president would be incredible. But he does not do well in California.\u201d<\/p>\n

If elected, Hilton said he would have \u201creal aggression\u201d to tackle what he described as a government bloated by bureaucracy.<\/p>\n

Government efficiency is a major part of Hilton\u2019s platform, including his organization CalDOGE \u2014 the California Department of Government Efficiency. He believes waste, fraud and abuse are rampant across the state\u2019s spending.<\/p>\n

In the wide-ranging interview, Hilton slammed Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democrats for the state\u2019s ballooning budget and discussed his proposal for a flat tax of 7.5% plus an exemption for the first $100,000 in income.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a reduction in state revenue of 18.5%, which is a big reduction \u2014 but actually it takes the budget back to what it was just a couple of years ago,\u201d Hilton said. \u201cIt\u2019s not some crazy outlandish scheme that we\u2019ve never heard anything like before.\u201d<\/p>\n

An abbreviated version of Nikki\u00a0Laurenzo\u2019s interview with Steve Hilton aired on Inside California Politics, and the full version can be found below.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX40 News. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Inside California Politics) \u2014 Fresh off a pair of polls showing him narrowly atop a crowded field of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,400,31000,17382],"class_list":["post-199215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-california-politics","tag-nikki-laurenzo","tag-steve-hilton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}