his campaign posted on the social media platform X. <\/a>\u201cThis is the moment California has been waiting for!\u201d<\/p>\nDespite California\u2019s solidly Democratic electorate, a recent poll by UC Berkeley\u2019s Institute of Governmental Studies found Hilton and Bianco leading the crowded field of candidates just months before the June 2 primary \u2014 leading to the possibility of Democrats being shut out of a November election that will determine California\u2019s next governor. The crowded field of Democrats in the race has splintered their party\u2019s voters, providing an opening for the Republicans, the poll showed.<\/p>\n
Under the state\u2019s top-two primary system, the top two candidates advance to the general election, regardless of their party affiliation.<\/p>\n
If Trump\u2019s endorsement leads to California Republican voters coalescing behind Hilton, severely damaging Bianco\u2019s campaign, that likely would reduce the odds of two GOP candidates finishing in first and second place in the primary. <\/p>\n
In California\u2019s 2018 governor\u2019s race, Trump\u2019s endorsement of Republican businessman John Cox helped cement him as the GOP frontrunner and led to his second place finish in the primary election. That propelled Cox to the general election, where he was trounced by Newsom.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s endorsement came the day after Hilton and Bianco squared off in a testy debate in Rancho Mirage that was moderated by Richard Grenell, Trump\u2019s former ambassador to Germany, and days before the state GOP meets in San Diego to consider an endorsement in the race.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, Bianco said he suspected that Trump would weigh in on the race and that his team had been in talks with the president\u2019s advisors.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, I would want him to support me. He\u2019s the president of the United States,\u201d Bianco said in an interview.<\/p>\n
Hilton on Saturday questioned whether the president would weigh in on the race.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve said that I\u2019d be honored to have the President\u2019s endorsement. I think that the California Governor\u2019s race is pretty low on his [agenda] right now,\u201d he said in an interview. \u201cI haven\u2019t asked for that, and I\u2019m not expecting him to weigh in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jon Fleischman, the former executive director of the California Republican Party, wrote on Substack late Sunday that he believes that Trump\u2019s endorsement will significantly boost Hilton\u2019s support among GOP voters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis Timing Is Not Accidental,\u201d he wrote, noting that while it was previously unclear whether either candidate could receive the 60% of delegate votes to secure the party nod at its upcoming convention. \u201cWell, obviously this endorsement from the President for Hilton will supercharge his momentum going into the weekend convention\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Trump endorsed conservative commentator Steve Hilton for California governor late Sunday night. The endorsement could have a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[16854,7,2926,9,8,112637,13540,40574,217,1751,26686,8642,3020,73547,2211,112636,225,1519],"class_list":{"0":"post-253810","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-bianco","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-california-governor","11":"tag-california-headlines","12":"tag-california-news","13":"tag-california-republican-voter","14":"tag-candidate","15":"tag-crowded-field","16":"tag-day","17":"tag-democrats","18":"tag-endorsement","19":"tag-hilton","20":"tag-president-trump","21":"tag-primary","22":"tag-race","23":"tag-recent-opinion-poll","24":"tag-state","25":"tag-trump"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253810","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=253810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}