{"id":262484,"date":"2026-04-11T09:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T09:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/262484\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T09:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T09:42:09","slug":"trump-backs-hilton-ahead-of-california-gop-vote-testing-biancos-grip-on-party-endorsement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/262484\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump backs Hilton ahead of California GOP vote, testing Bianco\u2019s grip on party endorsement"},"content":{"rendered":"

California Republicans this weekend will vote to endorse their pick for California governor in the race to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The vote, this Sunday in San Diego at the California GOP\u2019s annual convention, comes a week after President Donald Trump<\/a> took sides between the two major Republican candidates in the race, backing conservative commentator and former Fox News Channel host Steve Hilton over Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.<\/p>\n

Trump, whose endorsements are extremely influential in GOP primaries, argued in his endorsement statement that California had \u201cgone to hell\u201d and that \u201cSteve can turn it around, before it is too late, and, as President, I will help him to do so!\u201d<\/p>\n

The president\u2019s support for Hilton is expected to pay immediate dividends at the state GOP convention.<\/p>\n

HERE\u2019S WHO TRUMP IS BACKING IN THE GOLDEN STATE GUBERNATORIAL SHOWDOWN<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it definitely can help rally the base behind a candidate and generate some noise and some enthusiasm,\u201d California Republican Party<\/a> chairwoman Corrin Rankin told Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n

Bianco is a loyal Trump supporter who has plenty of friends and support among California Republican insiders. But Trump\u2019s endorsement of Hilton, a top adviser to then-British Prime Minister David Cameron a decade and a half ago before moving to the U.S. and becoming an American citizen in 2021, may boost him at the GOP convention, where backing from 60% of delegates is needed to land the party\u2019s endorsement.<\/p>\n

But Bianco, the sheriff who recently grabbed plenty of national attention for seizing ballots in Riverside County, appeared defiant.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor too long, politicians and insiders from Sacramento to Washington have tried to pick our leaders for us. That\u2019s not leadership, that\u2019s a coronation, and it\u2019s exactly how we ended up with the failed leadership Californians are living with today,\u201d he said in a social media video. \u201cThis election belongs to the people, not the political class.\u201d<\/p>\n

TOUGH ON CRIME REPUBLICAN SHERIFF LAUNCHES BID FOR CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR<\/a><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s endorsement may have another unintended consequence.<\/p>\n

Candidates from both major political parties appear on the same ballot in the left-leaning state\u2019s June primary, with the top two finishers advancing to November\u2019s general election.<\/p>\n

Some Democrats were concerned that with nine candidates in the race, support among Democratic voters would be so badly divided in the primary that no contender would reach the general election<\/a>. Hilton and Bianco had been the top two candidates in some public opinion polls, giving some in the GOP hope of a final face-off between two Republicans.<\/p>\n

That scenario may be less likely now, as Hilton\u2019s support is expected to rise and Bianco\u2019s drop in light of the president\u2019s endorsement.\u00a0Polling in the past week gave a hint of a Hilton surge.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump kills any GOP hopes of an R vs R runoff in the California governor\u2019s race<\/a>,\u201d Rob Pyers of California Target Book, which describes itself as a non-partisan and unbiased political almanac, wrote last week in a social media post.<\/p>\n

MEDIA PERSONALITY STEVE HILTON ENTERS CALIFORNIA GUBERNATORIAL RACE<\/a><\/p>\n

But Hilton dismissed as a pipe dream talk of shutting out the Democrats from the general election ballot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat scenario of two Republicans [making the general election ballot], I\u2019ve been saying this for months, was always a fantasy,\u201d Hilton said on Fox Business\u2019 \u201cThe Bottom Line.\u201d \u201cThe idea that the Democrat machine in California was just going to hand over the state to two Republicans was never serious. It was never, never going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

He further argued, \u201cWhat was more likely was actually\u2026you were going to have two Democrats in the top two and then we\u2019ll have no chance of change. So this really makes sure that we have a Republican in the top two.\u201d<\/p>\n

No Republican has won a statewide election in California since then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger<\/a>\u2018s 2006 re-election victory.<\/p>\n

And with the president\u2019s approval rating in California hovering in the 30s, Trump\u2019s endorsement will likely do Hilton no favors if he makes it onto the November ballot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California Republicans this weekend will vote to endorse their pick for California governor in the race to succeed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-262484","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262484","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=262484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}