{"id":281015,"date":"2026-04-22T23:03:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T23:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/281015\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T23:03:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T23:03:10","slug":"california-governor-hopeful-steve-hilton-makes-an-anti-newsom-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/281015\/","title":{"rendered":"California Governor Hopeful Steve Hilton Makes an Anti-Newsom Case"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn a campaign season filled with surprises, Steve Hilton<\/a> may be the biggest shock of them all. <\/p>\n

\n\tA conservative policy-meister born and bred in England, Hilton has surged to the top of a splintered California gubernatorial primary field. If that election were held today, Hilton would win and earn a ticket to the November showdown \u2014 slightly crazy for a man who has never held elected office and just a few months ago barely registered to many Californians.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs a policy architect and comms advisor to a host of British politicians \u2014 including, eventually, former British PM David Cameron \u2014\u00a0Hilton in England carved out a reputation as an idea-driven pragmatist who shaped that same image for his boss. Later in the 2010\u2019s he would move to Silicon Valley, starting a crowdfunding company called Crowdpac.<\/p>\n

\n\tHilton is a proponent of what he calls \u201cpositive populism\u201d \u2014 a movement that purports to downplay populist outrage in favor of practical solutions and that comes with (small) hints of social progressivism. For his 2026 gubernatorial campaign he has also drawn on plenty of media and entertainment experience. He hosted The Next Revolution\u00a0on Fox News on Sunday nights for six years beginning in the spring of 2017, where he\u00a0offered\u00a0extended debates and commentary from a conservative standpoint, albeit with slightly less trolling than some of the network\u2019s other opinion precincts. <\/p>\n

\n\tFans of the British satire\u00a0In The Thick\u00a0of It may\u00a0also find some commonalities between Hilton and the show\u2019s buzzword-happy political operative Stewart Pearson, said to be<\/a> partly based on him.\u00a0And Hilton is married to Rachel Whetstone, who served for years as the chief communications officer of Netflix.<\/p>\n

The 56-year-old has used his communications skills and the public\u2019s disenchantment with the state\u2019s high cost of living to offer an alternative; experience on the Democratic side of the ledger has become, in his campaign\u2019s messaging, a decided disadvantage. The strategy seems to be working: Hilton currently \u00a0leads all candidates with 16 percent of the vote in the latest polling<\/a>; Republican sheriff Chad Bianco (14 percent), Democratic billionaire Tom Steyer (13 percent) and Democratic former California AG Xavier\u00a0Becerra (13 percent) sit behind him. The top two vote-getters in a June 2 primary\u00a0regardless of party\u00a0will enter the general in November.<\/p>\n

As the candidates in the sprawling, messy race \u2014 Eric Swalwell\u2019s departure<\/a> amid an alleged sexual-misconduct scandal is just the latest crazy turn \u2014 get set to debate at the Nexstar debate on NewsNation<\/a> Wednesday night,\u00a0The Hollywood Reporter\u00a0took time to talk to Hilton about why the navy-blue entertainment industry should consider an FNC Republican. The conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.<\/p>\n

Your six years on Fox would put you in good company as a\u00a0Republican seeking the governorship, what with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ronald Reagan\u2019s own pre-politics claim to fame. How much do you think that experience helps?<\/p>\n

I can see where that thought is coming from since they were such prominent Republican governors. But I really don\u2019t see myself as part of that or really part of the media at all. My time on Fox was a major detour. The pathway to it was very unusual since I spent most of my\u00a0career\u00a0in business and spent years as a policy advisor.<\/p>\n

The bona fides do seem help you with President Trump, who recently endorsed you<\/a>. Is that an endorsement you want to lean into or play down? I mean, three-quarters of the voters in the state are Democrats and most of them do not hold a high opinion of the president.<\/p>\n

I appreciate the president\u2019s endorsement and help.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And you aren\u2019t concerned it will hurt you?<\/p>\n

I think it will help mobilize Republicans to come out and vote, both for me and in the midterm races. And mobilizing Republicans is key to winning in California.<\/p>\n

What made you decide to make the jump from cable news to campaigning?<\/p>\n

I really enjoyed building businesses and advocating for other businesses. And then I really enjoyed being on Fox. It had never occurred to me I would one day be doing something like this. But as the years went by on my show it did feel that there was more I wanted to do. I wanted to go back to solving problems instead of just describing them. So in 2023 I set up an organization called Golden Together and traveled around the state talking about solutions. I began to see how truly broken it all was. I was talking to a legislator and told him about an idea and he said it was \u201ctransformational.\u201d I said \u201cgreat, let\u2019s do it then!\u201d And he said \u201cNo, I can\u2019t support it publicly because the unions would hate it.\u201d I suppose I shouldn\u2019t have been shocked but I was.<\/p>\n

Speaking of problems, California has no shortage of them, whether it\u2019s unemployment, housing, education or a host of others.\u00a0What\u2019s\u00a0your pitch for why you can solve them?<\/p>\n

We need a massive shakeup to our system. We have the highest poverty rate of any state, tied with Louisiana. We have the highest unemployment of all 50 states. We are 50th\u00a0out of 50th\u00a0in \u201copportunity.\u201d California sees itself relative to the rest of the United States the way the United States sees itself relative to Europe: as the land of opportunity. And we are 50th.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So what you think can be done?\u00a0<\/p>\n

I think massive over-regulation is the problem.<\/p>\n

All of these problems are caused by regulation?<\/p>\n

Many of them. By the cost and hassle of running a business. Look at all the environmental regulations. There\u2019s not a single advocate who can explain what they do for the climate \u2014 they do nothing. They have zero impact.\u00a0The Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 did nothing but\u00a0\u00a0make life hard for Californians. And then you have the union power. And the power of trial lawyers. All three come together to give us the crisis we have today, on housing and so many other issues. This is what Gavin Newsom has been about, these three things. And of course it\u2019s not just him. It\u2019s what I call the Democrat-Industrial Complex. It\u2019s taxing like crazy with nothing to show for it.<\/p>\n

I think you touch a pretty broad \u00a0nerve when you talk about affordability. But if you look at others who\u2019ve talked about it \u00a0\u2014 like Mayor Zohran Mamdani in New York \u2014 they have programs to try to address them. What are your programs?\u00a0<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t look at it that way. I don\u2019t think\u00a0we should be taxing people more. How does taxing people more make things more affordable?<\/p>\n

Well it depends who\u2019s being taxed and what it\u2019s being used for.<\/p>\n

Well, someone is paying for it.<\/p>\n

I think most Californians would say that\u2019s OK if it\u2019s the billionaires up in Silicon Valley who\u2019re paying for it.<\/p>\n

Everyone is paying for it. The average Californian spends $35,000 more in taxes than the rest of the country. The governor wants to spend more\u00a0than $27,000 per student and what do you get for it? It\u2019s a calamity. I call it the Democratic Doom Loop. You institute policies that make everything more expensive and cause an affordability crisis. Then\u00a0to solve that you raise taxes so you can spend more and then things become even more unaffordable. Newsom likes to talk about us as the fourth-biggest economy in the world. And I\u2019m proud of that. But a lot of that is generated by tech companies so it skews the picture; the statistic sits side by side with the highest unemployment in the country. That\u2019s not a healthy economy.<\/p>\n

But your pro-business policies would just shift even more power and revenue to the biggest tech companies, wouldn\u2019t it? It wouldn\u2019t address working people\u2019s problems.<\/p>\n

It would make it easier to do business here, which would help everyone. The fourth-largest economy statistic\u00a0also includes government by the way. Government shouldn\u2019t be one of the biggest employers. It should be creating the conditions for business instead of doing that job poorly. The endless bossiness of government in California is a big problem. Unfortunately all the horror stories you hear about this are true.<\/p>\n

One industry that would certainly welcome some ideas to help it flourish and hire more people is Hollywood. I know some of your opponents talk about raising the $750 million cap on film subsidies for California productions \u2014 a number that Newsom already more than doubled to get to that point. What would be your solution to the jobs crisis in Hollywood?
There\u2019s no question we have to revive the entertainment industry before it slips further into decline. I\u2019m working on a plan to do just that that you\u2019ll be hearing about soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Can you offer any details?<\/p>\n

Not yet, but I will. Tax incentives have to be a part of the story \u2014 no question. But it has to be more than that.<\/p>\n

How do you plan on handling the potential AI job dislocation \u2014\u00a0in Hollywood and also beyond. You even have some of the biggest tech CEOs admitting this will be an issue, never mind all the creative and tech workers who are already seeing the impact.<\/p>\n

First, I want to say I\u2019m really so skeptical of politicians who talk about this and don\u2019t know what they\u2019re talking about. The focus has to be on retraining people for AI, on a well-trained workforce, and right now we\u2019re so lamentably far from that. We need a way to prepare people to flourish in an uncertain future. We need to restore a lot of vocational training, because these are the jobs that will be more resistant to AI.<\/p>\n

I think a lot of people would agree with you on the last point \u2014 the focus on the jobs that AI can\u2019t touch should be a priority. But shouldn\u2019t caring about workers also mean limits on what AI companies can do that displaces people from jobs?<\/p>\n

No one really know the truth of how this will turn out, including the people running the companies. But the right approach is not to stop it. Our response should be creative and flexible. That\u2019s what I bring: an approach that isn\u2019t clamping down. California has what I call a rebel spirit. It\u2019s what created Hollywood; it\u2019s what created the tech industry. And I see that being crushed. As a Californian who loves this state it breaks my heart. We need to restore that rebel spirit.<\/p>\n

Finally, what would you say to the many readers in Hollywood and Los Angeles to persuade them to vote for a small-government conservative, which is, to say the least, not historically who they vote for.<\/p>\n

That I\u2019m not an ideologue. I\u2019m problem-solving pragmatist at heart. California is the best place to run a business or to live if we just stop doing stupid things. A lot of these regulations start in a good place. But taken to extremes we see what happens. I want to bring it back into balance. I want to bring government back into balance. We see what one-party rule brings us for 15 years. When I take office in January 2027 Democrats will still have a supermajority in the legislature; a lot of cities will still be run by Democrats. It\u2019s just about balance. We\u2019ve seen what happens when we don\u2019t have it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a campaign season filled with surprises, Steve Hilton may be the biggest shock of them all. A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,17382],"class_list":{"0":"post-281015","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","11":"tag-steve-hilton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281015","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=281015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}