{"id":311759,"date":"2026-05-12T09:47:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T09:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/311759\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T09:47:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T09:47:10","slug":"california-governor-candidate-steve-hilton-visits-barstow-del-taco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/311759\/","title":{"rendered":"California governor candidate Steve Hilton visits Barstow Del Taco"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a recent Barstow town hall, Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton <\/a>stopped by one of the first Del Taco restaurants to enjoy some food.<\/p>\n

In the video posted to Facebook, Hilton is standing outside the North First Avenue Del Taco, while holding a hard shell, crispy taco, overflowing with cheese and a tomato slice, partially wrapped in yellow paper.<\/p>\n

Hilton points to a newly constructed concrete mural wall near the entrance to the new North First Avenue Bridge<\/a>. The mural shows a train traveling under the recently dismantled old First Avenue Bridge.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\"After<\/p>\n

After a recent Barstow town hall, Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton stopped by one of the first Del Taco restaurants to enjoy some food.<\/p>\n

He mentioned participating \u201cin a great town hall here in Barstow,\u201d the hometown of his running mate Gloria Romero<\/a>, who is vying for the lieutenant governor seat.<\/p>\n

Romero called the May 9 public gathering at Cora Harper Community Center the \u201cCali-Fordable Town Hall,\u201d where the duo would discuss \u201cactionable, common-sense solutions to make living in our great state affordable again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hilton explained that he\u2019s holding a \u201cBarstow street taco\u201d because he purchased it from the historic \u201cOriginal Del Taco.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pushing the taco toward the front of the camera,\u201d Hilton ends the video by saying, \u201cSo, there it is, my Barstow street taco. I\u2019m going to enjoy it, see you soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"After<\/p>\n

After a recent Barstow town hall, Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton stopped by one of the first Del Taco restaurants to enjoy some food.<\/p>\n

Romero worked at Del Taco<\/p>\n

Romero took to X to thank Hilton for \u201cjoining the Barstow community today\u201d and calling the town hall a great success.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so glad you took everyone\u2019s advice to stop at the historic @DelTaco<\/a> ORIGINAL site!\u201d Romero told Hilton on X. \u201cDel Taco was my first jog [sic] as a teenager and I\u2019ve always been thankful of all the workplace skills I learned there! Onward to victory!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"After<\/p>\n

After a recent Barstow town hall, Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton stopped by one of the first Del Taco restaurants to enjoy some food.<\/p>\n

What is a street taco?<\/p>\n

Many took to social media to tell Hilton that his taco was not considered a \u201cstreet taco.\u201d<\/p>\n

Street tacos are a traditional Mexican snack of warm corn tortillas typically filled with meat, topped with onions, cilantro and often a spicy sauce, according to Nation\u2019s Restaurant News.<\/p>\n

The Original Del Taco<\/p>\n

Others explained to Hilton that the First Avenue Del Taco was the second store for the company.<\/p>\n

Despite the First Avenue Del Taco displaying the phrase “Original Del Taco,\u201d the first Del Taco was built east of Barstow.<\/p>\n

In 1964, Ed Hackbarth and David Jameson opened the first Del Taco in Yermo, with a menu that included 19-cent tacos, tostadas, fries, and 24-cent cheeseburgers, the Daily Press reported.<\/p>\n

The three Del Taco sites in Barstow are still independently owned and operated by the family, while the remaining stores are under the new parent company Yadav Enterprises. \u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Primary poll<\/p>\n

A June primary poll released Monday, May 4, showed a tight race between gubernatorial candidate Hilton and Democrat Xavier Becerra, with each capturing 18% of voters, according to an EVITARUS tracking poll commissioned by the California Democratic Party.<\/p>\n

Hilton<\/a> and Republican candidate Chad Bianco followed with 14%, then Democratic candidate Tom Steyer with 12%.<\/p>\n

Democrats Katie Porter and Matt Mahan were close with 8% and 7%, respectively, while Antonio Villaraigosa and Tony Thurmond each held 2% or less. Fourteen percent of voters remained undecided.<\/p>\n

Brian Coulter of Barstow told the Daily Press that online photos of Hilton holding food from In-N-Out Burger<\/a> and Del Taco, both founded in the Golden State, \u201cmakes him prime California governor material.\u201d<\/p>\n

June primary dates<\/p>\n

Some key dates for the June primary<\/a>\u00a0include:<\/p>\n

May 4: County elections officials will begin mailing each registered voter a vote\u2010by\u2010mail ballot.<\/p>\n

May 5: Ballot drop\u2010off locations open.<\/p>\n

May 18: Last day to register for the June primary<\/p>\n

May 23: Voting centers open for Voter’s Choice Act counties for early in-person voting<\/p>\n

June 2: Primary election day: Polls from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.<\/p>\n

Voters will choose California’s next governor during\u00a0the general election\u00a0on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026.<\/p>\n

The Desert Sun contributed to this story.<\/p>\n

Daily Press reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at RDeLaCruz@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on X @DP_ReneDeLaCruz<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Steve Hilton visit to Barstow Del Taco sparks social media buzz<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a recent Barstow town hall, Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton stopped by one of the first Del…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[130008,7,9,8,8133,67249,15219,17382,130007],"class_list":["post-311759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-barstow-street-taco","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-del-taco","tag-gloria-romero","tag-gubernatorial-candidate","tag-steve-hilton","tag-street-taco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311759","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=311759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}