{"id":353858,"date":"2026-06-10T00:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T00:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/353858\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T00:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T00:09:08","slug":"steve-hilton-projected-to-advance-in-california-governor-race-joining-xavier-becerra-daily-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/353858\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Hilton projected to advance in California governor race, joining Xavier Becerra \u2013 Daily News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steve Hilton<\/a>, a former Fox News host, is projected to advance to the general election in the race for California governor, the Associated Press projects.<\/p>\n

That means Hilton is set to join Xavier Becerra<\/a>, a Democrat and former Biden administration Cabinet official, in the fall\u2019s runoff election for who will lead California.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat an incredible honor to be chosen by Californians to lead the movement for change in the greatest state in the greatest nation on earth,\u201d Hilton said in a statement. \u201cThere\u2019s nowhere better than California.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mission is clear,\u201d he said, \u201c to go to Sacramento, clean up corruption, cut your costs, help your business and fix our schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the weeks ahead, we will lay out my plan in detail to make our state \u2018Califordable\u2019 \u2014 particularly for workers and small businesses,\u201d Hilton said, referring to his campaign catchphrase related to affordability.<\/p>\n

That means progressive billionaire Tom Steyer<\/a>, who had been trailing Becerra and Hilton in third place, won\u2019t move forward in the election.<\/p>\n

The latest, unofficial vote tally showed Hilton leading Steyer by just over 200,000 votes. Becerra was ahead of Hilton by nearly 216,000.<\/p>\n

Earlier Tuesday, Becerra \u2014 who the AP projected would advance in first place on Friday \u2014 said he was looking forward to seeing who he\u2019d be up against in the fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnxious to see the end result,\u201d Becerra told a group of reporters about the primary election. \u201cThankful that it looks like a good number of Californians decided to cast ballots in this primary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hilton had also projected confidence earlier Tuesday that he would advance to the November runoff \u2014 though he told reporters he wouldn\u2019t declare victory until after the AP called the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not popping the champagne yet,\u201d he said, just hours before the AP declared that he had survived the primary election.<\/p>\n

Hilton, who was endorsed by Trump, billed himself throughout the campaign as a needed change for California, constantly railing against the Democratic leadership that has led the state for several years.<\/p>\n

The 56-year-old got his start in politics in the United Kingdom. Born in England to immigrant parents from Hungary \u2014 his father had found success as a professional hockey goalie before the couple fled during the 1956 revolution \u2014 Hilton started working with the Conservative Central Office in 1990.<\/p>\n

He would eventually become a close adviser to David Cameron and was credited with softening the prime minister\u2019s appearance. The two have since fallen out, disagreeing over Brexit (the term referring to the U.K. leaving the European Union) and other policy positions.<\/p>\n

An Atheron resident, Hilton had been leading a policy and research group, Golden Together. He cofounded a since-shuttered London restaurant, The Good Cook, and became a U.S. citizen in 2021.<\/p>\n

Historically, Republicans seeking statewide office in California have faced an uphill battle.<\/p>\n

California is a deep-blue state, with Democrats enjoying a 20-point voter registration advantage over Republicans. The last time Californians elected a Republican to the post of governor was 20 years ago, when then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was re-elected.<\/p>\n

But Hilton said he had a track record from his days in the UK government of working with people across the political spectrum and believed that, if elected, he could be successful in working with a Democratic-led state legislature.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it is the case that we have a legislature that\u2019s dominated by Democrats, I\u2019m very comfortable that we\u2019ll find ways to work together,\u201d he told reporters earlier Tuesday. \u201cThat\u2019s how I\u2019ve always been. I\u2019m open. I want to work with anyone who wants positive outcomes. I have a track record of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hilton came out of the gate Tuesday evening swinging at Becerra.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will draw a powerful contrast with Xavier Becerra, who represents more of the same cost, incompetence and corruption,\u201d Hilton said.<\/p>\n

There was a moment \u2014 particularly as the race was so unsettled leading up to Election Day \u2014 when it looked like Hilton and fellow Republican, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, could lock Democrats out of the general election. It was a jungle primary \u2014 where the top two vote-getters, no matter political party, advance to the general, and the volume of Democratic contenders and lack of a clear frontrunner had Democrats worried none of their candidates would gain enough traction to advance.<\/p>\n

Closer to the election, there were concerns that Republicans could, in fact, be shut out of the runoff, and Hilton renewed his earlier calls for Bianco to belatedly drop out of the race.<\/p>\n

Bianco did not heed those calls. But during a May debate, Bianco said he would back Hilton if the sheriff was no longer in the running.<\/p>\n

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host, is projected to advance to the general election in the race…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1400,7,9,8,400,204,100,13,136],"class_list":["post-353858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-2026-elections","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-california-politics","tag-election","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353858","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=353858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}