{"id":354365,"date":"2026-06-10T07:28:30","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T07:28:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/354365\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T07:28:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T07:28:30","slug":"californias-long-drawn-out-governor-primary-is-finally-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/354365\/","title":{"rendered":"California&#8217;s long, drawn-out governor primary is finally over"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Republican Steve Hilton has clinched his spot in this November\u2019s election for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/politics\/article\/california-governor-race-votes-22294745.php\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">California governor<\/a> after earning enough votes to get second place behind Democrat Xavier Becerra.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/california-governor-election-primary-2026-ead2e489977a95692300735520cae195\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Associated Press called the race<\/a> around 5 p.m. Tuesday, nearly a week after polls had closed. California\u2019s slow vote-counting process has become the target of bipartisan scorn, with Hilton <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcbayarea.com\/news\/local\/steve-hilton-new-plan-california-ballot-count\/4095267\/\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">decrying<\/a> the glacial process <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/GovPressOffice\/status\/2062553210137788823\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow\">alongside<\/a> Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s office.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Billionaire venture capitalist and Democrat Tom Steyer came within a few percentage points of Hilton but was ultimately unable to secure enough votes to move forward in the top-two primary. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.morningstar.com\/news\/marketwatch\/20260603150\/tom-steyer-spent-216-million-of-his-own-money-to-run-for-governor-of-california-heres-where-that-ranks\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Steyer spent over $216 million<\/a> of his own money in this year\u2019s race after spending <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fec.gov\/data\/candidate\/P00012716\/\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">over $317 million<\/a> in his failed 2020 presidential run. That means Steyer has spent over half a billion dollars without winning a single election.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Voters will now get to pick between Becerra and Hilton, two candidates with very different visions for the state. Hilton, a British former Fox News host, has railed against California\u2019s policies and called it \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/12\/03\/opinion\/steve-hilton-calis-corruption-dwarfs-minnesotas-fraud\/\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a failed state<\/a>.\u201d Hilton has promised tax breaks for families and wants to make California \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/stevehiltonforgovernor.com\/policy\/make-california-the-crypto-capital-of-the-world\/\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the crypto capital of the world<\/a>,\u201d according to his website. Becerra, a former attorney general and the health secretary under President Joe Biden, has promised to lower healthcare costs and fight the Trump administration if elected.<\/p>\n<p>Steyer\u2019s failure means voters will have an option to vote Republican, although California\u2019s lopsided electorate gives Democrats a massive advantage in statewide races.\u00a0Newsom won his last reelection campaign with over 59% of the vote and ended up over 2 million votes ahead of his Republican opponent Brian Dahle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Republican Steve Hilton has clinched his spot in this November\u2019s election for California governor after earning enough votes&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,1692,3100],"class_list":["post-354365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-sfgnews","tag-sfgpolitics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354365","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=354365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}