President Trump\u2019s voter fraud accusations in California are already highlighting the tricky terrain facing gubernatorial nominee Steve Hilton as he navigates running as a Trump-endorsed Republican in a state where the president is hugely unpopular.<\/p>\n
The British political adviser-turned-U.S. politician touted what is the most sought-after endorsement in GOP politics at every turn on the primary campaign trail. But now that support looks like an obstacle as he seeks to become<\/a> the state\u2019s first Republican governor in 20 years.<\/p>\n Republicans are already facing a difficult national environment. A Reuters\/Ipsos poll released Tuesday found the president\u2019s approval rating<\/a> at 35 percent nationally, while California polls have shown his approval rating in the high 20-percent range.<\/p>\n Trump re-upped his\u00a0unfounded\u00a0voter fraud claims while speaking about Hilton in the Oval Office on Wednesday, arguing it was his warning about voter fraud that helped Hilton get \u201capproved\u201d for the nomination.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter a week, they determined that a kid who\u2019s leading and had all the mojo, all of the sudden he doesn\u2019t make the runoff, and then I hit them hard on that,\u201d Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, referring to former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt.<\/p>\n \u201cI started talking about Steve Hilton,\u00a0who\u2019s a fantastic guy, and I saw them say it was going to be two weeks before they knew, and I started hitting them,\u201d he continued, recounting that he said, \u201cit\u2019s going to happen to Steve Hilton.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd they approved Steve Hilton<\/a> very quickly,\u201d he said, adding,\u00a0\u201cthere was too much heat on them.\u201d<\/p>\n California officials warned it would\u00a0take days or even weeks<\/a> to finalize the outcomes of the June 2 primaries\u00a0because of the state\u2019s rules surrounding how it handles mail-in ballots. California allows ballots to be counted if they are postmarked on or before an election day and arrive no later than seven days after it.<\/p>\n While some Trump allies backed his claims of voter fraud, other senior Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune (S.D.), acknowledged what they said were the issues with the state\u2019s ballot count system but did not call it fraud<\/a>.<\/p>\n Some Democrats,\u00a0including Rep. Ro Khanna (Calif.), have also pushed back on fraud claims but have said the states need to figure out how to count and tabulate votes faster\u00a0so the process does not drag.<\/p>\n Hilton, for his part, has somewhat distanced himself from claims of voter fraud but said the state\u2019s system of tabulating votes needs to be changed.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s so many things wrong with the system. I\u2019ve been saying all along that we take it very seriously because we don\u2019t want to let people down, and we\u2019ve been very vigilant,\u201d Hilton said in an interview with CNN on Monday. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen nothing that would give us cause to intervene in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s voter fraud claims in the state\u2019s election are indicative of the fine line Hilton and other Republicans running statewide \u2014 particularly those endorsed by the president \u2014 have to walk.<\/p>\n \u201cHilton walks a delicate line here because obviously you can\u2019t reject the endorsement of the sitting president of the United States because you turn off your base,\u201d said Matt Klink, a California-based Republican strategist.<\/p>\n Democratic nominee Xavier Becerra has already sought to tie Trump to Hilton.<\/p>\n \u201cLast week, Californians sent a clear message: more than four million voters chose a different path than the one Steve Hilton and Donald Trump are offering. That\u2019s the mandate I\u2019ll carry into November,\u201d Becerra said in a post on social platform X following the final results Wednesday.<\/p>\n The Democrat also reposted an X post from Hilton thanking Trump for his endorsement, writing,\u00a0\u201call you need to know.\u201d<\/p>\n But most Republicans say Trump\u2019s endorsement of Hilton is the least of the Republican nominee\u2019s problems in deep blue California.<\/p>\n