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# Conservative commentator and ex-Fox News host Steve Hilton to run for California governor

April 22nd, 2025 04:14 PM

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HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Conservative commentator Steve Hilton announced Tuesday that he's joining the 2026 race for California governor, running as a Republican to replace Democrat Gavin Newsom, who is prevented by law from seeking a third term.

Hilton, who hosted a show on Fox News for six years and worked as an adviser to former British prime minister David Cameron, faulted state Democrats during a formal campaign launch in Huntington Beach, southeast of Los Angeles, for the state's notoriously high taxes, soaring home prices and "the destruction of the California dream."

He said he would welcome a candidacy by former Vice President Kamala Harris, a one-time California U.S. senator and attorney general who has not ruled out a run for the job.

He said the governor's job is not a "consolation prize to be handed out to a failed and rejected machine politician from Washington … who thinks she should get this job because of her identity, not her ability."

Harris is the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother and would become the first Black woman elected governor in the U.S., if she runs and wins.

Hilton also blamed the vast scale of January's Southern California wildfires on "Democratic extremism and incompetence," along with the party's "industrial complex" of activists, unions and bureaucrats.

The causes of the deadlyPalisades Fire and Eaton Fire remain under investigation. Both ignited Jan. 7 during powerful Santa Ana winds in a region that had been bone dry for eight months. The Palisades Fire, the largest of the blazes, destroyed more than 6,800 structures and killed at least 12 people. The Eaton Fire destroyed more than 9,000 structures and killed 18 people.

Hilton did not specifically detail what he was blaming on Democrats. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat, later ousted the fire chief amid a public rift over preparations for a potential blaze and finger-pointing between the chief and City Hall over responsibility for the devastation. The water system used to fight the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles buckled under the demands of what turned out to be the most destructive fire in city history, with some hydrants running dry. Bass has faced criticism for being out of the country when the blaze started.

With the theme "Golden Again: Great Jobs, Great Homes, Great Kids," his campaign said Hilton will be "reinforcing his commitment to positive, practical solutions instead of today's ideology and dogma," according to a statement.

His campaign said Hilton's brand of "positive populism" would focus on helping working families.

Hilton joins a field crowded by prominent Democrats including former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a strong supporter of President Donald Trump, is the other Republican in the race. The race could be dramatically shaken up if Harris decides to run.

California operates a top-two primary system where all candidates compete on one ballot, regardless of party, and the two who receive the most votes go onto the general election in November.

Republicans have not won a statewide race in heavily Democratic California in nearly two decades. Arnold Schwarzenegger was the last Republican to be elected governor in 2006.