Republican Steve Hilton has secured a spot in the November general election for California governor, where he will face Democrat Xavier Becerra. Hilton, a former Fox News host and British-American political commentator, garnered approximately 25% of the vote in the June 2 primary, with about 88% of ballots counted as of Tuesday night.
His opponent, Becerra, is a former state attorney general and former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, who emerged from a crowded field of Democratic candidates.
Hilton's victory eliminates billionaire Democrat Tom Steyer, who spent $215 million of his own money on a populist campaign. Steyer conceded defeat Tuesday night and endorsed Becerra, stating, "It is absolutely essential that the candidate personally chosen by Trump does not get the keys to California," referring to Hilton.
The general election will now be a traditional partisan contest in a midterm year that Democrats view as a counterweight to the Trump administration.
California uses a top-two primary system, where the two candidates with the most votes advance to November regardless of party. Hilton led in polls for much of the race, energizing conservative voters with promises to cut income and gas taxes, boost oil drilling, and repeal environmental regulations such as state greenhouse gas reduction mandates.
He has framed his candidacy as a chance for cost-burdened Californians to end "16 years of one-party rule." The last Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, left office in 2011.
Hilton faces an uphill battle in November. Democrats outnumber Republicans in California by nearly two to one.
While Hilton claims to offer a different direction, every general election for governor in the last two decades has included a Republican candidate, but Democrats have won all except Schwarzenegger's tenure. Hilton also has the endorsement of President Donald Trump, who is widely unpopular in California.
Hilton downplayed the potential downside, saying, "I think it will be a huge help for Californians to have a governor who maintains a good working relationship with the president and his team."
Hilton's key campaign promise is to eliminate the state income tax on the first $100,000 of income and implement a flat tax rate on income above that. He has suggested the threshold could be raised after an economic analysis of the cost of living.
Either option would mean a massive reduction in state revenue, which Hilton says he would offset by cutting one-third of government spending. He has not explained how he would get such a proposal through the Democratic supermajority in the state legislature.
Born in London to Hungarian immigrants, Hilton began his political career working for the British Conservative Party and played a prominent role in Prime Minister David Cameron's rise in 2010. He moved to Silicon Valley in 2012, where his wife was a Google executive, and ventured into startups before launching a weekly Fox News program in 2017.
The show, "The Next Revolution," aired until 2023.