From Cable News to the Campaign Trail
“It’s time to end the years of Democrat failure.” With a digital flourish straight out of the Fox News playbook, Steve Hilton—once a prime-time fixture admonishing liberal policies from a New York studio—has crossed a new threshold: California’s gubernatorial race. Hilton, a former adviser to British Prime Minister David Cameron, Silicon Valley entrepreneur, and author of the book Califailure: Reversing the Ruin of America’s Worst-Run State, casts his candidacy as a reckoning against what he calls “one-party rule” in California. Now a U.S. citizen, Hilton’s challenge comes at a time when the Golden State is facing a pivotal transition, with Governor Gavin Newsom term-limited and a diverse field jostling to shape California’s future.
In his launch video, Hilton strikes a familiar chord—channeling Margaret Thatcher, critiquing Democratic governance, and vowing to push a “positive populist” message focused on affordability, public education, and homelessness. No Republican has won statewide since Arnold Schwarzenegger’s unlikely ascent in 2006. Can Hilton’s brand of conservatism, honed on cable TV and podcasting, resonate with a vastly more diverse—and progressive—California electorate?
For progressives wary of media-fueled conservative revolts, this candidacy offers an unsettling test of whether talking points delivered through a slick media apparatus can translate into real votes, particularly in a state wrestling with contradictions: soaring innovation, grinding inequality, and a legacy of resistance to right-wing populism.
Populist Rhetoric Meets Progressive Realities
Hilton grounds his campaign in a rejection of what he calls “Democrat failure” on fundamental issues: affordable housing, cost of living, and crime. At his forthcoming rally in Huntington Beach—a stronghold of California conservatism—he promises to take on entrenched bureaucracy and, as his platform makes clear, to “make California golden again.” His book Califailure doubles down on this thesis, arguing that regulatory regimes like CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) are stifling new housing and that high taxes, crime, and homelessness are endemic consequences of liberal excess.
A closer look reveals that the Democratic supermajority’s performance is far from flawless, but Republican critiques often ignore the nuances of California’s complex economic and social landscape. While homelessness is indeed a crisis—Los Angeles County’s homeless population surpassed 75,000 in 2023 (LAHSA report)—the state has also seen real, if uneven, progress on economic recovery post-pandemic, with unemployment dropping below the national average in early 2024 (Bureau of Labor Statistics). Years of ambitious climate action, expansion of health care, and investments in public education stand as a bulwark against regressive policy rollbacks. As noted by UCLA sociologist Manuel Pastor, “California remains a paradox: The epicenter of innovation, yet a battleground for affordability. If we ignore public investments and the social safety net, we risk deepening those divides.”
Hilton’s proposals—deregulation, tax cuts, increased policing—mirror national Republican strategies at odds with the social realities and values that most Californians embrace. Pew Research polling consistently finds overwhelming support in California for progressive immigration reform, climate action, and reproductive rights. Are voters really craving a Thatcherite revolution, or will they balk at a return to the economic stratification and punitive policies that once drove young families, immigrants, and the marginalized into cycles of poverty and displacement?
“Hilton’s campaign is a test of whether Fox News rhetoric can become governing reality in the most diverse, progressive state in the union—or if California voters will reject nostalgia for a time that never worked for everyone.”
Nostalgia vs. Vision: A State at the Crossroads
There’s more at stake than ideology. With Democratic luminaries like former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, progressive firebrand Katie Porter, and possibly Kamala Harris in the running, Californians face a primary defined by experience, policy substance, and a lived commitment to inclusion. Voters now must weigh the substance of progressive achievement against the seductive simplicity of conservative critiques. Some experts warn that inflamed rhetoric about “decline” and “crisis” often obscures steady, below-the-headlines improvements in infrastructure, wages, and social mobility.
Jessica Levinson, Loyola Law School professor and veteran observer of California politics, notes, “Statewide elections in California reward coalition-building, diversity, and pragmatic solutions—none of which are well-served by outsider firebrands who trade on outrage.” Even within the GOP, Hilton faces stiff competition: Sheriff Chad Bianco, another Republican with name recognition and a law-and-order platform, could draw away base support. The specter of a fractious Republican vote only raises the odds of another Democratic sweep in the state’s “jungle primary” system, where the top two—regardless of party—advance to November’s general election.
Does California want a governor who sees the state through Fox-colored glasses, or will residents affirm their commitment to progress and shared prosperity? The answer will shape not only the state’s future but may also serve as a national bellwether for how effective media personalities can be in actually governing—a trend now seen nationwide, not just in the Golden State. Beyond that, the 2026 race could test whether California’s deeply blue identity can be truly challenged from the right—or if the enduring legacy of progressive policy will carry the day once again.
