‘Under no illusions’: Steve Hilton knows it’s a long road ahead

For Steve Hilton, the time for celebration was short. 

“It’s a sense of real relief, I’ve got to be honest,” the Republican California gubernatorial candidate said in a phone call with SFGATE last Thursday, after it was officially declared that he’d advance to the general election this fall. The British-born businessman-turned-politician had mostly breezed through the primary season, leading multiple polls into June, before edging out billionaire Tom Steyer for the right to take on Democrat Xavier Becerra for the governor’s chair. 

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But now that he’s through to November, he knows he has a tough road ahead as he must win over undecided voters in a state where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans two to one. 

“There will be a real choice of a new direction for the state given a majority of Californians think we’re going in the wrong direction,” he said. “It’s good news that they’ll be able to vote for that in November. Obviously, I’m under no illusions about how hard it’s going to be.”

Hilton said he will hammer home the same idea he ran on leading up to the primary: to make “calaffordable,” as he likes to say, in a nod to one of his campaign slogans. That includes eliminating income taxes completely for individuals with an income under $100,000, breaking apart the PG&E monopoly, and lowering gas prices to $3 a gallon by opening up California energy production and working with the Trump administration.

These are not small ideas, particularly for a wannabe Republican governor who could face some hurdles as he’d need to work alongside a Democratic-majority Legislature. Hilton, however, steadfastly refuses to fit in boxes, including being a Republican, despite running as one. He insisted to SFGATE that he is not ideological but rather “pragmatic.”

Even still, and even with an affordability message that he shared with his Democratic opponents, a win for Hilton is unlikely, said Republican consultant Jon Fleischman. “Not only would Hilton need to do everything right, but Becerra would have to stumble for the race to become competitive,” Fleischman said.

Republican consultant Rob Stutzman similarly said Hilton could win some new voters, but “not enough.”

“It would require a dramatic reversal of President Trump’s deep unpopularity in California,” he told SFGATE. “There’s no sign of that happening.” 

But Hilton’s main selling point to Californians has been his amicable relationship with the president, who endorsed him over fellow Republican Chad Bianco, the sheriff of Riverside County.

“It’s a really, really important” reason for voters to choose him, Hilton said back in a March interview with SFGATE. He thinks he’d be effective as governor because he has “relationships, strong personal relationships” with not only Donald Trump but with members of his Cabinet, specifically Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (dubbed the secretary of war by the Trump administration) and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. 

Hilton and Trump have not spoken since the election was called, he told SFGATE, though the president did congratulate Hilton as a “WINNER” online before the primary results were finalized.

“I know Steve — He is a hard driving WINNER, and he will turn California around, quickly — and the Federal Government will be there, with him, to help! President DONALD J. TRUMP,” Trump wrote.

But as Stutzman noted, it’s unclear whether Hilton’s support from Trump will benefit or hurt him in the long run. In the starkly Democratic state, the president has low approval ratings; a recent poll from UC Berkeley Institute for Governmental Studies found 69% of California voters disapprove of Trump. 

Hilton is well-spoken and articulates his policy ideas with gusto. This makes sense for someone who was the speech writer and top adviser to former British Prime Minister David Cameron. His resume stretches beyond politics, too: He moved from the U.K. to Silicon Valley in 2012, where he taught at Stanford University as a visiting scholar. His wife, Rachel Whetstone, has held high-profile tech and entertainment jobs, including chief communications officer at Netflix and vice president of communications at WhatsApp. She’s also worked at Uber and Google and currently works for SierraAI. 

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After Stanford, in 2014, Hilton founded a tech company called Crowdpac, which scored candidates and politicians from liberal to conservative on a scale of 1 to 10. The tool was mostly used by Democrats, and Hilton reportedly walked away in 2018 after joining Fox News as a commentator; the company eventually shuttered in 2019. Hilton remains a fan of Silicon Valley, saying he is inspired by the potential of innovation in California, reflecting on the days Xerox was first founded. 

Despite his work in British politics and American political startups, Hilton has branded himself as an outsider in this campaign. It explains why Hilton is entertaining bringing in another polarizing Republican ally: former reality TV personality and Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt. The Hollywood dropout came in third for the mayor’s race but managed to get a shout out from Hilton on election night when Pratt’s prospects initially looked more promising.

The addition would surely shake up Hilton’s campaign — by either bringing in a new voter base or turning off potential supporters.

Hilton said he’d consider bringing Pratt in after SFGATE asked about the idea, following an appearance on Fox News in which Hilton said he’d “100%” consider having Pratt campaign for him. Hilton told SFGATE he doesn’t know Pratt well but likes his policy ideas. The two have only met once, when Pratt first announced his mayoral bid. 

“I immediately supported him because I saw the energy he brought to that fight,” Hilton said. He added he agrees with Pratt’s ideas on wildfires and, “notably, on homelessness.” Pratt’s plans on homelessness have been controversial, as he’s mostly reduced all unhoused people to drug addicts and suggested they should all be rounded up, though both he and Hilton have laid out treatment-forward to get people off the streets.

Hilton said he is open to working with Pratt as much as he is open to working with anyone with concrete ideas. 

“I haven’t offered anything to him, I haven’t even spoken to him,” he said. “To a certain extent you can say that’s been a little overstated. But I would repeat that I admire his campaign and I support him because I think we need change in LA.”

When he made a bid for governor, he had already worked on a recall campaign for Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, and said the gubernatorial run was another effort to change the status quo.

Now that he’s headed to November, Hilton will need to round up the undecided voters and perhaps win over more centrist voters too. Right now, 17% of voters are undecided, according to a recent UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll. The poll found 52% of voters are in favor of Becerra, while 31% are for Hilton.

“I have a crazy notion that a Republican could actually win in November,” he said in a March interview with SFGATE. “I believe it’s possible. That’s how I’m approaching this.”

Two days after the election was called, he carried the same optimism: “I do understand we’ve got a real battle here,” he said, “and so we can’t afford to waste any time.”