Conservative commentator and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Steve Hilton announced Monday that he is running for governor, the second prominent Republican to enter the 2026 race to replace termed-out Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“California means to America what America means to the world. Let’s make California the land of opportunity again — great jobs, great homes, great kids. Let’s make California an inspiration again, the very best of America,” he said in a nearly three-minute video posted online. “There’s only one way to do that. We’ve got to end the one-party rule that got us into this mess. It’s time to end the years of Democrat failure. It’s time for a new future. That’s why I’m running for governor, to make this beautiful state that we love so much truly golden again.”
Hilton, who plans an official campaign announcement event in Huntington Beach on Tuesday, faces steep odds. Californians last elected statewide Republican candidates in 2006, and the state’s residents have become more liberal since then. However, there is mounting frustration about issues such as crime, inflation and the cost of living.
“Fortune favors the bold. It is an uphill battle for a Republican to win statewide office, but if bold people like Steve don’t emerge, Republicans aren’t going to win,” said Conyers Davis, an advisor to former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Davis first met Hilton when conservative leader David Cameron of England visited then-Gov. Schwarzenegger’s cigar-smoking tent at the statehouse in Sacramento in 2008 and worked with him on Cameron’s successful 2010 campaign to become prime minister.
Additionally, the state’s jungle primary system, in which the two candidates who receive the most votes in the June 2026 primary move on to the general election regardless of party, mean Republicans have a decent shot of securing one of the spots on the November ballot.
That’s partly because the Democratic vote may be fractured by the large number of Democrats running — Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, state schools chief Tony Thurmond, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, former state Controller Betty Yee, former Rep. Katie Porter, former state Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and businessman Stephen Cloobeck.
Additionally, former Vice President Kamala Harris is weighing a bid and expected to make a decision by the end of the summer.
On the Republican side, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco is the sole prominent GOP candidate who previously announced he would run. So if Democratic voters splinter, Bianco or Hilton could win one of the top two spots, despite the state’s deep blue tilt.
Hilton, 55, is the son of Hungarian immigrants who fled their homeland during a revolution in 1956. He was born in England and after graduating from Oxford, Hilton worked in politics and advertising. He then founded “Good Business,” a consulting firm that advised companies such as Nike and McDonald’s about ethical capitalism.
Described as “part Svengali, part spin doctor, part strategist” by the London Standard in 2006, Hilton was a senior adviser and close confidant of Cameron, who served as Britain’s prime minister from 2010 to 2016.
Hilton was credited with modernizing the British conservative movement, remaining true to free-market ideals while also supporting liberal social policy, such as backing gay rights and fighting climate change.
News reports about Hilton’s time at 10 Downing St. paint him as a charismatic but eccentric figure, routinely wearing wrinkled T-shirts, jeans or tracksuit pants, cycling gear and no shoes as he wandered around the prime minister’s stodgy formal residence.
He also drew headlines for making about $450,000 per year in 2006, a salary that dwarfed Cameron’s compensation, according to the Observer. And he broke with Cameron by supporting Brexit, the successful 2016 effort to have the United Kingdom leave the European Union.
Hilton immigrated to California in 2012 with his wife, Rachel Whetstone, who has worked as a public relations executive at Google, Uber, Facebook and Netflix. He became a U.S. citizen in 2021, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and was a vocal critic of shutdowns. The couple live in the affluent Silicon Valley community of Atherton and have two children.
Since he moved to the United States, Hilton has taught at Stanford University, hosted a Fox News show called “The Next Revolution,” and co-founded Crowdpac, a nonpartisan political fundraising website. He and the company parted ways in 2018 after his full-throated support of President Trump caused controversy.
Despite positioning himself as a populist who has supported policy from both parties, Hilton’s vocal support of Trump, including calling for an investigation into potential voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election, and other controversial views will almost certainly be raised in the campaign.
Shortly after losing the 2020 election, Trump tweeted several videos of Hilton questioning the validity of the vote tallies.
“For four years, [Democrats] plotted and schemed to undermine and overturn the sacred right of American democracy. For four years, they smeared the duly elected president and his supporters,” Hilton said in one of the Fox appearances that Trump retweeted. “‘Not my President’ they screamed, ‘not my president’. Four years on, still, they are at it.”
A spokesman for Hilton defended his comments.
“Along with Joe Biden, Mitt Romney, and almost everyone else at the time, Steve called for an investigation into any disputes raised about the election,” said Republican strategist Hector Barajas.
Trump has not weighed into the gubernatorial election, but Trump ally Vivek Ramaswamy, who is running for governor of Ohio next year, endorsed Hilton on Monday.
Hilton’s Silicon Valley relationships with billionaires such as venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya and former Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt could also be a boon to his gubernatorial campaign.
In 2023, Hilton founded Golden Together, a research group focused on restoring the California dream. Among the group’s policy focuses are the state’s business climate, homelessness, crime, affordable housing and wildfire management. Its advisory board includes Lanhee Chen, a former advisor to the presidential campaigns of Mitt Romney and Marco Rubio; Gloria Romero, a former Democratic state Senate leader who is now a Republican; former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, and Davis.
“He is somebody who is sincerely interested in working to address some of the challenges California faces,” said Chen, a Stanford lecturer who unsuccessfully ran for state controller in 2022 and has been floated as a potential statewide or congressional candidate. Chen said he is weighing his options, but is a supporter of Hilton because of his focus on policy and substance.
“He is at his core a policy guy,” Chen said, “and has a lot of ideas to address these challenges.”
