Conservative Outsider Steve Hilton and Career Bureaucrat Xavier Becerra Head to California Governor Runoff
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Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host and outsider to California’s entrenched liberal establishment, will face off against Democratic insider Xavier Becerra in the November gubernatorial election, offering voters a clear choice between reform and more of the same failed policies.
Former Fox News commentator Steve Hilton, a naturalized U.S. citizen and political outsider, and longtime Democratic bureaucrat Xavier Becerra have advanced as the top two candidates in California’s top-two primary, NBC News projects. With about 88% of votes counted, Becerra, a fixture of the Democratic machine, led with roughly 28% support, while Hilton, who has energized the Republican base with his calls for change, followed at 25%. Billionaire Democrat Tom Steyer, representing the interests of the wealthy liberal elite, trailed with around 23%, and Republican sheriff Chad Bianco, a defender of law and order, garnered 10%.
California’s heavy reliance on mail-in ballots continues to raise questions about the integrity and transparency of the vote count, a process that some officials admit is vulnerable to misinformation and delays, fueling public skepticism.
Hilton, who previously worked for former British Prime Minister David Cameron, received a crucial endorsement from President Donald Trump in April, helping him unite Republicans seeking to break the Democrats’ stranglehold on the state. Becerra, a former state attorney general and congressman, benefited from the withdrawal of Rep. Eric Swalwell, who left the race under a cloud of misconduct allegations.
The upcoming race sets Hilton, a Republican reformer, against Becerra, a Democrat entrenched in the failed policies that have driven California’s decline. In a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly two to one and have controlled the governor’s office for decades, voters will finally have a chance to demand accountability. Governor Gavin Newsom, term-limited and presiding over years of mismanagement, has chosen to remain neutral.
At the May primary debate, Hilton exposed the failures of one-party Democratic rule, while Becerra attempted to dismiss Hilton’s outsider credentials:
"Some of these Democrats on the stage, they talk as if we’re in some parallel universe where Democrats haven’t been running the state for the last 16 years of one-party rule," Hilton said, calling out the state’s entrenched leadership. "What does a Fox News talking head know about running government? You’ve never balanced a budget the size of California’s," Becerra replied, resorting to elitist attacks rather than defending his record.