(AFP) – California hasn’t elected a Republican to statewide office in two decades, and animosity towards President Donald Trump makes the prospect unlikely. Enter Steve Hilton: a gregarious, British-born conservative former pundit who believes he, against all odds, can break the mold and become the state’s next governor in November’s midterm vote. The 57-year-old, once a senior advisor to Britain’s prime minister David Cameron, moved stateside in search of the “California dream” before becoming a US citizen in 2021. Now he’s in a longshot quest to replace Gavin Newsom, the outgoing Democratic governor of one of the bluest US states.
But according to Hilton, Newsom has left California in shambles. The candidate told AFP he aims to allow “people to follow their dreams again” without “a bloated, nanny-state bureaucratic government that charges people too much money for services that are the worst in the country.” However, Hilton must carry with him a glaring liability in California, where registered Democrats nearly outnumber Republicans two to one: an endorsement from President Donald Trump. The president has dwindling approval ratings, and Hilton must walk a tightrope, appealing to the six million voters who voted for Trump in 2024 while also convincing anti-Trump Californians to vote Republican under the banner of change.
“Donald Trump has been a huge drag on the Republican Party in California,” Thad Kousser, a politics professor at the state university’s San Diego campus, told AFP. Trump hasn’t taken pains to appeal to voters in the most US populous state, recently glibly suggesting Iran could “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego. Asked whether he stood with backlash, Hilton sidestepped, emphasizing how much he himself loves Los Angeles and intends to “revive” it. “I didn’t ask for the endorsement. I was surprised to get it, very honored to get it,” Hilton said. “We share the view that where possible you should keep the government bureaucracy under control.” But Hilton stated he disagrees with the president on “many things,” including Trump’s false claims he won the 2020 election.
The candidate insists voters can cast their ballots for him and still be anti-Trump. Hilton said he’s an “outsider” who can channel California’s “rebel spirit” to make the state more business-friendly with less regulation. Trump’s war on Iran has seen global energy prices skyrocket. But in California, one of the country’s most expensive places to live, Hilton argues that red tape and taxes are most to blame for the soaring cost of living. He’s cast his Democratic opponent, Xavier Becerra, as at best uninspiring. Critics including Hilton say the likely victor is overreliant on the mere fact that he is a Democrat. Yet Californian loyalty to Democrats is “earned,” analyst Kousser said. The party’s label “comes with a set of policies that are strong and popular in California” including healthcare expansion, protections for immigrants, and environmental regulations. Trump’s policies run counter to all of these efforts.
Hilton has vied to downplay those issues, instead emphasizing economic promises that include eliminating California’s gas tax and scrapping state income taxes on earnings under $150,000. Critics have cast such promises as gimmicks that have not faced scrutiny because he is not expected to win, added Kousser. “Being the underdog has given him the freedom to take some big swings.”
California’s most recent Republican governor was “The Terminator” actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who served from 2003 to 2011. “You would need Arnold Schwarzenegger, the power of his celebrity and his funding, for a Republican to separate their brand from Donald Trump’s,” Kousser said. Despite his energetic campaigning, Hilton is simply not that. Recent polling from Emerson College saw Becerra with a 27-point lead over Hilton. But at a weekend rally of a few hundred people, Hilton told stories in his British accent of lifelong Democrats who were ready to vote for him, even as he acknowledged he was behind. “This is America. This is California,” he said. “Of course we can make impossible things happen!”
– Maggy DONALDSON
© 2024 AFP
