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Daily Mail
28-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Kamala Harris gets VERY embarrassing endorsement to run for governor of California
As speculation swirls around whether Kamala Harris will make a bid for governor of California, she has received support from the most unlikely source - California Republicans. 'I sense that this is the best shot for someone to be elected statewide in California who's not a Democrat for at least 20 years, and I think the evident reason for that is the failure of one-party rule,' conservative commentator Steve Hilton declared in a recent fundraising email. 'The candidate who's going to win in 2026, regardless of party label, is the change candidate. Kamala Harris is the one who least represents change.' With Governor Gavin Newsom term-limited out in 2026, Harris has remained coy about her future, teasing in an April appearance, 'I'll see you out there. I'm not going anywhere.' Across GOP circles, the prospect of Harris entering the race is being openly celebrated for what it promises Republican candidates. From political consultants to fringe MAGA influencers, a Harris candidacy is being treated as a golden opportunity to rile up donors, energize disaffected voters, and, perhaps most crucially, draw national attention to an otherwise unwinnable contest. 'I'd jump for joy,' Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco told supporters. 'She's the perfect example of everything Californians are sick of - soft on crime, blind to our problems, and more focused on DC than Main Street.' Republican strategist Dave Gilliard agreed, saying her entry would be a dream scenario. 'I think it could attract some donors from around the country who might be interested in taking another pound of flesh,' Republican political consultant Dave Gilliard said to Politico. 'Money is the biggest obstacle other than the registration because the donor world doesn't think a Republican can be elected governor anymore.' Even Elon Musk's name has been floated as a possible wildcard donor. The former vice president has given herself until late summer to decide whether to run. The billionaire has sparred with Harris on social media and publicly blasted her support for diversity policies and social justice causes. While Musk hasn't weighed in directly, insiders suggest his disdain for Harris could reignite his interest in California politics. There's a reason Harris evokes such a visceral response from the right. Her tenure as vice president was marked by relentless attacks from Donald Trump and conservative media. Her prosecutorial past has been dissected from both the left and the right and her 2024 loss to Trump, after stepping in as the Democratic nominee following Biden's withdrawal, mean she is toxic when it comes to elections. 'She's had her chance,' said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. 'Democrats must turn elsewhere for leadership.' But Republican messaging is far from subtle. 'This is our shot,' Hilton told supporters. 'She'll clear the Democratic field, but we'll get to define her - and she's already underwater.' Indeed, while Harris trounced Trump in California in 2024, she underperformed Joe Biden's 2020 numbers, particularly among Latinos and swing voters in purple counties. 'She won two statewide elections, and she won in California when she was running for president,' Bianco said. 'But those votes didn't go to Kamala Harris. Those votes went against Donald Trump.' California's infamous 'jungle primary' system means that Harris wouldn't necessarily face a Republican in the general election. 'I'd jump for joy,' Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, pictured, told supporters (if Kamala Harris ran). 'She's the perfect example of everything Californians are sick of - soft on crime, blind to our problems, and more focused on DC than Main Street.' All candidates compete in a single open primary, and the top two vote-getters - regardless of party - advance. That means Harris could be forced into a brutal head-to-head with another Democrat in the general. Already, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, former Rep. Katie Porter, and Xavier Becerra are eyeing the race. At least some, however, are expected to bow out if Harris runs. 'She's got the résumé - but so do a lot of people who've lost,' said Republican consultant Kevin Madden. 'What she doesn't have is momentum.' And Democratic strategist Eric Jaye cautioned against viewing the race as a coronation. 'She's polarizing, and not just with Republicans. Democrats have questions too.' If Harris were to run, she'd inherit a California in turmoil. The state is facing a $12 billion deficit, wildfires are worsening, homelessness remains a humanitarian crisis, and home insurance markets are collapsing. 'Why the hell would you want this job?' Newsom himself quipped on the Next Up with Mark Halperin podcast. 'You need a burning 'why.' If you can't enunciate that, don't do it.' While Harris has nearly universal name recognition, an elite fundraising machine, and deep institutional ties, she also carries a historic loss to Donald Trump, middling approval ratings, and a political brand that has never quite caught fire. 'If she's beatable (and if she runs), it won't be by a Republican. But Republicans can still turn her candidacy into a weapon,' Democratic consultant Dan Newman explained. 'For now at least, Republicans can't win statewide.' Even if Harris wins, Republicans are ready to claim a different kind of victory.
Fox News
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Can California Be Redeemed? Plus, More Biden Revelations Emerge From Cover-up (ft. Steve Hilton)
Story #1: The Left tries to play their 'Get Out Of Jail Free' cards as more revelations come out about the cover-up of former President Joe Biden's medical conditions, including the Biden camp's belief that President Donald Trump was going to end up in jail after a massive lawfare campaign against him. Story #2: Can California be redeemed after years of reckless policies that have people fleeing the state? Plus, breaking down the South African refugee crisis as the President of South Africa is set to meet President Trump with Republican candidate for Governor of California and Author of 'Califailure: Reversing The Ruin Of America's Worst-Run State,' Steve Hilton. Story #3: What are your Top 5 Sports Movies of All-Time? Will shares his Top 5, and you'll be shocked which Kevin Costner movie is on his list. Tell Will what you thought about this podcast by emailing WillCainShow@ Subscribe to The Will Cain Show on YouTube here: Watch The Will Cain Show! Follow Will on Twitter: @WillCain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit
Fox News
21-05-2025
- Business
- Fox News
WATCH LIVE: Will Cain talks to Steve Hilton about his run to become California's governor
All times eastern Making Money with Charles Payne FOX News Radio Live Channel Coverage WATCH LIVE: Will Cain talks to Steve Hilton about his run to become California's governor
The Guardian
18-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Could a British Fox News personality fix Republicans' losing streak in California?
California is usually regarded as a political graveyard for ambitious Republicans, but Steve Hilton, the smiling, bald-headed former British political consultant turned Fox News personality, has a few theories of how to turn that around. Theory number one is that the Democrats, who have not lost a statewide election in almost 20 years and enjoy a supermajority in the California legislature, make the argument for change more or less by themselves, because the state has become too expensive for many of its residents and is mired in a steep budgetary crisis. Even the current governor, Gavin Newsom, argues that his party's brand has become toxic, that Democrats across the country have lost their way, and 'people don't think we make any damn sense'. The leading Democratic candidates to succeed him have been similarly blunt. 'Everything costs too much!' the former congresswoman Katie Porter says on her campaign website. 'Homes and rent are too expensive,' the former state attorney general Xavier Becerra concurs on his. 'Folks can barely cover their grocery bills. Healthcare costs are incredibly high.' To which Hilton responds gleefully: 'We know! You did it to us!' Given the depth of the malaise – 'Califailure', the title of his campaign book calls it – Hilton believes that next year's governor's race offers Republicans a unique opportunity. If even Democrats think it's time for change, he argues, wouldn't it make sense for voters to look elsewhere for a solution? And that leads him to theory number two: that an engaging, energetic, unorthodox-sounding candidate like himself might just be the man for a job. In the four weeks since he announced his run for governor, Hilton and a skeleton staff have crisscrossed the state in a distinctive white pickup truck emblazoned with the Trump-like slogan 'Make California Golden Again'. He has spoken at universities and presidential libraries, made common cause with hardcore Trump Republicans, and struck up conversations with voters in some of the most liberal corners of the state. His style has been casual – he dresses most commonly in a T-shirt and sneakers as he sits down in coffee shops or addresses so-called 'policy forums' for supporters – and he keeps a video crew close to post updates on social media and underline how little he looks or talks like a regular Republican candidate. Back in Britain, where he was an adviser to the Conservative prime minister David Cameron from 2010 to 2012 and, later, a champion of Brexit, Hilton worked largely behind the scenes. He has been much more visible since as a Fox News host and contributor, and has honed a public persona that remains unabashedly rightwing but is also adept at presenting complex political viewpoints in easily relatable terms. So far, at least, Hilton's British origins have proven more of an asset than a liability. ('He just sounds smarter because of his accent,' the moderator at a Republican gathering in Santa Barbara said. 'It's almost not fair.') Even his bare scalp has contrasted favorably in some quarters with Newsom's famously coiffed full head of hair. Hilton's core message is simple: that Californians want good jobs, good homes and good schools for their kids. And the reason too many feel these goals are eluding them, he says, is because of 'one-party rule and really bad ideas' from the Democrats. That diagnosis certainly has the potential to resonate widely, particularly among working-class voters who, according to Hilton, are 'being completely screwed' by high living costs, high taxes and a public school system whose test scores in English and math consistently lag behind the national average. 'It doesn't have to be like this,' Hilton told the Santa Barbara crowd. 'We don't have to put up with this.' The question, though, is whether Hilton is the alternative voters are craving– and that's where observers believe he may be on shakier ground, particularly since his strongest political connections are with the Trump end of the Republican party. Even Hilton's more moderate ideas reflect a standard Republican playbook of cuts to taxes, public spending and business regulations – a platform Californians have rejected time and again. Dan Schnur, a former Republican campaign consultant who teaches political communications at Berkeley and the University of Southern California, thinks that behind the moderate facade Hilton is in fact 'running pretty hard as a Maga candidate' on a range of issues from immigration to homelessness. Hilton has a slightly different theory of the case. He sees parallels between California in 2025 and Britain in the late 1970s, when it was known as the 'sick man of Europe', and envisions himself as a version of Margaret Thatcher providing a much-needed rightward course correction. He drew laughter and applause in Santa Barbara when he complained about California's 'nanny state bossy bureaucracy' – a Thatcher-inspired turn of phrase – and when he borrowed from a celebrated 1979 Conservative campaign slogan to say 'California isn't working'. Whether that message can work with independents and Democrats – constituencies he has to sway in large numbers to win – is far from clear. However much Hilton talks about 'commonsense' solutions, his early champions include Charlie Kirk, who runs the Trump-supporting youth group Turning Point, and Vivek Ramaswamy, the tech entrepreneur turned politician who is old friends with Vice-President JD Vance and is now running for governor of Ohio – both of whom would suggest he has hitched his wagon to a more radical agenda. Even when forging connections in working-class, heavily Latino East Los Angeles, Hilton has relied on a local Trump activist, now in charge of the White House faith office, who in turn introduced him to Maga-friendly grassroots groups with names like the Conservative Comadres and Lexit (for Latinos Exiting the Democratic Party). The problem is not that Hilton's new friends in East LA – many of them small business owners – do not reflect broader frustrations when they talk about working hard and having far too little to show for it. They almost certainly do. The problem is that Trump's brand of working-class populism is toxic in California – vastly more so than the Democrats – and growing only more so as Trump's chaotic second term in the White House unfolds. An LA Times opinion poll earlier this month showed 68% of Californians disapproved of the president's job performance and thought the country was on the wrong track – numbers that many political analysts expect to worsen as the effects of Trump's trade war kick in. Hilton himself makes light of this problem, arguing that if he runs an energetic, attractive enough campaign it will cut across the political spectrum and create its own momentum. 'We've just learned that California is the fourth biggest economy in the world, and that's great,' he said in an interview, 'but it isn't an economy that works for the people who live here … We are building a movement and a coalition for change.' Soon, though, he is likely to be pulled in different directions, because the logic of California's primary system requires him to beat every other Republican before he can even think about the Democrats. And, in the age of Trump, there's no competition between Republicans that does not require showing obeisance to the president. 'The association's going to be there, whether it results in a formal endorsement or not,' Schnur said. 'Trump's coat-tails are much longer in a primary than in a general election, which is good news for Hilton in the spring but a bigger obstacle in the fall.' Hilton's stiffest Republican competitor so far, the Riverside county sheriff, Todd Bianco, has already run into trouble with the Trump faithful because he took a knee in solidarity with Black Lives Matter protesters in the wake of the George Floyd killing in 2020. (Bianco, who generally talks and acts like a Trump-aligned Republican, insists he was tricked into kneeling when he thought he was being asked to pray – a version at variance with video footage from the time.) At the Santa Barbara event, Hilton looked almost bashful when asked what Trump thought of his decision to run and gave only the vaguest of answers. It is unlikely to be the last time he will field such a question, though, or risk alienating some part of his target electorate with his response. Hilton describes the task ahead as 'possible, but difficult'. His chances most likely rest on another theory of his – that the rightward swing the country experienced last November was not a one-off, but a trend still gathering momentum. Hilton points to all the ways California was part of that national trend in 2024 – the 10 counties that flipped from blue to red, the rejection of liberal district attorneys and mayors up and down the state, the call for a stiffer approach to law and order in a key statewide ballot initiative – and concludes that 'Californians voted Republican without realising it.' The last time Trump was president, though, the midterm elections produced a major swing in the other direction, in California and across the country, and most political analysts expect the same thing next year. If office-holders can justifiably point the finger at Washington – for shortages on the shelves, or higher prices incurred by tariffs, or immigrant laborers vanishing from key industries – voters are likely to be more forgiving of their leaders' own shortcomings. 'It would be much easier to make the case against the Democratic establishment if there weren't a Republican president,' Schnur said. 'An entire generation of Californians has come of voting age automatically dismissing the possibility of supporting a Republican candidate … That doesn't mean a Republican can't get elected governor, but it's a very steep uphill fight.'
Newsweek
12-05-2025
- Business
- Newsweek
California Governor Candidate Wants To Scrap State Income Tax
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. One of the candidates running for California Governor has said he wants to scrap the state's income tax for high earners. Steve Hilton, one of the Republican candidates for the role, said the policy would lead to growth and investment in the state. Why It Matters California will elect its next governor in 2026 when Gavin Newsom, who has served in the role since 2019, will see his term end. Hilton, who used to advise former British prime minister David Cameron and hosted a show on Fox News for six years, joined the race in April with a campaign theme "Golden Again: Great Jobs, Great Homes, Great Kids."] Author and former Fox News host Steve Hilton announced his run for California governor, as a Republican to replace Democrat Gavin Newsom, during an event in Huntington Beach, Calif., Tuesday, April 22, 2025. Author and former Fox News host Steve Hilton announced his run for California governor, as a Republican to replace Democrat Gavin Newsom, during an event in Huntington Beach, Calif., Tuesday, April 22, 2025. . (Paul Bersebach/The Orange County Register via AP, LOS ANGELES TIMES OUT California is a Democratic stronghold and Republicans have not won a statewide race in nearly two decades. According to The San Francisco Chronicle, state income tax provides $100 billion in revenue each year and makes up more than 40 percent of state revenue. What To Know Speaking at his campaign launch in April, Hilton, who became a U.S. citizen in 2021, said: "We are going to remove state income taxes for everyone earning $100,000." He told The San Francisco Chronicle that cutting the tax "is the quickest and simplest way of bringing some relief to people" and that it would "accelerate our rate of growth so the jobs are created," making California "a more attractive place for people to invest." What People Are Saying Chris Hoene, executive director of the California Budget and Policy Center, told The San Francisco Chronicle: "Big promises are easy to make, but the tax system and government programs are intricate and carefully crafted. Rash decisions lead to complications, mistakes, and real harm. Without clear details, it's hard to judge whether the proposal is even realistic or just an empty promise." Speaking to The Times about his campaign, Hilton said: "California is an iconic state. It represents everything that we think of as the greatest virtues of American innovation and energy and optimism and ambition and all these things, and so we can't just tolerate this slow decline." "The flat tax piece of the proposal would likely have to be approved by voters, since the current income tax rates for higher-income taxpayers approved via Prop 30 and Prop 55 are in the Constitution through 2030," he added. What Happens Next Other candidates that have announced they are running for California governor include former Democratic mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa, former speaker of the California State Assembly Toni Atkins, the state's current lieutenant governor Eleni Kounalakis, as well as California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and former state controller Betty Yee. There has also been speculation that former Vice President Kamala Harris—the Democratic nominee for president in 2024—could potentially run for the role.
