Conservative author and Fox News contributor Steve Hilton announced on April 22 that he is running to be the next governor of California.
“It’s time to make California golden again,” the British-born Republican told a crowd of supporters gathered along the Huntington Beach shoreline.
“It’s time to end the years of Democrat failure. It’s time for a new future.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom is not eligible to run again after serving two terms.
During his Tuesday rally, Hilton laid out his plan to rebuild California, which included cutting taxes and removing the state income tax on everybody earning $100,000 or less.
He said he would also focus on restoring “the California dream.”
“We are going to make this the best place in America to start and run a business, not the worst,” Hilton said.
He said he'd like to see everyone own their own home, end bureaucracy standing in the way of progress, and “make 100 percent of our students meet state standards in math and English and … make our schools focus on education, not indoctrination.”
“That’s how we rebuild that ladder of opportunity and restore the California dream,” Hilton said. “We need to build a movement—not red, not blue, but golden.”
While onstage, Hilton signed a petition in support of voter ID for California, encouraging others in the crowd to do the same.
Hilton joins a crowded field of candidates for the 2026 election to replace Newsom.
California voters haven’t elected a Republican governor since Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger left office in 2011.
“What we’ve seen here in the last 15 years of Democrat one-party rule is an ideological experiment,” Hilton said.
Public speculation has also centered on whether former Vice President Kamala Harris, a Southern California resident, would enter the race.
Unlike traditional primary elections, in which each party selects its candidate for the general election, voters in California’s primary select the top two candidates regardless of party affiliation.
Hilton was born in England, the son of Hungarian immigrants who fled to the United Kingdom to escape communism. His mother sold shoes, and his stepfather worked in construction. According to Hilton’s website, his father, a goalie for the Hungarian national ice hockey team, had died when the candidate was young.
He said his earliest political memory was of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, a good friend of Ronald Reagan when he served as president. Reagan had been governor of California before that. After attending Oxford University, Hilton started working for England’s Conservative Party and for Thatcher.
“She unleashed the spirit of enterprise in England,” Hilton said. “She inspired me.”
Hilton started a couple of restaurants and later helped elect Prime Minister David Cameron, for whom he worked as an adviser from 2010 to 2012.
Hilton and his family moved to California in 2012.
Hilton taught at Stanford University, started Crowdpac.com, a technology start-up, and wrote two books, “Califailure” and “Positive Populism.”
Several speakers endorsed the candidate on Tuesday, including celebrity chef and Huntington Beach City Councilor Andrew Gruel, State Sen. Tony Strickland, a Republican from Huntington Beach, and former State Sen. Gloria Romero, who served in the California Senate as a Democrat but switched to the Republican Party in 2024.
Former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who is running for governor of Ohio, also endorsed Hilton.
