After seven days of ongoing ballot counting from California’s June 2 gubernatorial primary, US media projections have confirmed that Steve Hilton, a former senior advisor to ex-United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron and one-time Fox News host, will advance to the November general election as one of the two remaining candidates.
Hilton narrowly bested Democratic billionaire climate campaigner Tom Steyer to claim his place on the general election ballot. He will now face off against Xavier Becerra, who served as Secretary of Health and Human Services under the Biden administration, for California’s top executive office this fall.
The candidacy has earned the public backing of former President Donald Trump. Should Hilton claim victory in November, he will become the first Republican governor to lead the heavily Democratic-leaning state in 15 years, marking a major political shift for California.
The primary race drew an unprecedentedly large field of more than 60 candidates, the vast majority of whom were Democrats vying to replace incumbent Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, who is barred from seeking re-election due to state term limits. Newsom, who has long been named as a potential Democratic contender for future presidential campaigns, built a high-profile profile as one of the most prominent critics of Trump’s policy agenda during his tenure. California repeatedly clashed with the Trump White House over a sweeping range of policy issues, from immigration regulation to environmental and climate action.
Over the coming months, Hilton and Becerra will campaign across the state, competing to win the governorship — a role that carries responsibility for managing a state budget worth hundreds of billions of dollars, supervising a workforce of tens of thousands of public employees, and overseeing hundreds of separate state agencies that touch nearly every aspect of life for California’s 39 million residents.