Republican candidate Steve Hilton has secured enough votes in the California gubernatorial primary to advance to the November runoff. He will face off against Democratic candidate Xavier Becerra in the party’s final showdown.
On June 9th, just a week after the California primary ended, the Associated Press announced Hilton’s advancement. As of 6 pm on Tuesday, California had completed 88% of the vote count, with Hilton receiving 25% of the votes and Becerra leading with 27.9%, making them the top two candidates.
Hilton entered this runoff as the underdog. The nonpartisan organization Cook Political Report believes that the seat ultimately leans towards the Democratic Party. Among California’s registered voters, Democrats make up the majority at 10.4 million, compared to around 5.8 million registered Republican voters and approximately 5.3 million nonpartisan voters.
A former Fox News host, Hilton’s campaign platform aims to bring back the “Golden Age” to California. His specific measures include exempting state income tax on the first $100,000 of income, reducing regulatory burdens, expanding single-family home development, and lowering gasoline prices by increasing statewide oil production.
Hilton’s parents are Hungarian immigrants who fled communist rule to start a new life in the UK. He himself grew up in the UK and obtained dual American-British citizenship in 2021.
He has challenged California’s bureaucratic system and called for increased government efficiency and strengthened fiscal discipline. The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office of California projects a $35 billion budget shortfall annually in the state in the coming years.
On election night, June 2nd, Hilton initially maintained a lead in the vote count; however, as the slower tallying of mail-in ballots continued, Becerra gained more votes and eventually surged ahead in the vote count.
Becerra, a former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, congressman, and California Attorney General, garnered more votes in coastal and metropolitan areas, while Hilton secured more support in inland and rural areas.
California law mandates a 37-day gap between the election day and result certification, so the certification deadline for this primary is set for July 10th.
Hilton has dubbed this delay a “Democratic disaster” and questioned the election and vote-counting system in California during a press conference on Tuesday, calling for complete transparency during the tallying process.
According to statistics from the California Secretary of State’s website, Hilton leads third-place Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer by 2.5%, with a difference of around 200,000 supporting votes. However, with election officials still calculating remaining votes, the final numbers may still change.
California’s gubernatorial race follows a “Top-2-Primary” election rule, where the top two candidates in the primary with the highest votes advance directly, and the final outcome will be revealed in the November midterm elections.
With incumbent Governor Gavin Newsom ineligible for reelection due to term limits, California’s gubernatorial race this year has a large field of about 60 candidates, with 44 candidates receiving a vote percentage of only 0.1% or lower.