Former Fox News commentator and Atherton resident Steve Hilton on Tuesday became the second high-profile Republican to announce his candidacy for California governor.
Jessica Christian/The Chronicle
Former Fox News commentator and Atherton resident Steve Hilton on Monday became the second high-profile Republican to announce his candidacy for California governor in 2026.
“Let’s make California an inspiration again, the very best of America,” Hilton said in a three-minute video Monday announcing his run. “There is only one way to do that. We’ve got to end the one-party rule that got us into this mess. It’s time to end the years of Democrat failure. It’s time for a new future. That’s why I’m running for governor to make this beautiful state that we love so much truly golden again.”
Hilton, 55, a former policy adviser to British Prime Minister David Cameron, would face a steep challenge to make it into the top two finalists in the 2026 primary to advance to the general election.
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That is because he is likely to share the Republican vote with Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, the other Republican who has announced his candidacy. Several Democrats including former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, former Rep. Katie Porter, former state Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, state schools chief Tony Thurmond, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former Controller Betty Yee have already announced their campaigns.
Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to decide by the end of summer whether she will run.
But Hilton’s challenge would be how to coalesce a broad share of the 25% of registered voters who are Republicans to support him. Otherwise, he and Bianco risk splitting the vote and both being left out of the top candidates who advance to the general election.
Hilton has never run for elective office before and his last foray into California politics didn’t go well. In 2023, Hilton championed a ballot measure designed to make it easier to build housing. His ideas: Reform the California Environmental Quality Act and cap the impact fees that can be charged to developers. He didn’t gather enough signatures to qualify it for the ballot.
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Hilton has ties to Silicon Valley as the former CEO of Crowdpac, which he started in 2014 with major Democratic donor Reid Hoffman. Then it was a nonpartisan San Francisco online hub whose goal was to try to lessen the impact of big money in politics.
In his 2015 book, “More Human: Designing a World Where People Come First,” Hilton described his politics as a combination of independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, libertarian-leaning Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and former GOP Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
April 21, 2025
