He also thinks he can win in November.

That may sound like a long shot in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by millions of voters and no Republican has won the governor’s mansion since 2006. But Hilton, the Republican candidate endorsed by President Donald Trump, argues that California’s affordability crisis has created an opening large enough to overcome its deep-blue political identity.

“All the things that make life so expensive in California, way more expensive than the rest of the country, these are all policies that we control in our state,” Hilton told the Washington Examiner in an interview.

His diagnosis is sweeping: California is overtaxed, overregulated, and badly governed. His solution: cut taxes, slash regulations, and bring a version of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency to Sacramento.

A native of Britain, Hilton rose through the Conservative Party to become one of Cameron’s most visible advisers before moving to California in 2012 to follow his wife, a technology communications executive who has held senior positions at Google and Netflix.

Hilton eventually became a Fox News host, using the platform to criticize the state he is now seeking to govern.

Now, five years after becoming a U.S. citizen, Hilton is asking voters to put him in charge of California.

Advancing out of the June all-party primary set up a November showdown with Becerra, a former California attorney general and Biden administration Cabinet official. Hilton has seized on Becerra’s long political career as proof that the state no longer needs it.

He calls Becerra an “empty suit,” accuses him of avoiding reporters and ducking debates, and portrays him as the embodiment of the status quo.

Becerra’s camp has hit back.

“He seems to have mistaken his campaign for a cable news audition,” Becerra spokesman Jonathan Underland told the Washington Examiner. “More ranting and raving from a guy who sold his soul to Donald Trump for a slot on Fox News.”

Newsom is another central target. Though the incumbent governor is barred from seeking a third term and is widely expected to consider a 2028 presidential bid, Hilton argues that the state’s problems are inseparable from the leadership Newsom has provided over the past seven years.

To Hilton, Newsom’s national ambitions are part of the problem, too. He claims the governor is more fixated on his political future than on fixing the state he leads.

Why do Californians keep electing Democrats?

Hilton attributes Democrats’ long dominance to what he calls a powerful Sacramento political machine.

“There’s a very corrupt machine at work here,” Hilton said. “The Sacramento machine — there’s a billion dollars a year the government unions get. They use it to control power across the state. And then you have the nonprofits that are taxpayer-funded that are very powerful in terms of their role in ballot harvesting, voter registration, and so on.

“Secondly, I think it’s 16 years of one-party rule. The results are very evidently a total disaster on every front.”

A poll conducted for Hilton’s campaign indicated that he is narrowing the gap with Becerra, although the Democrat remains ahead.

Becerra led Hilton 49.2%-41% among 912 registered voters, with 9.8% undecided, according to the Aug. 14-16 survey commissioned by Hilton’s campaign and conducted by David Wolfson, a pollster and faculty member in Columbia University’s Political Analytics graduate program. The poll had a 3.3-point margin of error.

Becerra “thinks he’s going to coast to victory as part of the corrupt Sacramento machine, but this poll shows that Californians have had enough and are now rising up to throw out the insiders and vote for the change we so desperately need,” Hilton said.

The survey contrasts with a University of California, Berkeley, Institute of Governmental Studies poll conducted Aug. 3-9 among 2,310 likely voters in partnership with the Los Angeles Times that found Becerra ahead 55%-37%.

‘Empty suit’ and ‘lazy’

Hilton has little patience for Sacramento Democrats, accusing lawmakers of being “completely arrogant” and assuming “that this race is already over.” He claims Democrats across California privately describe Becerra as “lazy,” “arrogant,” and an “empty suit.”

“That’s what everyone says about him everywhere you go in the state,” Hilton said. “Democrats. Anyone who’s worked with him says he’s lazy, he’s arrogant, he’s an empty suit. Empty suit is the No. 1 term here.”

Hilton also cited an Axios report about tensions inside the Biden administration, saying former national security adviser Susan Rice had referred to Becerra in derogatory terms during internal disagreements over border policy. She purportedly called him an “idiot” and a “b**** a**,” something the Washington Examiner has not been able to verify independently.

“He’s just a puppet of the machine,” Hilton then said about his political opponent. “He’s a complete nonentity.”

California-based veteran political strategist Garry South dismissed Hilton’s approach.

“Steve Hilton, a British transplant and a sure loser in November, has obviously decided to take the Trumpian low road and start calling people derogatory names, including Becerra,” South told the Washington Examiner. “That’s often the last resort and desperate grasp for attention for a flagging candidacy that is going nowhere. Maybe we should rename him Steve Motel 6.”

Political analyst Michael Fahey, founder of Fahey Communications, said Hilton has a strategy behind trying to provoke Becerra.

“If you are the Republican in a state like California and you are trailing, the absolute worst thing you can allow is a quiet, sleepy general election where the Democrat runs out the clock,” Fahey, who has advised multiple campaigns, told the Washington Examiner. “Hilton needs conflict. He needs Becerra responding to him. He needs reporters asking Becerra about him. And, frankly, he needs people talking about this race who otherwise would not be talking about it.”

But Fahey said the Becerra’s “hiding” argument is more useful politically than Hilton’s personal attacks.

Political pundit Nick Smith took an even harsher view.

“Hilton’s campaign is all ego and zero substance, and he has no realistic chance of winning this state,” Smith told the Washington Examiner. He said calling Becerra “lazy” draws from what he characterized as a broader Trump-era pattern of using terms such as “lazy” and “low IQ” against Democratic leaders of color.

“It’s desperate, it’s racially charged, and it won’t work,” Smith said. “California voters reject this kind of politics.”

Knocking Newsom

Hilton portrays Newsom as a communications strategist rather than a leader.

“He’s a spin doctor,” Hilton said. “He’s really a press guy. That’s what he actually is. He’s a comms person. He’s not a leader.”

Hilton accused Newsom of presiding over the “collapse and ruin” of California while using statistics to present a more favorable picture.

“He’s very skilled at manipulating language and numbers,” Hilton said, objecting to Newsom’s frequent references to California as the world’s fourth-largest economy.

“That’s true. We are statistically, and I’m proud of that,” Hilton said. “And in fact, one of the points I make is that if we got rid of all the excessive bureaucracy, bloat, and red tape annually to California — we’ve estimated that the total cost is $745 billion a year — we’d be the third-biggest economy in the world, pretty much.”

Hilton argues that California’s headline economic numbers mask a more uneven reality.

He points to unemployment, poverty, housing costs, the business climate, infrastructure, and homelessness as evidence that the state’s prosperity has not translated into a broadly affordable quality of life.

California remains beautiful and livable, Hilton said, but increasingly for people who can afford it and often in places where government has not yet “messed things up.”

Reversing Newsom’s policies

If elected, Hilton says he would move quickly to dismantle many of Newsom’s signature policies.

His first target would be California’s troubled high-speed rail project.

Hilton said he would cancel it “on day one” as part of what he calls “Operation Zero Waste” and redirect the money toward tax cuts.

Education would be another target.

Hilton argues that California has dramatically increased school spending without producing comparable academic gains. He points to student performance in English and math as evidence that the state’s education system is failing despite increased funding.

His broader argument is that California does not necessarily have a spending problem so much as a government efficiency problem. That philosophy would shape his proposed plans for the state, which would seek to identify waste, eliminate regulations, and reduce the size and cost of state government.

Ultimately, Hilton’s campaign rests on a simple premise: California’s problems are not inevitable.

For decades, Democrats have won statewide elections by overwhelming margins, while Republicans have struggled to break through even when voters express dissatisfaction with Sacramento.

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Hilton believes the affordability crisis has changed that equation. His challenge is convincing enough Californians that frustration with the status quo is strong enough to overcome the state’s deeply entrenched partisan loyalties.

“The question is whether people are prepared to make a change,” he said. “And I think they are.”