Steve Hilton said there is "no question" anger at President Trump helped sink his campaign for California governor along with the campaigns of Republicans across the country — but the former Fox News host isn't done fighting yet.
It was a blunt, almost brutal, piece of self-assessment from a candidate who spent the last 18 months trying to thread a needle that no California Republican has threaded in almost two decades.
The numbers were decisive
By Thursday morning, the math was not close. Democrat Xavier Becerra had 5,268,634 votes (64.4%) to Hilton's 2,917,832 votes (35.6%), a result that extended Democrats' 16-year hold on the governor's office.
Becerra, 68, former HHS Secretary under Joe Biden and former California Attorney General, made history as California's first Latino elected governor after defeating Hilton in the race to succeed Gavin Newsom.
Hilton conceded at his election night event in Garden Grove on Nov. 4, but he did not question the outcome. "I don't think there's any reason to question the outcome based on stories like that," he said, rejecting suggestions that voting problems cast doubt on his defeat.
Who Steve Hilton is, and what he ran on
If you only knew him from cable, you missed half the resume. Hilton is a former Fox News host and adviser to British Prime Minister David Cameron who became a U.S. citizen in 2021. The British-born son of Hungarian immigrants who fled communism, he served as Cameron's director of strategy from 2010 to 2012, then moved to California, co-founded the political crowdfunding platform Crowdpac, taught at Stanford, and hosted The Next Revolution.
In April 2025 he launched his campaign in Huntington Beach on a single, obsessive idea: affordability.
His "CalAffordable" or "Make California Golden Again" platform was built for kitchen-table frustration, not culture war:
$3-a-gallon gasoline and suspending environmental regulations that drive up fuel costs
$73 car registration
No income taxes on the first $150,000
Cutting utility bills in half and expanding starter homes
Broader deregulation, cutting state spending, rolling back climate mandates, and expanding energy production to lower housing, electricity and gasoline costs
He also pitched more hard-line ideas like abolishing the DMV and expanding prison capacity, arguing years of one-party Democratic control had left Californians struggling with cost of living, homelessness and public safety.
It was a prototype campaign, in his own words. The Republican entrepreneur and former adviser to UK Prime Minister David Cameron described his first campaign as something of a prototype.
The Trump problem he couldn't escape
Hilton had President Donald Trump's endorsement, and in California that is both a primary asset and a general election anchor.
Trump endorsed Hilton during the primary, calling him "a truly fine man." In a state where Trump lost by more than 20 points in 2024 and where No Party Preference voters have shifted sharply against the GOP, that endorsement haunted him.
Hilton tried to walk the tightrope publicly. This summer he took out full-page advertisements in the Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle with the headline: "Can you be anti- Trump but still vote for me?"
During debates he snapped at Becerra: "All you ever say is 'Trump, Trump, Trump.' That's nothing but an insult to every Californian who is desperate for something to change."
But by election week, national politics swallowed state issues. Hilton recounted a conversation with a man whose Mexican immigrant family and friends were preoccupied with an ICE Halloween video before the election.
"That ICE Halloween video, I've got to tell you, is one of the most disgusting and dehumanizing things I've ever seen put out by any government anywhere," Hilton said.
He acknowledged the difficulty of breaking through a campaign dominated by national politics, and said there is "no question" that anger at Trump helped sink his campaign and Republicans across the country.
It tracked with the broader 2026 story. Tuesday's midterm was a blue wave that swept away Republican congressional seats and statewide hopes in California. Some analysts called it a Watergate-level repudiation, driven by cost-of-living anger and perceptions of corruption in Washington.
Hilton, who fought an uphill battle in overwhelmingly blue California where Democrats hold a commanding registration advantage, became the case study.
"Loyal opposition" — and not done
What was striking about Hilton's post-election remarks was not bitterness, but positioning.
He described his role as the "loyal opposition," pressing Becerra to lower gasoline prices, make housing more affordable and improve conditions for small businesses.
"If Democrats deliver, Hilton said, he would support them. But he expressed little confidence that they would change course," telling reporters: "I have very little expectation that they're going to bring gas prices down, improve the business climate, make housing more affordable. Because they've had 16 years to do it, and it's gone in the opposite direction."
He said he had not spoken with Becerra since the election but would be willing to share ideas. "I'm not sure he's the chatty kind. I don't think I'm going to be his first port of call."
The most affecting moment, he said, came not on stage but over beers with teammates when a bartender quietly gave them a free round: "We really could have used you up there." That encounter, he said, captured the desperation he heard from working Californians: "Californians are at breaking point, and we've got to do something about that."
And then the future.
Hilton said he would consider another run for office after losing, promising to keep pushing for relief from California's high costs.
"I'm in this for the long term, whether that is as a candidate, whether that is a leader, a policymaker, maybe all of those things," Hilton said. "Nothing is off the table." Asked specifically about another gubernatorial campaign, he said: "I certainly wouldn't rule it out."
For now, he plans to take a few weeks off, spend time with friends and family and enjoy the holidays before deciding what comes next. "You can't give up. You can't give up on the state. You can't give up on all those people who are desperate for change."
He closed by borrowing a line from California's last Republican governor.
"In the words of a former Republican governor — I'm not going to try and do the accent — but I definitely will be back," Hilton said, channeling Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Whether that comeback is as a candidate in 2030, a ballot initiative leader through his Golden Together organization, or a policy entrepreneur outside office, Hilton is betting that the affordability crisis he campaigned on will outlast the anti-Trump anger that, by his own admission, beat him this time.
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