If Steve Hilton wants to be California governor, he should ditch the MAGA baggage
Editor-at-large, San Francisco Standard
Published Apr. 28, 2025 • 6:00am
Steve Hilton, the unlikeliest of Republican candidates for governor of California, was just getting warmed up.
The sun had broken through the clouds last week in Huntington Beach, and Hilton had begun an extended riff on how voters often swing dramatically by choosing leaders who are wildly different from their predecessors. Think: George W. Bush to Barack Obama, and Obama to Donald Trump.
That led to Hilton noting the contrast between his own bald pate and the rather impressive mop atop the head of his favorite foil, Gavin Newsom. “I think going the other direction is a pretty good idea,” he said to general applause and more than a few anticipatory chuckles. “I think we need a governor with less hair.”
It took me the length of a short flight to cross a vast cultural chasm when I traveled last week from deep-blue San Francisco to blood-red Orange County to watch Hilton, a Fox News personality and former political operative in the United Kingdom, launch his bid for governor. By mid-morning on Tuesday, I found myself sitting on the concrete steps of a makeshift amphitheater next to Huntington Beach’s town pier, surrounded by people in MAGA hats and Jesus-themed T-shirts.
I had come hoping to answer a straightforward question: Would middle-of-the-road, Trump-loathing Californians like me, who almost always vote Democratic but would gladly entertain the idea of a centrist in the mold of Arnold Schwarzenegger, support someone like Hilton?
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