Steve Hilton, former Fox News personality, announces run for California governor
A conservative media personality says he's running for California governor come 2026.
Steve Hilton announced his candidacy for the Republican ticket on Monday, saying, "It's time to make California Golden Again."
Hilton detailed his family's journey from Hungary to London, where he was born, to the US in his announcement video.
"This is not just any other state, California means to America what America means to the world," Hilton says in the video. "Let's make California the land of opportunity again."
Before his tenure as a conservative commentator on the Fox News network, Hilton had worked as a political advisor for British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Hilton eventually moved to the U.S. and became a citizen in 2021.
Unlike the natural-born citizen requirement for serving as U.S. president, candidates for California governor need only be a U.S. citizen. The last Republican to serve as California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was a naturalized citizen.
A number of current and former Democratic Party officeholders have declared a run to succeed Gavin Newsom as California governor. As it stands now, Riverside County Sheriff-Coroner Chad Bianco is the only other major name to have announced a run for the governor's office on the GOP side of the ticket.
