California has a chance to break the cycle of Democratic
doom and destruction.
A chance, but not a certainty. Election 2026 has been awash
in good polls, bad polls, and lots of politicians trying to get a win over
entrenched and endangered incumbents.
The California Governor’s race is a contest of a different
sort.
For the last three election cycles, there were no nationally
broadcast debates between the two candidates running in the general. From 2014,
in which Governor Brown was all but assured re-election and participated in a
small debate, to 2018 and 2022, in which Gavin Newsom didn’t bother with much
of a major debate, either, since he was assured victory.
This year, though, things are different.
Eight years of Gavin Newsom have waged their fair share of
destruction.
For the first time in 16 years, the Republicans have a
somewhat conservative candidate who is not afraid to confront bad leadership
while making inroads to bring in conservatives as well as reach independents
and disaffected Democrats.
I supported Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, and I was
crestfallen that he didn’t make it into the Top Two. I was worried that Steve
Hilton, the GOP nominee this cycle, would be another lame liberal who would
disappear after the primary, having made the consultants and media class happy
while doing nothing for the grassroots and the generic voters.
Hilton has happily surprised me. He has been campaigning
much harder than previous Republican statewide candidates. He has connected
with everyday voters, proposed unique policies, and has managed to keep his
name in the press and the limelight.
He’s articulate, prepared to respond to any question or
challenge. When I confronted him over some of his views in years past, he
didn’t shy away from me. A few minutes later, he accepted that I was supporting
his opponent, but he asked me what he could do to improve his campaign anyway.
He also spoke on multiple podcasts and attended every
debate. Those smart moves helped assure his ascent to the general election.
He has dogged his Democratic opponent, former Congressman,
California Attorney General, and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier
Becerra over his frequent failures as a politician. The negatives following
Becerra over his mismanagement and loss of hundreds of thousands of migrant
children at the border have dragged down his campaign.
Hilton has done such a superb job of maintaining the
pressure that Becerra conceded to a live, nationally televised debate. This
didn’t happen in the three previous election cycles. I knew this would be a win
for Hilton because I spoke to a previous Republican challenger who ran against
Becerra when he was a Congressman from Downtown Los Angeles. He was so
ill-prepared and outmatched, that most of the audience acknowledged the
Republican as the better of the two. Not that it matters, though, since Becerra
continued to get elected by double digits in supermajority Democratic Downtown
LA.
This year, Californians are open to change for a change.
Democrats who had gladly (blindly) voted for Newsom have told Hilton that they
will vote for him this time around. They don’t want repeat offenders released
onto the streets. They want to end the homelessness crisis with enforcement and
accountability. They want affordable housing, gas, and groceries.
They want a state that works again, and Hilton has the plans
and the panache to make it all happen.
In the debate on September 30th, 2026, Hilton
showed his suave command of the issues while rebuffing Becerra’s desperate
attacks.
Hilton talked about how Democrats are the ones who created all
of California’s problems. They have controlled all the levers of state
government power for the last sixteen years. Does anyone think that the same
people can fix them?
Becerra talked about red tape and other hazy issues as the
real problem, combined with no ability to call out the real culprits.
On AI regulation and expansion, Hilton mentioned that even though
the major AI firms are based in California, Texas and Arizona are getting all
the business and revenue, while California keeps losing money as more
businesses flee. Hilton also suggested that AI regulation should protect
children above all, and it should be banned in the classroom because students
have become so accustomed to relying on Grok, ChatGPT, etc., to answer all the
questions that their learning has been stunted.
Becerra claimed to care about protecting jobs, when in reality,
he’s just kissing up to the California labor unions endorsing his campaign, who
don’t want innovation cutting into their power.
As expected, Becerra hid behind Donald Trump throughout the
entire debate, chanting “Trump” as a distraction to throw Hilton off. It didn’t
work, and it was the best he had.
Hilton jabs Becerra with slurs and insults from his
Democratic colleagues during his time in the Biden Administration, Susan Rice’s
epithets “Idiot” and “B*tch A--.” Those insults stung Becerra and elicited some
shock and laughter from the public, but will it sway voters to the GOP in
November?
On data centers (as contrived an issue as any other), Hilton
talked about construction for jobs, while Becerra worried about the energy and
resource costs to the state. California has been wasting millions of gallons of
water per year under his watch, and now he cares about water usage?
Immigration came up, as well. CNN moderator Jake Tapper deserves
credit for comparing illegal crossings under Biden vs. Trump 2.0. Becerra had
to admit (subtly) that Biden did a bad job, and Trump did a better job. He
conceded that we need a secure border, but then attacked Hilton for only
wanting white immigrants while seeking to deport non-whites like himself: The
race card, the last refuge of a desperate Democratic scoundrel.
Hilton rebuked him for that crass attack, then stated that
he would work with the loopholes in the state’s sanctuary state law to deport
the serious criminals in the state. I wish Hilton would get rid of all the
illegals, but I suppose he’s picking his fights now to get the job done once in
office.
In one of his strongest hits, Hilton slams Becerra for losing
400k migrant children into the hands of traffickers because he refused to
control the border. New
York Times reported on this massive failure, and Becerra was at a loss.
Other questions touched on the “climate crisis” (leading
question), election integrity, vaccines, and healthcare. Becerra tried to turn
the healthcare question into an abortion issue, but to her credit, Dana Bash
stopped Becerra from talking about abortion and told him to focus on
healthcare. CNN admits that abortion is not healthcare. WOW!
CNN then asked about homelessness, a particularly sticky
issue for California. Tapper and Bash reported on homelessness across the
country during Becerra’s tenure as HHS Secretary!
He also gave Newsom an A for handling homelessness. Oh
brother!
At the end of the
debate, Becerra earned an F, and Hilton was the clear winner. No guarantees
that scoring a media victory will translate into a Hilton victory come
November. Democratic voters in California have remained committed because of
“Orange Man Bad,” and they probably won’t abandon their national obsession to
improve their state.
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