Who is Steve Hilton, the Briton who could become California’s next governor?

Steve Hilton speaks to reporters outside the capitol building in Sacramento, California, on 3 June 2026. Photograph: Rich Pedroncelli/AP View image in fullscreen Steve Hilton speaks to reporters outside the capitol building in Sacramento, California, on 3 June 2026. Photograph: Rich Pedroncelli/AP Analysis Who is Steve Hilton, the Briton who could become California’s next governor? Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles Hilton has worn many hats since he arrived in the US 14 years ago, and now faces steep odds of defeating Democratic Xavier Becerra in November After years of working in the background of Conservative party politics in Britain, Steve Hilton has passed the first major test as his own front man: clinching a spot in the November run-off to become California’s next governor. The outcome was far from a given under California’s open primary system, which rewards the top two vote winners regardless of party, and the particular challenge of running as a Republican in one of the most solidly blue states in the country. But Hilton, whose resume since arriving in the United States 14 years ago includes stints as an entrepreneur, a policy analyst and a Fox News host, ran a spirited campaign and looks set to finish an admirably close second to Xavier Becerra, the former California attorney general and US health secretary. Republican Steve Hilton advances in tight California governor’s race Read more From the outset, Hilton promised to breathe new life into a California Republican party that has not won statewide office in 20 years and campaigned to bring radical change to a state struggling with a cost of living crisis, a woeful shortage of housing and many other challenges that he blames squarely on a decade and a half of one-party Democratic rule. As California’s notoriously slow vote count hit the one-week mark on Tuesday, it became clear that the third-place finisher, the progressive billionaire Tom Steyer, lagged too far behind to close the gap. As of Tuesday evening, Hilton had 25% of the vote, 2.9 points behind Becerra and 2.4 points ahead of Steyer. While the odds remain stacked against him winning in November, Hilton has assembled a broad coalition of supporters spanning working-class voters, Latino small business owners, religious conservatives and Silicon Valley tech tycoons, all of them anxious for change in a state that a majority of voters say is moving in the wrong direction, according to recent polls. With his penchant for bright yellow T-shirts and an engaging, down-to-earth speaking style, Hilton has presented himself as a more approachable kind of Republican – positioning himself much as he positioned David Cameron, the British Conservative leader who he helped catapult into the prime minister’s office in 2010. It’s a persona that has won over many conservative Californians, even as it has prompted skepticism in his home country, where Hilton often evokes his spoof alter ego, Stewart Pearson, in the TV satire The Thick of It. He has ev