Days after losing the governor’s race by a wide margin, Republican Steve Hilton argued Thursday his campaign should serve as a template for future GOP tickets and hinted at a potential second run for governor. “I’ll be back,” he told reporters gathered outside the Capitol, in a nod to former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Preliminary results as of Thursday afternoon showed Democrat Xavier Becerra leading Hilton, 64% to 36%, with the Associated Press estimating 61% of votes counted. While those totals are likely to change, they put Becerra on track to shatter Gov. Gavin Newsom’s record-setting margin of Democratic victory in 2018.
The former Fox News host said the general political climate was stacked against Republicans without directly rebuking the cause of that mood: President Donald Trump, who endorsed Hilton in April. In response to a question Thursday, Hilton said he didn’t have any regrets about doing more to distance himself from Trump. At the same time, Hilton belatedly critiqued the administration’s Halloween-themed Immigration and Customs Enforcement video, calling it “one of the most disgusting and dehumanizing things I’ve ever seen put out by any government anywhere.”
“I don’t think that there’s anything that could have been done in terms of political positioning that would have brought us to the point where we could actually win this election,” Hilton said.
to face questions about his ties to Trump given the president’s deep unpopularity in California. “It’s just really tough to get that stink off you,” Acosta said.
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