Steve Hilton

Steve Hilton was born in England to Hungarian immigrants who fled their homeland during the 1956 revolution.⁠[1]

He graduated from New College at the University of OxfordUniversity of OxfordThe University of Oxford is a university in Oxford, England, where teaching existed in some form by 1096; it describes itself as the oldest university in the English-speaking world and is organised as a federal system of the university and dozens of self-governing colleges.Open the full entry.⁠[2][1]

Hilton worked in politics and advertising and then founded Good Business, a consulting firm that advised companies including Nike and McDonald’sMcDonald’sMcDonald’s is a publicly traded restaurant company headquartered in Chicago, known for hamburgers, fries, drive-thrus and its franchise network. Its origins lie in the restaurant opened by Richard and Maurice McDonald in 1940; Ray Kroc expanded franchising from 1955. It operates across more than 100 countries, with the great majority of restaurants run by independent operators.Open the full entry on ethical capitalism.⁠[1]

He was a senior adviser to David Cameron, Conservative Party leader and British prime minister from 2010 to 2016; he supported Brexit, breaking with Cameron on the issue.⁠[1][2]

In 2012 Hilton moved to California, where he co-founded Crowdpac, a nonpartisan political fundraising website, and taught at Stanford UniversityStanford UniversityStanford University is a research university in California founded by Leland and Jane Stanford in 1885 and opened in 1891.Open the full entry; in 2018 he and Crowdpac parted ways after controversy over his support for Donald Trump.⁠[1][2]

From 2017 to 2023 he hosted The Next Revolution on FOX News, and he later continued as a FOX News contributor.⁠[3]

He became a U.S. citizen in 2021, and in 2023 he founded Golden Together, a research group focused on California’s business climate, homelessness, crime, housing and wildfire management. He is also the author of the book Califailure.⁠[1][2]

On April 21, 2025, Hilton announced his candidacy for governor of California in 2026 in a video of nearly three minutes posted online, and he held a campaign launch event in Huntington Beach the next day.⁠[1][2]

In the video he said: “We’ve got to end the one-party rule that got us into this mess.” He summed up his goals as “great jobs, great homes, great kids.”⁠[1]

In the nonpartisan top-two gubernatorial primary on June 2, 2026, Hilton finished second with 24.6% (2,277,318 votes) and advanced to the November election alongside first-place finisher Xavier BecerraXavier BecerraXavier Becerra (born 1958) is an American Democratic politician and lawyer who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2017, as attorney general of California from 2017 to 2021 and as U.S. secretary of health and human services from 2021 to 2025. He was elected governor of California in November 2026.Open the full entry (28.0%); Donald Trump had endorsed Hilton before the primary.⁠[3][4]

In the CNNCNNCNN (Cable News Network) is an Atlanta-based news organization founded by Ted Turner on June 1, 1980, as the world’s first 24-hour television news channel. It has been owned in turn by Turner Broadcasting System, Time Warner, AT&T and Warner Bros. Discovery, became part of Skydance Corporation along with Warner Bros. Discovery in October 2026, and is one of the five networks that rotate in the White House television pool.Open the full entry-hosted gubernatorial debate, Becerra repeatedly cited Trump’s endorsement of Hilton.⁠[4]

About a minute after polls closed on November 3, 2026, the Associated Press called the race for Becerra over Hilton.⁠[4]

Steve Hilton for Governor of California: Official website: https://stevehiltonforgovernor.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[5][3]