California Republican gubernatorial hopeful Steve Hilton is making his clearest pitch yet to voters outside the GOP, unveiling a new print advertisement Wednesday in an appeal first shared with the California Post.
The full-page ad, scheduled to appear in the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times, carries a blunt, all-caps headline: “Can you be anti-Trump but still vote for me?”
Hilton also teased a forthcoming television spot, expected to be released this week, showing the former Fox News personality holding a California flag as he takes aim at what he casts as the Democratic “machine.”
The print ad from Hilton, who has been endorsed by President Donald Trump, walks readers through a checklist of California’s most persistent cost-of-living complaints, including soaring utility bills, high gas prices, homelessness and steep taxes.
For voters who recognize those frustrations, the ad argues that Hilton could be a viable choice for California governor — even with Trump’s backing, a potentially difficult association in a state where the former president remains deeply unpopular.
“Yes, I’m the Republican. The ‘Fox News’ guy,” the advertisement says, referring to Hilton’s past work as a political commentator on the conservative network. “But this election is not about who you hate in Washington. It’s about what you love here.”
In the ad, Hilton seeks to frame himself as a practical candidate rather than an “ideologue.”
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“You don’t have to like Trump. You don’t have to become a Republican. You just have to ask yourself: does it make sense to vote the same way and expect a different result?,” the ad says.
The new pitch to Democrats and anti-Trump voters reflect the stark reality that it’s extremely hard for a Republican to be elected to statewide office in a predominantly blue state. A recent poll showed Hilton trailing Democratic candidate Xavier Becerra by 25 percentage points.
“The challenge to Hilton is they can’t win without Democratic support,” longtime pollster John McLaughlin told The Post. He has “to have some rejection of the Democrat candidate to be able to win.”
McLaughlin said one of the few angles Hilton has is running on dissatisfaction with the status quo, which Hilton has been emphasizing throughout his campaign.
Underlying the ad are political calculations that Hilton has had to make throughout the campaign over how closely to align with Trump, political analysts have said.
A spokesperson for the Hilton campaign told The Post that “this is NOT Steve distancing himself from President Trump. In fact, Steve has consistently said he is proud to have the President’s endorsement and will continue to do so.”
Internal polling shows that three-quarters of persuadable voters who are dissatisfied with California’s direction didn’t vote for Trump, the spokesperson added, and the ad is simply targeting them.
“The campaign is focused on building a broad coalition of voters seeking change after 16 years of one-party rule,” the spokesperson said.
