Former Fox News host Steve Hilton announces bid for California governor

Hilton said he loved California and one-party rule had ruined the state.

Published: April 21, 2025 2:48pm

Former Fox News contributor Steve Hilton announced Monday that he would be running for governor of California.

"A big decision that I've made, which I can now share with you, that I am, in fact, going to be running for governor of California for 2026," Hilton, who will run as a Republican, told Fox News in an exclusive interview.

He said he loved California and that one-party rule had ruined the state.

"I honestly think that the 2026 election in California is a life-or-death moment because if we continue with this one-party rule by the Democrats, things are just gonna really start to deteriorate very rapidly," Hilton said.

Hilton was born in the United Kingdom and in 2012 moved to California, where he started a tech start-up company called Crowdpac.com.

He had a program on Fox News called "The Next Revolution" that aired from 2017 to 2023.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is term-limited and will not be able to run for re-election.

"We have a combination of idiots and ideologues who've been running this state into the ground, ruining what I consider to be the greatest state and the greatest nation on earth, and it's time for change," Hilton said.