A Republican is officially on the ballot for governor of California, and no, this is not a rerun from 2003. Decision Desk HQ projected Monday night that Steve Hilton, a Trump-endorsed Republican, has advanced to the general election against former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. Read that sentence again and let it marinate.
Did California accidentally leave democracy turned on? Somewhere in Sacramento, a mid-level bureaucrat is frantically trying to find the off switch.
Hilton pulled in 25% of the vote as of Monday night, with Becerra sitting at 27.6%. That's a gap you can close with a decent ground game and the general public's lingering memories of what Democrats have done to the Golden State. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco came in with just over 10%, while billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer apparently learned that hundreds of millions in campaign advertising still can't buy you a personality voters actually like.
The race got a boost when former U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell suspended his campaign amid sexual misconduct allegations. The man who fell for the oldest spy trick in history, a honeypot scheme, had other issues with boundaries too. His exit reshuffled the Democratic side and left Becerra as the last man standing on the left.
Hilton, for his part, has been throwing punches at the state's inability to even count ballots in a timely manner. "Nearly a week into California's election shambles," he posted on X. "The world is laughing at our inability to count votes in a timely manner." He also took a direct shot at the current governor's absence, saying, "No comment except to reject my plan to speed things up. We deserve better than a do-nothing, checked-out governor."
He's not wrong. Gavin Newsom left behind a state with crumbling infrastructure, a homelessness crisis that makes third-world countries wince, and an exodus of taxpayers that U-Haul couldn't keep up with. That's the legacy Becerra is now defending.
Speaking of Becerra, the former HHS Secretary hopped on X to deliver the kind of boilerplate victory speech that makes you wonder if AI wrote it. "California has spoken. Thank you for standing with us," he wrote. "To every volunteer who made a call, sent a text, knocked a door, or showed up when it mattered most — this victory belongs to you." He added, "We're just getting started. On to November."
Big talk from a guy who didn't even get 28% in his own party's stronghold.
Here's the thing the legacy media will never say out loud: the fact that a Republican is competitive in California at all is a five-alarm fire for the Democratic Party. This is a state they've treated as a personal ATM for decades. President Trump's endorsement of Hilton signals the national party sees an opening, and when Trump smells blood in the water, he doesn't tend to let go.
This is a genuine breakthrough in deep-blue territory — the kind of race the GOP has been shut out of for years. November is a long way off, and California's voter rolls still lean heavily left. But for the first time in a very long time, Republicans have a horse in this race.
And if nothing else, watching Sacramento Democrats sweat through the summer will be worth the price of admission.