Steyer and Hilton scrap for 2nd place in Tuesday gubernatorial primary

As Californians stalled on voting ahead of Tuesday’s primary election, leading candidates hoping to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom criss-crossed the state to make their closing arguments to voters.

With former Biden Cabinet secretary Xavier Becerra rising in recent polls, the two candidates battling to win second place in this week’s primaries and advance to the November election have emphasized the strategic reasons they believe voters should support them.

Republican Steve Hilton, a former conservative commentator who quickly outpaced his main GOP rival, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, after President Trump endorsed him in April, urged voters to support him to avoid the possibility of the two Democrats facing off in November.

“I want us to fight like we’re third. We’re not going to let this get away from us,” Hilton told several hundred people at the Santa Monica Hilton Hotel & Suites on Sunday morning.

The former British political strategist was once ahead in the polls but has fallen slightly behind Becerra. Not far behind Hilton is Democrat Tom Steyer, the billionaire hedge fund founder turned climate change activist.

During her hour-and-a-half speech, Hilton alternated between her oft-repeated criticisms of 16 years of Democratic-led rule in California and berating the top Democrats in the race.

Steyer’s incessant bombardment of ads is “the only reason to beat him,” while Becerra is “the living embodiment of more of the same.”

“Our secret weapon? The Democratic candidates,” Hilton said with a chuckle.

When asked why voters shouldn’t support Bianco, Hilton said it’s simple math. Regardless of party affiliation, only those who finished first and second in the June 2 primary will advance to the general election.

“Every vote for Chad Bianco is a vote for the top two Democrats,” he said.

If a GOP gubernatorial candidate fails to make it to the ballot in November, it would suppress Republican votes, hurt the party’s down-ballot candidates, and also hinder a Republican-led ballot initiative requiring voters to show government-issued identification to vote.

California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer takes a photo with a volunteer during a Get Out the Vote rally at Los Angeles Trade Technical College on Sunday.

(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)

Steyer, who spent a record-breaking $216 million of his fortune to run for governor, argued that he was the only candidate in the race who was not beholden to special interests. Meta criticized Becerra for the support he has received from companies such as Airbnb, Uber and Chevron. Steyer argued that Becerra, if elected governor, would be more responsive to special interests than financially strapped Californians.

“We’ve seen it in this race. Chevron cuts you a check and you look the other way when they raise prices at the pump. Meta gives you money and your AI plan starts to look like ChatGPT,” Steyer, wearing a hat labeling himself a “class traitor,” told more than 500 supporters at a community college near downtown Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon. “This is the story of Xavier Becerra.”

Interest groups, including corporations, labor unions, and the California Assn. Realtors spent more than $18.7 million supporting Becerra on Sunday, according to California Target Book, which tracks election spending.

“These companies may be selfish, but they’re not stupid. They won’t pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to get someone elected unless they know they’ll be on their side,” Steyer said.

Although Steyer has built his fortune in part from past investments in private prisons, fossil fuels and private equity, his supporters have described him as a reformed billionaire who walked away from those industries more than a decade ago.

Comedian and podcaster Francesca Fiorentini likened Steyer to Charles Dickens’ fictional miser Ebenezer Scrooge.

“At the end of ‘A Christmas Carol,’ no one turns to Ebenezer and says, ‘No, I’m not going to accept your gifts.’ No, they welcome him. “They can joke around with him a little bit, but we need to welcome someone like Tom Steyer,” Fiorentini said. “Tom Steyer actually listens, he really cares, he actually changes his belief system and acts accordingly.”

Although he was mainly after Becerra, Steyer did not neglect to criticize Hilton.

“You’re not voting for who’s on the ballot, you’re voting for California, which comes later,” Steyer said. “California, run by Steve Hilton, looks exactly like what Trump wants: higher prices, lower wages, and less freedom.”

His campaign underscored its attacks on Becerra when a handful of supporters dressed as zombies spoke outside Becerra’s rally in Long Beach on Sunday evening. They waved signs bearing the names of businesses supporting Becerra and wore lanyards describing “Big Oil,” “Big Tech” and other corporate sectors as Becerra’s “best friend.”

At a raucous rally, elected officials, labor leaders and reproductive rights advocates were among the speakers introducing Becerra, who attacked Steyer and Hilton, though not by name.

“We will not allow a billionaire or Trump’s hand-picked candidate to take over this state,” he told more than 1,000 people at the city’s convention center. “We won’t let them gut Medicaid while Californians are working hard to build a future. We won’t let them buy the election… Not here, not in this state, not on our watch.”

Becerra looked in awe as he stood in front of the packed room.

“Look at this room. One of our competitors has a billion dollars in his checkbook,” he said. “We have something better… We don’t have money, but we have movement. We don’t have money, but we have momentum. And in this case, if you have momentum, you cross the finish line and you win, baby, you win.”

Becerra also seemingly released a new video. Attacks Hilton as “Trump’s favorite” — a thinly veiled effort among Republicans to support Hilton to ensure she finishes ahead of Steyer in the primaries. Given that Democratic voters outnumber Republicans by nearly 2 to 1, Becerra is favored to face Hilton over Steyer in the general election.

Newsom’s campaign used this strategy to support GOP businessman John Cox in the 2018 gubernatorial election, as did then-Rep. Adam Schiff against Republican Steve Garvey in Schiff’s successful 2024 U.S. Senate race.

Billionaire Tom Steyer argued that he was the only candidate without special interests.

(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)

Steyer released an ad this weekend titled “Risky” insinuating that Becerra could face criminal charges related to the actions of two former advisers who pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the theft of campaign funds from a dormant Becerra campaign account.

Becerra’s campaign called the ad defamatory in a cease and desist letter sent to the Steyer campaign on Saturday.

Becerra, Hilton and Steyer, the frontrunners in the race, took the state by storm in the final days before the June 2 primary. They devoted most of their attention to voters in Southern California, home to most of the state’s 23.2 million registered voters. Low-ballot candidates also stunned in the Southland — San José Mayor Matt Mahan greeted customers at Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles, and former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter launched a union campaign in Orange on Saturday.

Unlike recent contests to govern the nation’s most populous state, this year’s contest for governor failed to energize voters. That’s despite a large field of candidates with remarkable resumes, as well as record-breaking spending by Steyer and the independent spending committees. Californians have just adjusted.

Political experts in both parties believe voter unrest stems from political polarization in the country as well as fatigue from the Trump administration’s policies that disproportionately affect California, such as federal tariffs and immigration raids that raise prices everywhere. Southern Californians were also reeling from devastating wildfires in Pacific Palisades and Altadena and last year’s special election to redraw the state’s congressional boundaries.

Earlier this year, Democratic leaders worried that voters would be divided among their candidates, creating a scenario in which two Republicans would win the general election. They controversially called on their party’s candidates to evaluate their viability, effectively encouraging many low-voting candidates to drop out of the race.

Democratic participation has also raised concerns. As of May 22, mail ballots sent by Democrats were 9.2% lower than in the 2022 gubernatorial primary, while ballots sent by Republicans were 11.6% higher, according to Political Data Intelligence. However, rates of return vary; As of Friday, Democrats were 7% behind 2022 return rates while Republicans were 6.8% higher.

The latest polls show two Republicans are unlikely to win the general election, and the chances of two Democrats winning the top two spots in the June 2 primary are now slim.