California has a chance to break the cycle of Democratic doom and destruction.
A chance, but not a certainty. Election 2026 has been awash in good polls, bad polls, and lots of politicians trying to beat entrenched and endangered incumbents.
The California governor’s race is a different kind of contest.
For the last three election cycles, there were no nationally broadcast debates between the two candidates running in the general. From 2014, when Governor Brown was all but assured reelection and participated in a small debate, to 2018 and 2022, when Gavin Newsom didn’t bother with much of a major debate either, since he was assured victory.
This year, though, things are different.
Eight years of Gavin Newsom have waged their fair share of destruction.
For the first time in 16 years, the Republicans have a somewhat conservative candidate who isn't afraid to confront bad leadership while making inroads with conservatives, as well as reaching independents and disaffected Democrats.
I supported Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, and I was crestfallen that he didn’t make it into the Top Two. I was worried that Steve Hilton, the GOP nominee this cycle, would be another lame liberal who would disappear after the primary, having made the consultants and media class happy while doing nothing for the grassroots and the generic voters.
Hilton has happily surprised me. He has been campaigning much harder than previous Republican statewide candidates. He has connected with everyday voters, proposed unique policies, and kept his name in the press and the limelight.
He’s articulate, prepared to respond to any question or challenge. When I confronted him over some of his views in years past, he didn’t shy away from me. A few minutes later, he accepted that I was supporting his opponent, but he asked me what he could do to improve his campaign anyway.
He also spoke on multiple podcasts and attended every debate. Those smart moves helped assure his ascent to the general election.
He has dogged his Democratic opponent, former Congressman, California Attorney General, and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra over his frequent failures as a politician. The negatives following Becerra over his mismanagement and loss of hundreds of thousands of migrant children at the border have dragged down his campaign.
Hilton has done such a superb job of maintaining the pressure that Becerra conceded to a live, nationally televised debate. This didn’t happen in the three previous election cycles. I knew this would be a win for Hilton because I spoke to a previous Republican challenger who ran against Becerra when he was a congressman from Downtown Los Angeles. He was so ill-prepared and outmatched, that most of the audience acknowledged the Republican as the better of the two. Not that it matters, though, since Becerra continued to get elected by double digits in supermajority Democratic Downtown LA.
This year, Californians are open to change for a change. Democrats who had gladly (blindly) voted for Newsom have told Hilton that they will vote for him this time around. They don’t want repeat offenders released onto the streets. They want to end the homelessness crisis with enforcement and accountability. They want affordable housing, gas, and groceries.
They want a state that works again, and Hilton has the plans and the panache to make it all happen.
In the debate on September 30, 2026, Hilton showed his suave command of the issues while rebuffing Becerra’s desperate attacks.
Hilton talked about how Democrats are the ones who created all of California’s problems. They have controlled all the levers of state government power for the last 16 years. Does anyone think that the same people can fix them?
Becerra talked about red tape and other hazy issues as the real problem, combined with no ability to call out the real culprits.
On AI regulation and expansion, Hilton mentioned that even though the major AI firms are based in California, Texas, and Arizona are getting all the business and revenue, while California keeps losing money as more businesses flee. Hilton also suggested that AI regulation should protect children above all, and it should be banned in the classroom because students have become so accustomed to relying on Grok, ChatGPT, etc., to answer all the questions that their learning has been stunted.
Becerra claimed to care about protecting jobs, when in reality, he’s just kissing up to the California labor unions endorsing his campaign, who don’t want innovation cutting into their power.
As expected, Becerra hid behind Donald Trump throughout the entire debate, chanting “Trump” as a distraction to throw Hilton off. It didn’t work, and it was the best he had.
Hilton jabs Becerra with slurs and insults from his Democratic colleagues during his time in the Biden Administration, Susan Rice’s epithets “Idiot” and “B***h A**.” Those insults stung Becerra and elicited some shock and laughter from the public, but will it sway voters to the GOP in November?
On data centers (as contrived an issue as any other), Hilton talked about construction for jobs, while Becerra worried about the energy and resource costs to the state. California has been wasting millions of gallons of water per year under his watch, and now he cares about water usage?
Immigration came up, as well. CNN moderator Jake Tapper deserves credit for comparing illegal crossings under Biden vs. Trump 2.0. Becerra had to admit (subtly) that Biden did a bad job, and Trump did a better job. He conceded that we need a secure border, but then attacked Hilton for only wanting white immigrants while seeking to deport non-whites like himself: The race card, the last refuge of a desperate Democratic scoundrel.
Hilton rebuked him for that crass attack, then stated that he would work with the loopholes in the state’s sanctuary state law to deport the serious criminals in the state. I wish Hilton would get rid of all the illegals, but I suppose he’s picking his fights now to get the job done once in office.
In one of his strongest hits, Hilton slams Becerra for losing 400k migrant children into the hands of traffickers because he refused to control the border. The New York Times reported on this massive failure, and Becerra was at a loss.
Other questions touched on the “climate crisis” (leading question), election integrity, vaccines, and healthcare. Becerra tried to turn the healthcare question into an abortion issue, but to her credit, Dana Bash stopped Becerra from talking about abortion and told him to focus on healthcare. CNN admits that abortion is not healthcare. WOW!
CNN then asked about homelessness, a particularly sticky issue for California. Tapper and Bash reported on homelessness across the country during Becerra’s tenure as HHS Secretary!
He also gave Newsom an A for handling homelessness. Oh brother!
At the end of the debate, Becerra earned an F, and Hilton was the clear winner. No guarantees that scoring a media victory will translate into a Hilton victory come November. Democratic voters in California have remained committed because of “Orange Man Bad,” and they probably won’t abandon their national obsession to improve their state.