Steve Hilton

A governor could reverse state executive orders that limit cooperation with ICE, could direct state agencies such as the DMV, health and education to share data with DHS within the limits of state law, could end state limits on 287(g) agreements between local police and ICE, and could issue a state directive of cooperation with federal enforcement.

Federal supremacy limits his authority here, but in the opposite direction from a sanctuary candidate, because the anti-commandeering doctrine, set out in Printz v. United States, bars the federal government from conscripting state employees or agencies for federal enforcement, which means state agencies can refuse to participate. SB 54 is state statute, so the Legislature, with its Democratic supermajority, and the courts can stop most of the agency-level cooperation Hilton wants to order.

This is direct harm, because SELA includes large mixed-status families, and "cooperate with ICE" means the DMV sharing addresses and dates of birth with federal enforcement, so the endgame of full cooperation is more deportations of community members, including parents of citizen children. Routine interactions like DMV registration, school enrollment and clinic visits become vectors for deportation, and the state firewall that SELA families depend on today disappears.

A governor could sign enabling legislation if the Legislature passes it, but cannot unilaterally rewrite the tax code, although a governor can propose the budget and veto increases.

The California Constitution requires a two-thirds legislative vote for income tax rate changes, and Democrats hold a supermajority and oppose cuts on this scale, so the governor's office cannot rewrite the tax code by executive order.

The headline sounds like middle-class relief, but the structure of the plan benefits high earners most, because a flat tax on income above $100k replaces a progressive structure where rates climb to 13.3% for top earners. The state funds Medi-Cal, public schools, CalFresh, In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS), transit, public universities and the homelessness response from those revenues, so cutting $60 billion a year forces cuts to those programs, and since SELA families disproportionately depend on Medi-Cal, public schools and CalFresh, the cut lands on them while the "relief" goes to high earners.

A governor could direct DHCS to apply tighter Medi-Cal eligibility restrictions for undocumented immigrants within the bounds of federal and state law, could veto bills that expand Medi-Cal coverage, and could propose budget cuts to the program.

Federal law, specifically EMTALA, requires hospitals to treat emergencies regardless of immigration status, and California's 2024 Medi-Cal expansion to all income-eligible adults regardless of immigration status is state statute, so repeal requires legislative action that the Democratic supermajority will not provide.

This is direct harm, because SELA is one of the regions with the highest concentration of mixed-status families in California, and many SELA households include undocumented adults who became eligible for Medi-Cal under the 2024 expansion, so rolling that coverage back means uninsured parents, delayed treatment, more ER use, and worse health outcomes for SELA families. Without Medi-Cal, private premiums and copays are out of reach, and the "savings" only work by counting our neighbors' health care as an expense rather than as the system working.

A governor could appoint CPUC (California Public Utilities Commission) commissioners, could direct CalGEM (Geologic Energy Management Division) to issue more permits, could direct state agencies to fast-track oil and gas permits, could loosen environmental review under CEQA, and could appoint CARB and CPUC commissioners aligned with deregulation.

Wholesale electricity is regulated by FERC at the federal level, and investor-owned utility (IOU) rate structures are governed by long-term franchise agreements, while gas prices are mainly set by the global crude oil market rather than by California permitting policy. The federal Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act preempt some state deregulation, and fast-tracked permitting carries real litigation risk.

This is direct harm, because SELA neighborhoods next to existing oil well sites, such as Allenco in University Park and the Inglewood Oil Field, and along freight corridors like the 710, the 60 and the 5, already carry disproportionate fossil-fuel pollution, so loosening permits only adds to that burden. Children at SELA schools near wells have documented higher asthma rates, and gas-price relief, if it arrives at all, does not offset the air-quality harm, while the relief itself depends on global markets that the state does not control.

A governor could direct CDCR to halt prison closure timelines, could appoint pro-enforcement members to the Board of Parole Hearings, could use budget authority and create new executive posts, could direct CHP and state enforcement to assist with encampment removals, and could shift funding from "housing-first" to "sober housing."

Prison closures carry environmental and community-review requirements, and the Legislature can resist any reversal, while local government autonomy limits how far the state can coerce municipal policy. Civil rights and disability law restricts involuntary treatment, and unhoused people retain their legal rights even where encampment ordinances are enforced.

This is direct harm to unhoused SELA residents and to families with incarcerated relatives, because SELA has documented high rates of family contact with the legal-criminal system, so reversing prison closures and arresting unhoused people compounds harms that already fall on SELA families. "Triage to mandatory drug treatment" means involuntary treatment for people who cannot consent under coercion, and the anti-child-trafficking plan, in other states, has been used to expand the reach of enforcement rather than to reduce trafficking.

The Director of Strategy role from 2010 to 2012 was advisory and carried no statutory authority, and because Hilton did not sign laws or rules there is no direct record of his decisions, but "Big Society" was his framework. Academic and journalistic critiques documented that in practice it meant cuts to community centers, libraries and social services across the UK, austerity for local governments, and a shift of public responsibility to the voluntary sector, and by the time he moved to California in 2012 the record was already in question. He went on to support Brexit in 2016, publicly breaking with Cameron.

If his proven philosophy of government is "cut the state and let communities cover the rest," then that is the model he would apply to California, and for SELA that means cuts to Medi-Cal, schools, CalFresh and youth services, with the expectation that "volunteers and charities" fill the gap. SELA already carries the heaviest burden of underfunded services, so this philosophy would only deepen it.

The role was adviser rather than executive, and Hilton did not sign the austerity laws, since that was the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government under Cameron, and the National Citizen Service does continue to operate. Even so, the intellectual framework was his, and his current platform follows the same logic of "less state, more private and voluntary sector."

He was born in London on August 25, 1969 to Hungarian immigrant parents, he was naturalized as a US citizen on May 11, 2021, and he has been a California resident since 2012, which is 14 years, having renounced his British citizenship in connection with his candidacy. In 2014, as Crowdpac CEO, he recruited pro-immigration-reform candidates, but by 2018 he was defending Trump's family-separation policy on Fox News, and in 2026 he is campaigning in "lockstep" with Trump's immigration policy according to NBC San Diego.

SELA is the region with the highest concentration of mixed-status families in California, so the neighbors, relatives, classmates and coworkers are mostly children or grandchildren of immigrants, and many live in households where someone is undocumented, which means a governor who orders the DMV to share data with ICE puts literal danger on the families living next door. That the same governor is himself a recent immigrant, naturalized only about 5 years before seeking the governorship, adds a layer of ethical contradiction that communities can see clearly.

The "legal/illegal" distinction is a real distinction in US law, and his family story of Hungarian refugee parents is real, but consistency is the question, because in 2014 he advocated for comprehensive immigration reform that would create paths to legalization, while from 2018 to 2026 he has supported enforcement that closes those paths, and his own family would not have qualified under the regime he now proposes for California.

He has held zero elected office in the US or the UK, with no state legislative experience, no mayoral experience, and no cabinet-level experience, and his UK role as Director of Strategy from 2010 to 2012 was advisory, with no statutory authority, no bills drafted, and no budgets signed. As CEO of Crowdpac from 2014 to 2018 he ran a small startup that closed in 2019, and as a Fox News contributor from 2016 to 2024 he was an on-air commentator rather than an executive, all of which matters because California governs roughly 300,000 employees and a budget of about $300 billion.

A governor with no legislative experience can face a significant learning curve in year one, and that comes at a moment when California needs fast action on climate, housing and immigration, so without pre-existing relationships with legislative leaders, budget negotiations can fail. For SELA this matters, because the services that depend on the state budget, such as Medi-Cal, IHSS and schools, are the first to be hit when the governor cannot navigate the Legislature.

Schwarzenegger is a real precedent, and Newsom was SF mayor before becoming governor rather than a legislator, so "outsider" experience is not automatically disqualifying in California. But Schwarzenegger already had experience running a production company and a large-scale philanthropic foundation, while Crowdpac was small and closed under Hilton, so if the comparator is "proven operational experience at large organizations," neither Hilton nor Schwarzenegger fully meets it, although Hilton meets it even less.

He co-founded Crowdpac in 2014 with Adam Bonica, Gisel Kordestani and Paul Hilder, and served as CEO until May 2018, and the early platform promoted the federal Comprehensive Immigration Reform proposals, meaning the 2013 Senate effort and its successors. He met with Democratic strategists and immigrant activists in 2014, but by 2017 and 2018 he was defending Trump's family-separation policy on Fox News, and staff were, in the words of the Daily Beast, "increasingly uncomfortable with the CEO's Fox News support for Trump's actions." He resigned in May 2018, and after his exit Crowdpac suspended fundraising for Republican candidates over user backlash before closing in May 2019.

For SELA voters who rely on consistency, the pattern shows that when his political positions change, he abandons the projects he engaged earlier rather than honoring prior commitments, because immigrant organizations that trusted him in 2014 then watched him on Fox News defending the policy that was tearing apart the families those organizations represented, and it is reasonable to ask whether the same lack of consistency will show up in his promises as governor.

Crowdpac's closure after Hilton left was not only because of him, since the crowdfunding space was competitive, and people can evolve in their positions. But Hilton's pattern, moving from backing immigration reform as a CEO to defending family separation as a commentator, is the opposite of the trajectory most people walk with experience, so for voters who want predictability about how he will govern, this pattern is relevant.

COVID: he published a Fox News column arguing that the coronavirus lockdown should end, and Media Matters documented on-air claims that "most people have nothing to fear" and that case spikes were "good news," while in January 2021 he claimed the Wuhan Institute of Virology was the "most likely" origin of COVID and that Anthony Fauci "commissioned" related research, a claim that investigations have contradicted. Climate: he declared that he does not believe climate change played a role in California's wildfires, he criticizes what he calls "climate dogma," and at the May 14 CBS News and San Francisco Examiner final debate, where climate drew extended attention, he again took the skeptical and pragmatic line that the Republican candidates shared on the issue. Election integrity: in 2026 he called for cancellation of the Prop 50 special election over an alleged "ballot secrecy breach," which aligns with the Trump-era framing that followed 2020.

By 2026, COVID is less relevant, but climate is still very relevant, particularly for SELA, where air quality is a documented public-health problem, because a governor who denies climate change's role in wildfires is a governor who likely will not act to reduce pollutants in SELA. The "election integrity" framing in 2026, aligned with Trump's rejection of the 2020 election, suggests a pattern that could show up in any election where Hilton or his allies lose.

It is reasonable to separate TV commentary from a governing record, since Hilton was not the politician making policy but rather the commentator interpreting it. But those same positions are now his platform, so the commentary and the platform line up, and there is no moment where he said "I was wrong about X," which matters because when a candidate does not distance himself from prior positions, those positions predict his governance.