{"id":926,"date":"2026-02-18T22:15:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T22:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.landingliker.info\/?p=926"},"modified":"2026-02-18T22:15:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T22:15:28","slug":"republican-steve-hilton-surges-ahead-in-california-governors-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.landingliker.info\/?p=926","title":{"rendered":"Republican Steve Hilton surges ahead in California governor\u2019s race"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A new frontrunner has emerged in California\u2019s wide-open race for governor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conservative commentator Steve Hilton now leads the field with 17%, followed by Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican, who are tied at 14%, according to an Emerson College Polling\/Inside California Politics survey of 1,000 likely voters released Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hilton is a former director of strategy for British Prime Minister David Cameron and a current Fox News contributor. He took in roughly $4.1 million in donations in the second half of 2025, according to campaign finance reports cited by CalMatters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bianco had a one point lead over Hilton and Swalwell in early December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Rep. Katie Porter has 10% support in the latest poll and billionaire Tom Steyer has 9% \u2013 both are Democrats. Importantly, 21% of respondents said they remain undecided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pollsters noted that since December, support for Hilton and Steyer rose five points, support for Swalwell increased two points and support for Porter dipped by one point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Republican electorate in California is split between Steve Hilton at 38% and Chad Bianco at 37%, while Hilton also picks up a plurality of independent voters at 22%,\u201d said Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling. \u201cDemocratic voters have not yet clearly coalesced around one candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outside the top tier, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan has struggled to gain traction since entering the race in late January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaybe its because he got in late, but the enthusiasm for his candidacy is not right now translating into votes,\u201d noted political analyst Matt Klink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

California\u2019s primary is set for June 2. The two candidates with the most votes, regardless of party, will advance to the November general election to determine who will succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is term-limited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the race in flux, Klink said it is possible California voters could see two Republicans on the November ballot \u2013 and no Democrats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is mathematically possible that you could have two Republicans finishing one\u2011two in the primary,\u201d he said. \u201cThat said, I believe the political brains in the Democratic Party will get involved and say we need to make sure we get one of our candidates into the runoff because he or she will likely win the general election.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The survey was conducted Feb. 13-14 and carries a margin of error of 3 percentage points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other poll results:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The survey found 44% approve of Gov. Newsom\u2019s job performance, while 45% disapprove. That represents a three-point drop in approval and a six-point rise in disapproval since the December Emerson\/Inside California Politics poll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 A majority of voters at 53% say they have considered leaving California because of the state\u2019s cost of living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Asked to identify the biggest strain on their household budgets, 28% cited housing, 21% utilities and 17% groceries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 On immigration policy, 41% prefer the Biden administration\u2019s approach, 38% favor Trump\u2019s and 21% prefer neither.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marc Sternfield is the Director of Digital Content at KTLA 5, <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new frontrunner has emerged in California\u2019s wide-open race for governor. Conservative commentator Steve Hilton now leads the field with 17%, followed by Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell and Riverside County … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.landingliker.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.landingliker.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.landingliker.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.landingliker.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.landingliker.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=926"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.landingliker.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":928,"href":"https:\/\/www.landingliker.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926\/revisions\/928"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.landingliker.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.landingliker.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.landingliker.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.landingliker.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}