Trump-backed Steve Hilton is facing Javier Becerra in the California governor’s race

Republican Steve Hilton won one of the two tickets in the November gubernatorial election in California in the race to replace Gov. Democrat Gavin Newsom has been nominated to lead the world’s most populous country and the world’s fourth largest economy.

Hilton, a British political strategist who is a former American commentator and Fox News Channel anchor supported by the President. Donald Trumpwill advance to the general election, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday.

Democratic-controlled California runs what is known as a primary field in which all candidates, regardless of party affiliation, appear on the same ballot, and the top two finishers advance to the general election.

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The big question is who Hilton will face in November.

His two main competitors heading to the first day were Xavier Becerra, the former attorney general of California who later served as Cabinet secretary in the administration of former President Biden and will make history as the first Latino governor of California in modern history, and Tom Steyer, the founder of a billionaire hedge fund turned environmental activist who failed to win the nomination of his party in 2020 with his $ 2020 million bid for governor.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican, along with Democratic candidates Katie Porter, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, were among the 61 candidates.

Hilton hopes to become the first California Republican to win the gubernatorial election since then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2006 re-election twenty years ago.

California Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton gives details during an interview with Fox News Digital about his plan to establish a commission to investigate fraud in the Golden State, June 1, 2026, in Los Angeles. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)

Former Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. Alex Padilla discussed the presentation of Democratic Alliance applications for governor, but both last year announced that they would succeed. That resulted in a lack of a clear Golden State gubernatorial frontrunner for the first time in more than a century.

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And the race has been clouded for much of the past year, as damage from Los Angeles neighborhoods and President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown have made headlines in California.

But the governor’s race came to light earlier this year when one of the candidates, Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, who dropped out of the race and resigned from Congress following political criticism after facing numerous allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct he continues to deny.

Matt Mahan, Xavier Becerra, Chad Bianco, Steve Hilton, Tom Steyer and Katie Porter appear during the gubernatorial debate at KRON Studios in San Francisco, California, US, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. California will hold its primary election on June 2, with the top two winners advancing to the November general election regardless of party affiliation. (Jason Henry/Nexstar/Bloomberg – Pool/Getty Images)

Swalwell’s exit from the race opened the way for first Steyer and then Becerra to rise in the election.

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Steyer, who failed to win the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, has spent more than $200 million of his own money to blanket the airwaves and the Internet with ads. Meanwhile, more than $80 million in foreign money has been spent on the race.

Bianco, who launched his campaign for governor in April of last year, was one of the frontrunners in the race until Trump’s endorsement of Hilton in early April dampened his momentum.