Editor’s note – Hilton’s comments are edited and trimmed down for brevity and are condensed excerpts from the interview. This interview was conducted in early September 2026, ahead of major debates with Xavier Becerra. Our Weekly has reached out to Xavier Becerra’s team for a response but has not received comments.
Q: What is significant about your platform, and how would it serve Black voters?
Steve Hilton: I think of this race as focused on lifting up people left behind by 16 years of one-party rule. The results are particularly bad for Black and Latino people, especially in education. When students don’t reach basic proficiency in reading, writing, or math, we’re taking away their opportunity to make their way in life and get a good job. I’m focused on places let down by poor housing, high unemployment, and high crime. I don’t see it as a focus on this race or that race; it’s more a class thing—working-class people, small-business owners, and people who’ve been left behind. I’m an immigrant, and my parents were refugees from communism in Hungary. I grew up in a regular working-class home, so I understand how hard you have to work to climb the ladder.
Q: What tax relief would you offer, and how would you balance the budget without cutting core services?
Steve Hilton: My tax plan is to make your first $150,000 tax-free. The state budget has more than doubled in ten years, from $170 billion to over $350 billion, while millions of people have left California. We’re spending more on two million fewer people. There’s a lot of waste. I’d stop spending money on high-speed rail and reduce the state bureaucracy. Sacramento has added 40,000 bureaucrats in recent years. Cutting back bureaucracy would make things less difficult for small businesses and save money we can use to reduce people’s taxes.
Q: What would you do to lower gas prices and household electricity bills?
Steve Hilton: We have the highest gas prices in the country, even though we have abundant oil reserves. I’d suspend the hidden taxes on gas, including the low carbon fuel standard and the cap-and-invest program. I’d also increase California production. We import nearly 80 percent of what we use, even though we have reserves here. Electricity bills have more than doubled in ten years. We have natural-gas power stations running at only 10 to 15 percent of capacity. If we ran them at full capacity, we could have affordable, reliable electricity. My pledge is $3 gas and to cut your electric bills in half.
Q: How would you make homeownership achievable for middle-class families?
Steve Hilton: I want to see starter homes for young families: a nice single-family home with a yard. We need to build more, in places where people want housing. Right now, it’s all about building upwards, but people should have a choice. If they want apartments, that’s fine; if they want a single-family home, we should offer that choice too. We need to get rid of outdated building regulations. Building codes can make the same building two or three times as expensive as in other states. Homeownership is especially important for the Black community because owning a home is important for building generational wealth.
Q: How do you respond to Xavier Becerra’s vision and record?
Steve Hilton: First of all, he doesn’t have a vision for the future of California. He’s not my competitor because he’s not competing. You never hear from him; he’s running away from the press and from debates. I think he assumes he can become governor without earning anyone’s vote. He’s a 36-year career politician who’s never had a proper job, and I think his record in government shows he’s not qualified for this job. He was in President Biden’s cabinet. Susan Rice called him an ‘idiot,’ and another cabinet member said that running a large executive agency is not his skill set, according to an NBC News report. This guy is useless. Susan Rice called him a b*tch a**.
Q: How does your nontraditional background prepare you to lead?
Steve Hilton: I’m an outsider, and that’s exactly what we need. We need to throw out the insiders who’ve run this state for their own interests. I’m a pragmatic problem solver, not an ideologue, with business, government reform, and media experience. I’ve written about poverty and inequality, and about making people come first. Most importantly, I’ve started and run businesses, including restaurants, and I know what it’s like to make things happen and solve problems.
Q: Is clearing encampments insensitive to people experiencing homelessness?
Steve Hilton: I think my approach is the compassionate one, the one with heart. It’s cruel to leave people in conditions we’d never want for someone we love. Around 80 percent of people experiencing homelessness have mental-health or addiction challenges. We’re not going to help them while they’re living in the toxic, dangerous, stressful situation of the streets. You’ve got to get people off the streets and into the help they need.
Q: What is your approach to climate and environmental policy?
Steve Hilton: I’m an environmentalist. We love California’s natural environment—its parks, beaches, mountains, and lakes—and we should protect it. But we’ve had an ideological focus on a narrow set of things, like carbon dioxide, wind, and solar. I favor a more organic approach: planting trees, restoring wetlands and ecosystems that are carbon sinks, and better forest management so we don’t have megafires.
Q: What final message would you leave with voters?
Steve Hilton: California is an amazing state, but we’ve gone off track. It’s time for change and balance. If you’re happy with how things are going, Becerra is your guy. If you think it’s time for change, there’s only one choice, and that’s to vote for me. Why would you vote the same way and expect a different result?
