California Governor's Race Set: Trump-Backed Steve Hilton Will Face Xavier Becerra in November

California's race for governor just got a lot more interesting — and a lot more nationally significant.

Here's what happened: On June 2, California held its primary election for governor, and out of a wild field of 61 candidates, two names punched their tickets to November. Democrat Javier Becerra and Trump-backed Republican Steve Hilton will face off in November for California governor, succeeding Gavin Newsom.

Let's run through who these two actually are, because it matters.

Hilton is a one-time British political strategist turned American conservative commentator and former Fox News Channel host who is backed by President Donald Trump. He immigrated to California from the United Kingdom in 2012, is best known as a former political adviser to former U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, and became a U.S. citizen in 2021. This is his first run for office.

On the other side, Becerra is a former California attorney general who later served as a Cabinet secretary in former President Biden's administration and would make history as California's first Latino governor in modern history.

The primary itself was messy. California holds what's known as a jungle primary, in which all candidates, regardless of party affiliation, appear on the same ballot, with the top two finishers advancing to the general election. Democrats went in fragmented, with votes split across a huge field. Becerra surged to frontrunner status among Democrats after Rep. Eric Swalwell exited the race amid sexual misconduct allegations that the now-resigned congressman denies. Meanwhile, the big money story was billionaire Tom Steyer, who spent more than $200 million of his own money to blanket the airwaves and the internet with ads — and still came up short in third place.

On the Republican side, Hilton coalesced GOP support with the help of President Trump's endorsement. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who launched his campaign for governor in April of last year, was among the top contenders in the race until Trump's endorsement of Hilton in early April blunted his momentum.

The final vote tally, once enough ballots were counted: with 88% of the vote counted, Becerra led with 27.9%, Hilton came in second with 24.9%, and Steyer trailed behind in third with 22.6%.

Now, why does this matter to you? If you live in California — or really anywhere in the country — this race is a stress test for whether a Trump-aligned candidate can actually win the nation's largest state. A Republican has not won the governor's office in California in two decades. And Becerra and Hilton now turn toward the general election to replace term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom at the helm of the state that represents the fourth-largest global economy — but the seat is all but certain to stay in Democratic hands, with Cook Political Report rating it a solidly Democratic seat.

There's also an interesting wrinkle about Hilton himself: though endorsed by President Trump, he pushed back against Trump's claims of election fraud in the state, refusing to co-sign the voter fraud theory. That's a notable split for a Trump-backed candidate to make publicly.

Bottom line: California's next governor's race is officially a red vs. blue showdown, with a first-time politician carrying Trump's flag up against a Democratic career veteran. The winner will replace Gov. Gavin Newsom, who cannot run again because of term limits and is considered a potential Democratic presidential candidate for 2028 — so the stakes stretch well beyond Sacramento.