Conservative commentator and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Steve Hilton announced Monday that he is running for governor, the second prominent Republican to enter the 2026 race to replace termed-out Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“We can’t go on like this,” Hilton said in an interview. “If you look at California, imagine another 15 years of this one-party rule and the consequences of that are unthinkable.”

Hilton said he was compelled to run by his ability to climb the economic ladder after his family immigrated to the United Kingdom and his fears that this is no longer possible in California because Democrats control the state.

“That dream has been snatched away,” he said. “I feel really, really motivated to turn that around because I can see how people are suffering. People are desperate for change, crying out for change.”

Hilton, who announced his campaign in a video posted online Monday and plans an official campaign announcement event in Huntington Beach on Tuesday and appearances around the state all week, faces steep odds. Californians last elected statewide Republican candidates in 2006, and the state’s residents have become more liberal since then. However, there is mounting frustration about issues such as crime, inflation and the cost of living.

“We need to put forward a positive, attractive, practical vision of how we can solve problems,” Hilton said, adding that he believes Californians would rally around non-ideological, nonpartisan solutions.

But his campaign rollout included some questionable claims, such as California having the highest unemployment in the nation. In March, while the state’s seasonally adjusted 5.3% unemployment rate was among the nation’s highest, Washington, D.C., Michigan and Nevada had higher rates of unemployment, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Despite positioning himself as a populist who has supported policy from both parties, Hilton’s vocal support of President Trump, including calling for an investigation into potential voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election will certainly be raised in the campaign.

On Monday, Hilton declined to answer whether he believed President Biden was legitimately elected in 2020.

“That was two federal elections ago. The focus has to be on our own election. I don’t even want to talk about any of that ancient history,” he said, arguing that “it’s a gotcha question. That’s the favorite of the media to make everything about President Trump.”

Trump has not weighed into the gubernatorial election, but Trump ally Vivek Ramaswamy, who is running for governor of Ohio next year, endorsed Hilton on Monday.

California Republicans who recognize their party’s challenges in statewide elections say Hilton represents their best hope forward.

“Fortune favors the bold. It is an uphill battle for a Republican to win statewide office, but if bold people like Steve don’t emerge, Republicans aren’t going to win,” said Conyers Davis, an advisor to former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Davis first met Hilton when conservative leader David Cameron of England visited then-Gov. Schwarzenegger’s cigar-smoking tent at the statehouse in Sacramento in 2008 and worked with him on Cameron’s successful 2010 campaign to become prime minister.

Additionally, the state’s jungle primary system, in which the two candidates who receive the most votes in the June 2026 primary move on to the general election regardless of party, mean Republicans have a decent shot of securing one of the spots on the November ballot.

That’s partly because the Democratic vote may be fractured by the large number of Democrats running — Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, state schools chief Tony Thurmond, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, former state Controller Betty Yee, former Rep. Katie Porter, former state Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and businessman Stephen Cloobeck.

Additionally, former Vice President Kamala Harris is weighing a bid and expected to make a decision by the end of the summer.

On the Republican side, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco is the sole prominent GOP candidate who previously announced he would run. So if Democratic voters splinter, Bianco or Hilton could win one of the top two spots, despite the state’s deep blue tilt.

Hilton, 55, is the son of Hungarian immigrants who fled their homeland during a revolution in 1956. He was born in England and after graduating from Oxford, Hilton worked in politics and advertising. He then founded “Good Business,” a consulting firm that advised companies such as Nike and McDonald’s about ethical capitalism.

Described as “part Svengali, part spin doctor, part strategist” by the London Standard in 2006, Hilton was a senior adviser and close confidant of Cameron, who served as Britain’s prime minister from 2010 to 2016.

Hilton was credited with modernizing the British conservative movement, remaining true to free-market ideals while also supporting liberal social policy, such as backing gay rights and fighting climate change.

News reports about Hilton’s time at 10 Downing St. paint him as a charismatic but eccentric figure, routinely wearing wrinkled T-shirts, jeans or tracksuit pants, cycling gear and no shoes as he wandered around the prime minister’s stodgy formal residence.

Hilton immigrated to California in 2012 with his wife, Rachel Whetstone, who has worked as a public relations executive at Google, Uber, Facebook and Netflix. He became a U.S. citizen in 2021, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and was a vocal critic of shutdowns. The couple live in the affluent Silicon Valley community of Atherton and have two children.

Since he moved to the United States, Hilton has taught at Stanford University, hosted a Fox News show called “The Next Revolution,” and co-founded Crowdpac, a nonpartisan political fundraising website. He and the company parted ways in 2018 after his full-throated support of Trump caused controversy.

Hilton’s Silicon Valley relationships with billionaires such as venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya and former Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt could also be a boon to his gubernatorial campaign.

In 2023, Hilton founded Golden Together, a research group focused on restoring the California dream. Among the group’s policy focuses are the state’s business climate, homelessness, crime, affordable housing and wildfire management.