Can a Republican Save California? Governor-Candidate Steve Hilton Wants to Bring Change

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One of the other frailties of the human mind is the inability to see the monster until it bites you

At this point, it's either indoctrination or ignorance

The Jewish community in California is under siege

There's just no question about that

I think any kind of fascism and extremist reading is always going to lead to really horrible societies

We invented democracy

You know, uh, the democracy comes from the Torah

Recorded here in the Being Jewish studio at the third annual Jewish American Summit in Los Angeles, California, this is a very special edition of Being Jewish with Jonah Platt, the Summit Series

Hello, my friends, and welcome to a very special episode of Being Jewish, your home for deeply candid conversations on Jewish identity, culture, and current events

I'm your host, Jonah Platt, and today we're talking about my home state, right here, California

In just a few short weeks, we'll be electing a new governor, either the favorite, Democrat Xavier Becerra, or the challenger, Republican Steve Hilton

Of those two, only one appeared at the Jewish California Candidate Forum, and only one is here at the Jewish American Summit

Do with that what you will

Please welcome the man who wants to make California Calaffordable, Steve Hilton

Steve, welcome to the show

Great to be with you

Thank you

My pleasure

Look, here are the facts

Democrats outnumber Republicans- Mm-hmm … in the state of California two to one

70% of Jews tend to vote Democrat, or at least half historically

You're at the Jewish American Summit

You're appearing on Being Jewish

Obviously, you believe our community is reachable for you- Mm-hmm and is a community worth investing your time and energy in

And so I wanna give you the best opportunity to try and reach this audience

Thank you

I appreciate that

Look, I don't look at things through the perspective of different groups and different communities generally speaking

That's not how I see things

Um, I'm a very pragmatic kind of person

Uh, most of my career's been in business

I think of myself as a problem solver, not ideological

I don't wanna tell anyone how to live

I just want everyone in California to live the life that they want, the, the life that they choose, in a way that's affordable and safe and secure

And so that's my general attitude

I haven't gone into this race with the kind of, I suppose, the traditional politician thing of, you know, hitting this group and that group and pandering here and pa- That's just not how I am

Uh, I've never run for office before

I'm an outsider challenging this broken system

And you're right about the, uh, you know, the on-paper gap- Yeah … between Democrats and Republicans in one sense

That really refers to voter registration

Even when you look at elections, it's been a bit closer than that, but there's no question- It's an uphill battle, but the number that I look at is a very clear, um, above 50% number, which is the, it's the proportion of Californians who are saying that the state's going in the wrong direction and needs change

That is a very clear majority across all different groups, all different backgrounds

So that's really the heart of my campaign

If you're happy with the way California is run, then Xavier Becerra is your guy because he is, he's actually saying more of the same

When he's asked, "What would you change?" He says, "Nothing

Things are basically fine

" Whereas I think things are not fine

We have the highest poverty rate in the country, the highest unemployment rate in the country, the highest cost of living by far, the worst business climate

Very-- I mean, a real business and economic emergency, I think, um, heading our way if we don't change directions

There are all these things going wrong before we even get into homelessness and crime and all those things, what's going on in the public schools

But, and I wanna come back to, to, to really the focus of this conversation

Yeah

There are certain groups, people, industries right now in California that need special attention, help, protection, whatever you wanna use

I see that in relation to our economy, where every business needs help because there's just this ridiculous onslaught of regulations and bureaucracy and taxes and permits and lawsuits and insanity affecting every business

But there are two sectors of our economy that need special attention and help, emergency attention

That is agriculture and entertainment

We're speaking in Los Angeles, this industry that is so-- both of them actually iconic industries for California

Right

Agriculture and entertainment at risk of just collapsing

It's an emergency

So that's in terms of industries, and now let's get to communities

The Jewish community in California is under siege

There's just no question about that

And therefore, yes, I do think it's important at this moment to say distinctively that I am there to support this community in every way I can as governor, and not to be kinda wishy-washy about it

We're up in Davis

Okay

Just, you know, n-near Sacramento

Sure

Agricultural area

Guy comes along to our meeting, Jewish guy, and, um, he said he was a Democrat

And he said, "I'm thinking about voting for you, but where do you stand in terms of my people?" That's how he put it

You can watch the video, actually

We shared it on social media

And I gave the same answer as I do everywhere else, which is, when you've got a community, the thing I always come back to when I think about this is a, it's a half day I spent, which is actually two-- I know that sounds not much time

In a campaign like this, that's a long time

Yeah

Half a day I spent at the Hillel Center, the UCLA Hillel Center here in Los Angeles It was just devastating to me to hear what's been going on

And this wasn't, like, you know, a couple of years ago, immediately in the aftermath of October the 7th

This was a couple of months ago

Yeah

And it wasn't just UCLA and the stu- and the campus and all that

There were young people there, high school kids from the area in, in LA

It was just devastating to hear what they were saying

They were frightened to go to school and reveal their identity

Yeah

So real

Not wearing the star of David, not, you know, not in any way showing their identity, 'cause they were frightened

I mean, what is going on that this is acceptable? Of course, it's not acceptable, and I won't accept it

And in California, you've got so many specific everyday examples of Jewish people being frightened to live here, in California, which should be home to… Like I said, it should be the place where whoever you are, wherever you come from, whatever your background, you can live the life you want in freedom and peace and, and follow your dreams and, and that beautiful spirit that we think of as California

That's what I'm gonna fight for very strongly

Love the sound of that

Here in California, the, the state government is staunchly Democrat and, and has a very strong Jewish legislative caucus who've, who've done amazing work on behalf- Yep … of the community

The current governor, Gavin Newsom, has always been supportive of the work that they're doing, always engaged with the community

How would you put people at ease that bringing in a Republican governor wouldn't upset the balance and, and sort of the work that that caucus is doing so well now that there's, you know- Yeah … uh, the different, a different party, you know? Well, okay, you can say doing, doing well, and, you know, I agree, there's been specific things and, and there's a lot of work still to do

Oh, sure

I mean, you look what's going on in the school system, in the curriculum

They won't challenge that

They're not challenging it

I mean, look at the, uh, the f- the first draft of this new ethnic studies curriculum

Mm-hmm

That was just basically an anti-Semitic diatribe

And then the reviser, now Newsom rejected it, to be fair, let's be clear about that

But it's not… I mean, it's better, but it's still not free of that

Right

They now wanna make that a graduation requirement for every student in California public schools

You can't graduate high school without passing that

Who's they? Democrats

That's a, that's a state government thing? Yes, it's the ethnic studies curriculum

Now, they're arguing about funding for it, whether there's, um, enough money for schools to be mandated to do it, and this is all technical conversations, but the idea is, that, and from the legislature, that this is a requirement

Ethnic studies, right? By the way, at a, at a moment where less than half the kids in California public schools can read properly

Right

With, with math it's 37%, and yet they're focusing on this kind of ideological… It's ridiculous

So I think there's a lot of work still to be done- Oh, for sure … from the legislature

So broadly, in answer to your question, look, I'm, like, I come back to the point, I'm not an ideologue

I've always, uh, most of my friends in my life have always been, you know, going p- as long as I can remember, from d- different political backgrounds

We've always gotten along

Like I said, most of my career's been in business

Right

Working in business around the world, starting and running my own businesses

But I've worked, um, inside government- Sure … a little bit in, back in the day in England, and that was a coalition government So I was senior advisor to the prime minister

It was a conservative prime minister, David Cameron

Mm-hmm

It was a coalition government, two parties working together, conservatives and the liberal Democrats

I helped negotiate the coalition agreement

And my, my little office there next to the cabinet room in 10 Downing Street, I shared it with someone from another party, my opposite number, Polly McKenzie

We sat there every day

We would try and, you know, make it, you know, work through the issues

Didn't always agree, but temperamentally, I'm very m- at ease working with whoever wants to do good things

Doesn't matter about the party

So as long as we're moving in the right direction, I think it's gonna be fine

Speaking of education, the teachers' unions

Yeah

Let's talk about those

I know that you have specifically already begun to speak about them as real instigators of a lot of the issues we see around the Jewish community- Mm-hmm … and certainly in the schools

What are you seeing that makes you say that? And if elected, what can you actually do about that? Because they are very large and very powerful

A lot of this ideological extremism is, is coming from there

Yeah

If you look at the conventions that they have and the trainings that they do, and, and peop- you've got… And actually they're, they're very, um, reluctant to let people in and see it, and the media and so on

But you've got whistleblowers who go to these, and they bring out the materials

And these conferences and conventions and, and so on that the teacher unions run, they're very little to do with actually what you would hope they were doing, which is discussing how better to teach kids the basics of education

They're not about that at all

It's all this ideological stuff, which is, yeah, of course people are free to hold whatever view they want

It's America

But you don't get to force it down people's throats through the education system

So you look at all of that language, it's, it's the absolute, you know, stereotypical far left ideological language, um, in particular when it comes to Palestine and all those things- Yeah that you see on the protests on campuses

That's what dominates the teacher unions, and that is their priority it seems, in terms of what they spend their time on

And so that's a real problem because the teacher unions own the Democrat politicians

That's exactly why those Democrat politicians speak out of two sides of their mouth

When they're in front of a Jewish audience, they say what the audience wants to hear, but they are owned by the unions

Their biggest donors to the Democrat politicians are the government unions, and top of the list are the teacher unions

That's why they dominate

And their answer to the question, "Well, what are you gonna do about it?" Yeah

A couple of things

First of all, as governor, you appoint the State Board of Education

So that's actually where this, this ethnic studies curriculum, that's where it's coming from

So that's a, a powerful place

You can actually remove the ideologues, put in place common sense people, representative parents, and just common sense in education where you want the education system to, to, like, in that classic phrase that people use, to teach people how to think- Right not what to think

And you're certainly not gonna get there if you can't even read properly

So we gotta focus the whole system back on the basics of, of education, and the State Board of Education is a powerful place to do that

The other part of the story in relation to schools is the State Superintendent of Education

That is a separately elected position

Mm-hmm

And there's a very powerful advocate for common sense and parental rights and standing up against this far-left ideology running for that position, a friend of mine, Sonya Shaw

She's fantastic

From, from… She's on a, a school bo- a parent representative on the school board in Chino Hills, and she's fantastic, and you gotta vote for her as well

All right

So you have named the anti-Jew hate on the left very clearly, not as much on the right, uh, even though we are seeing, uh, quite a large surge through the Groypler movement and in certain Young Republicans, through podcasters like Myron Gaines, Nick Fuentes, Tucker Carlson

How do you intend to handle the hate from your side of the aisle? You know, I don't really focus on other people

I focus on, you know, my positive message in this election and in California

For a while, my career was on TV

I was a commentator, and I hosted a show, and I'd get involved in all these political conversations as a commentator

That's not my job right now

I'm running for governor, and the focus of my job is, as you mentioned at the top, to make our state Cal affordable

That's the word I use because it captures… You know, I'm, I'm up and down the state running this- A campaign, and we've done it in a, in a way that everyone said, "You, you know, this is not how it's done

You're supposed to announce your campaign and then, you know, stay home and phone people for money, and then, and then spend it on TV ads

" But I just thought that's ridiculous

That's not how you should do it

And I, and we've been doing, you know, pretty old-fashioned retail politics, town halls up and down the state, hundreds of events, many, many thousands of people

And it's just very, very clear to me where people want you to focus, and that is on, on solutions to these problems

What are you gonna do about gas prices, the highest in the country? Electric bills, more than double the national average

The nightmare of running a small business

You know, these are the things that I focus on, and I really don't get into, you know, becoming a participant in the kind of online arguments that you see

I just don't wanna get involved in that at all

I mean, neither do we, but, you know, the Jews, we get roped into it by some of these people, and I think, you know, part of being able to stand with and support the community is, is recognizing, you know, where the danger is coming from

You know, the, the best antidote is to, is just to be very clear about what you're gonna do

Again, you, as, as the governor, you've got a lot of areas where you can… You know, for example, on security, on what's going on in schools, and so on

I mean, the fact that you've got Jewish organizations and community groups that have to pay for their own security for events because they can't rely on law enforcement, that's just completely unacceptable

You know, these are the kinds of things I'm talking about

Yeah

That's gonna be my focus

Who are your sources for understanding the Jewish community today? Like, what voices do you listen to? What do you read? Where are you getting your intel? Well, I've got some really, really good friends and supporters

Elizabeth Bacana has been fantastic

She, I just saw her today, um, and really great

There's someone in, uh, Tamar Moritz, who's been fantastic

She's… And I've just spent a lot of time, you know, doing events and, and, and, and being with people in the community

That's how I learn

And, um, spending time Just listening and understanding what's going on, and it's pretty horrifying actually

My running mate for lieutenant governor, Gloria Romero, so that's another thing I'm doing differently

Normally you don't have running mates- No … in California

You have eight statewide elected offices, and they're, and th- and people run independently, and then whoever wins, you're in Sacramento, and hopefully you get along, and n- mostly they don't, and don't even really talk to each other

I just thought that sound- that was crazy

And so right at the beginning of this I said, "Let's actually put a team together

" And, uh, I asked Gloria Romero, who I've been working with for years, she was someone, um… She was on the advisory board for my policy organization, Golden Together, which I started, uh, years before actually running for governor to try and, um, develop solutions to many of these problems

Anyway, Gloria and I have known each other for years, and I asked her to run with me as lieutenant governor

Now she's got a really strong, um, engagement in this issue for years and years

She was previously the Democrat leader in the State Senate

Dem- she was the number two politician in California, the leader of the State Senate, uh, as a Democrat, going back, like, 15, 20 years, and she's got a particular focus on education

So she b- she's, she's taught in the UC system, community colleges and so on, and, um, she's very, very focused on this issue herself

And- This issue being the Jewish security

Yes

Yes, yes

And she, I mean, that's not her background, and in fact, we went to UCLA together

We did a joint event, this is before she, uh, either of us was a candidate Yeah, after October the 7th, to, to really call out what was going on with the administration there

That's another example

You see, the UC system, she'll be on the Board of Regents

Right

The lieutenant governor

And so that's another example where you can have a direct influence

So we're focusing on those areas where you can really change things

Um, and Gloria Romero has been an incredibly powerful voice

It's kind of a risky move, right? Also, to tether yourself to another person

And, you know, what if they love you, they don't love her, they love her, they don't love you

There's, there's a risk there

Yeah, but I mean, it's just, it, it, you know, she knows the state

You know, I think it's great

She's got experience of Sacramento

She's got experience of being… She's actually, in many ways represents the story that's emerging in this election, which is that there's millions of, you could say, moderate Democrats in California, or independents, who have just had enough of what's happening, and know that it's time for change

And, and, and Gloria walked away from the Democratic Party

That is a powerful story, I think, in, in saying, "Look, this party's gone way left

It doesn't represent any of the things

" I know from speaking to thousands of Jews, and again, as we said at the top, most Jews tend to vote Democrat

Many feel, as they describe it, politically homeless right now

Yeah

Speaking to what you're speaking to, where they feel, "Well, I know I've never been a Republican, but the Democratic Party I've known and loved my whole life, I don't know if there's a place for me there anymore, so I'm not sure where to fall

" What would you say to make those people- Right … feel comfortable filling in the Republican bubble- Yeah … for the first time in their lives? No, I, that's what it's all about, and it's not just for people who are Jewish, it's for everyone in that situation

But l- you know, we're talking about Jewish people in particular, to say, "Look, it's not…" I say it very clearly

You don't have to become a Republican

You don't have to sign up for all that

I'm well aware that there are many, m- you know, again, millions in Cali- You just have to look at the numbers, who, for example, can't stand President Trump

Yeah

And can't… and are definitely not Republicans in the sense of their identity- Right and their political identity

Mm-hmm

But I always said, "Look, you don't have to become a Republican

" I, we ran ads, actually, in the start of the general election campaign in, uh, the LA Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, and a few other places, with a very direct, addressing this question very directly, and they were for me

I wrote the, I wrote the messages

"Can you be anti-Trump and still vote for me?" Take the simple test, and where I just wrote these 10 questions

You know, I'm a Democrat, but I can see the state hasn't been run well these last few years

I care about the environment, but $6 gas is ridiculous, et cetera

Mm-hmm

So just went through some of these things and said, "Look, you don't have to change your party

You don't really have to change your politics

You just have to vote for change in this election

" It's a really clear choice, actually

You've got a guy, Becerra, who's a 36-year career politician in the Democrat machine, completely owned by the unions and big business and all these people that, you know, comprise the Sacramento corrupt machine that's been serving its own interests for so long, the lawyers in particular

I mean, one of the things that isn't talked about enough in California is just the massive cost and risk of litigation

Whatever… You run a bi- Half the businesses in California are being sued at any one moment

It's just- Is that the actual number? The actual number

It's just crazy

And you, you know, everything from sort of big companies to small local restaurants with these ridiculous extortionate shakedown lawsuits

One of the reasons, it all goes back to corruption because the trial lawyers, the trial attorneys, are one of the biggest donors to the Democrat politicians

And so Becerra, my opponent, is a complete creature of this machine

He's totally controlled by them

He's not gonna… And he says he's not gonna change anything

So it's very clear, actually, this, this election, clearer than, than most

If you want change, I'm your guy

If you think things are fine and you want another four years of this, vote for Becerra

I think that's fair to say, es- especially, you know, it's been 16 years of, of Democratic leadership, so certainly if you're happy with- Yes the way that's gone, you know what to do

Well, they've had six… This is a… It's a very important point because it's, it's not just leadership, it's complete control

I mean, it's, it's- Right, up and down … really, really complete

Yeah

They've… Just to, you know, itemize it, they've had all the eight statewide elected offices, governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and so on

They've had both chambers of the legislature with a two-thirds majority, which means they can pass anything they want without any input from the other side

All the big cities, all the big counties, the state supreme court, people forget that, 6-1 Democrat-appointed majority

That court's become a rubber stamp for anything that they wanna do, um, and you see that the whole time

So it's complete one-party control

You know, I mean, the way I put it is like they've had 16 years to show us that, that they can do a good job

I mean, when are we gonna, you know, wake up and say, "They've shown us what they can do

It's not good enough

It's not working

It's time to throw out these insiders and get some change"? And the other point I would make is that it's not even a partisan point

It's never good

I mean, you look back over history all over the world

When you have one party running everything for that long, it always ends badly

It, I mean, it takes me to our- federal government at the moment

There are, um, there are many Democrats who are saying these midterms are huge because you've got Republicans dominating the Supreme Court and the White House and Congress

Mm-hmm

And if that's your point of view, it's only fair that you might consider that on the other side as well

If you have- Exactly … an issue with one party running everything 'cause there's no compromise, there's no counterpoint

You know, if you're not a hypocrite, you would at least examine it on your own side as well

I know, it's a great point, and you put it beautifully

And I mean, we talk about change, and of course, this election here in California is about change, and people want change, a majority want change

But another really important word in that mix is balance

And if you think about America, you know, it's, th- we're celebrating the 250th anniversary of America

One of the most famous phrases associated with our political system in America, I learnt it back in England years ago, is checks and balances

Mm-hmm

That's the whole idea of how America was built, and it's really important because that's what makes sure that things don't go too extreme

Right

As we've seen throughout history, when they do, it's not good

And that's not, again, not partisan

It can go extreme left, and I've seen that personally

My parents are Hungarian

They were refugees from communism, so we see where that ends up

Mm-hmm

But we've seen, and certainly the Jewish people have seen, what happens when it's extreme right

Yeah

And, you know, it doesn't matter in the end

It's always bad when things go to the extreme, and that has actually been the genius of America's system, the checks and balances, both in terms of the different branches of government, but also the decentralization of power

So you have strong powers for the states and so on

There's always, for example, you see within America, that's one of the great things that if you, you know, and, and I'm afraid we're seeing the consequences of that in California

If it becomes Too expensive, too difficult to run a business, too much of a nightmare in one state, well, you can move to another state where things are different

Right

And that's what's been happening- Yeah … sadly

Like, in the, in the seven years, it was not just me pointing this out

CNN, Fareed Zakaria, on his Sunday show on CNN a few, couple of months ago now, straight after the primary, when he was noting the fact that I did well in the primary, and he said, "Look what's been happening in California

" He went through all the things, the k- the same points that I make about the business climate and the fact that they've doubled the budget in the last 10 years, more than doubled the budget

Everything's worse

He pointed out nearly two million, 1

9 million people on net have left California- Yeah, we lost- to go to other states … we lost congressional representation- Exactly … for the first time in a long time

So, so that idea of checks and balances is foundational to America and our success

Let's have a bit of that in California

You know, we're the fourth-biggest economy in the world, and it's not healthy that we've been run as this one-party state for so long

You just, it's, it's a natural thing

You don't have to, you know, be a political analyst to understand why

If, if you're just in power for that long, you lose touch with the people

You become very insular

You stop thinking you have to deliver for people

You get arrogant, complacent

You assume you're gonna be in power forever

There's no need to do a good job 'cause we're just gonna keep winning

That's where they're at right now

You can actually see it in the way that Becerra is handling this campaign

I mean, he's, he's a completely, um, accidental candidate

He was bumbling along at sort of 3 or 4% until these various unexpected things happened, like Eric Swalwell collapsing and so on

This guy Becerra is not even campaigning

He's not even trying because they're so arrogant

They just assume that they're gonna be in power forever, and that shows you w- it's, it's the attitude of contempt for the voters, and I think it's gonna be punished because people really have had enough

Uh, you know, the theme of our campaign, Enough is Enough, Let's Fix California

It's, yeah, okay, it's a slogan, but that's actually, I think, on the… I see that is how people are feeling

It's like, we've had enough of this

Yeah

Steve, we c- we could talk for a whole nother hour, but we gotta wrap it up here

Okay

Well, great to be with you

Thank you so much

Great to have you, and good luck on the campaign

Thank you so much

Good to see you

Thanks