Steve Hilton, the Republican nominee for governor in California, is attempting to broaden his base ahead of the November election.
While Hilton received President Donald J. Trump’s endorsement in the election, he recently made a pitch to disaffected Democrats in the state. He blasted the Democratic Party for not supporting working-class and Latino communities, and took out full-page ads in the Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle that directly pitched his message to anti-Trump voters.
Hilton’s message accusing Democrats of taking Latino voters for granted isn’t dissimilar from part of Trump’s 2016 campaign pitch, where he asked black voters, “What the hell do you have to lose?” and urged them to take a chance on voting for him. However, Trump ran a campaign distinct from previous Republican candidates, refusing to moderate on immigration policy and not shying away from attacking old-line Republican political leaders. Without a similar lightning-rod issue to seize on, and with California’s hostile political demographics, Hilton faces an extremely uphill battle.
Earlier this year, former reality star Spencer Pratt seized on public dissatisfaction with the homeless situation in Los Angeles in his run for mayor, placing third in the primary but receiving a strong 25.53% of the vote. Pratt’s effort proved that despite California’s political reputation, there was room to run an effective populist campaign in one of the state’s most liberal cities. Many Californians compulsively vote Democratic, but are not fully satisfied with the state’s direction.
Like Pratt, Hilton has inveighed against a corrupt Democratic establishment and urged voters of all political backgrounds to support him, in order to get California back on the right track. Without any major issue splitting Democrats in the state, though, and lacking Pratt’s charisma and talent for viral ads, it is difficult to see how Hilton will overcome the Democrats’ entrenched voter advantage come November. Current polls show Democratic gubernatorial nominee Xavier Becerra leading Hilton by a 61% to 36% margin.
While flipping California back to being a red state may seem like a pipe dream, Pratt’s improbable LA campaign proved that strong core support can be built by seizing on public dissatisfaction surrounding a given issue like homelessness, and unapologetically calling out the Democratic leaders who enable it. For statewide Republican to succeed in the future, they will need to worry less about ineffective pro-Trump and anti-Trump diplomacy, and more about how to mobilize public anger against Democrats’ biggest failures.
