California gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton exclusively spoke with the Daily Mail, revealing new policy plans and promises. This commitment to overcome crime and homelessness comes as Los Angeles still reels from the explosive response to Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The former Fox News star will aim to dramatically increase prison capacity in the Golden State as part of his plan to tackle the disasters he said have ramped up over the last 15 years of Democrat rule.
He blamed Governor Gavin Newsom for the issues as well as former Vice President Kamala Harris – who served as Attorney General from 2011 to 2017, and is a rumored candidate for governor.
‘She’s the main cause of the problem,’ Hilton declared during the interview on board the USS Iowa, a decommissioned battleship-turned-floating museum, adding his ‘more prisons, less crime’ agenda will make communities safer.
His plan involves reopening prisons Newsom permanently shuttered, rather than relying on crowded and under-equipped local jails for housing overflow inmates.
‘It is a massive issue,’ said the 55-year-old British-born ‘proud American’ who moved to the US after a career in UK politics.
Hilton’s Westminster experience included a stint as Director of Strategy for Prime Minister David Cameron from 2010 to 2012 when he rebranded the Conservatives with modern messaging before resigning in 2012.
He claimed Newsom’s prison closures led to ‘dangerous criminals’ being released early or ‘transferred to the county jails without the resources or facilities to properly hold, let alone rehabilitate them, which in turn has resulted in lower-level criminals not serving time at all.’
California gubernatorial candidate and former Fox News star Steve Hilton branded potential rival Kamal Harris ‘a complete joke’ and ‘machine politician’ who ‘doesn’t believe in anything’
He claims, ‘California’s streets are less safe’ because of it.
Newsom closed four state prisons during his tenure, and California’s prison population has dropped 32% – from 135,600 in 2014 to 92,582 in 2024.
Hilton claims this move ‘hits working-class communities the hardest’ as ‘violent and repeat offenders are cycling through the system’ and ‘those who want a second chance are too often denied access to rehabilitation that works.
‘The quality of life for ordinary Californians is deteriorating as they’re left to deal with the fallout…’ which he suggests includes ‘people on the streets… with drug and mental health problems.’
Chuckawalla Valley State Prison, one of the four prisons shuttered by Gov. Gavin Newsom
Hilton spoke with members of the California Business and Industrial Alliance to support overhauling the controversial Private Attorneys General Act which he claims is used as a ‘weapon’ by workers and lawyers to ‘shakedown’ small businesses over trivial employment violations
Hilton, former Director of Strategy to David Cameron, pictured on board USS Iowa. He said his ‘more prisons, less crime’ agenda will make Californian communities safe
Deuel Vocational Institution, located in Tracy, San Joaquin County, California, is one of the prisons Hilton is planning to reopen in order to house criminals
The father-of-two pledged to ‘take these people off the streets and clean up this terrible combination of crime and homelessness.’
His latest plan has the backing of Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig, an outspoken architect of last year’s Prop. 36, which targeted retail theft and drug offenses and was designed to overcome 2014’s Prop. 47, which reduced penalties for theft of an amount totaling less than $950.
Former California Attorney General and defeated presidential candidate Kamala Harris
Hilton claimed there is a ‘war on business’ in California while addressing members of the California Business and Industrial Alliance on the decommissioned ship.
And during his subsequent interview with with the Daily Mail, he branded Harris ‘a complete joke’ and ‘machine politician’ who ‘doesn’t believe in anything.
‘She has no strong convictions other than that she should be entitled to these jobs because of her identity, not her ability.’
Hilton agreed with Donald Trump sending in the National Guard to handle rioters in Los Angeles following protests over the ongoing ICE raids
‘It’s an insult to every Californian, the idea that she should get to be governor as a consolation prize for losing to Donald Trump,’ he added.
Hilton, who moved to California with his family in 2012 and became a citizen in 2021, condemned the ‘vandalism, hooliganism, looting, vile graffiti and destroyed businesses’ that resulted from recent downtown LA riots.
He ‘completely support[s]’ Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard, and said local law enforcement ‘totally failed to do their job at every level’ when ICE asked for help. He blamed the protests on Mayor Karen Bass and Governor Newsom.
He said it is ‘totally right’ for immigrants to go through ‘official procedures’ in order to become a citizen.
Hilton fan Maureen Stephens (left) was thrilled to meet the former Fox News host on her 63rd birthday and called him ‘a common sense kind of guy’
The USS Iowa, moored in San Pedro, was the venue for an event hosted by the California Business and Industrial Alliance. The battleship was decommissioned in 1990
Hilton, previously Director of Strategy for British PM David Cameron, with supporter Gwen Gordon who attended the event hosted by the California Business and Industrial Alliance
‘Nowhere else in the world would you just show up and get all the benefits of citizenship without actually going through the process properly,’ the former TV commentator told the Daily Mail
‘It’s not true to say that you’re an American if you’re not a citizen – that’s legally false,’ he continued. ‘I’m a proud American, but I didn’t say that before 2021 when I became a citizen.’
Hilton – who lives in the Bay Area with his wife, their two sons and pet chickens – called California the country’s ‘most significant state’.
But, he says, its economy ‘hides a lot of problems’ – specifically, soaring poverty and unemployment rates.
He highlighted the dichotomy of ‘extreme wealth and economic success, along with really serious poverty and deprivation.’
Hilton called California the ‘worst-run state’ and blamed the mostly Democrat representatives for the ‘total disaster’.
The outcome ‘is a terrible combination of ideological extremism and utter incompetence.’
Hilton called Newsom ‘weak’, adding ‘His fundamental problem is that he is controlled by leftist activists who give him their marching orders,’ Hilton claimed.
Hilton plans to scrap state income tax on the first $100,000 earned to ‘get money in people’s pockets quickly.’ He is pictured onboard the USS Iowa in front of the vessel’s 16-inch guns
Hilton told the Daily Mail that Los Angeles law enforcement ‘totally failed to do their job at every level’ when initially asked for help by ICE whose agents were being physically threatened by ‘activists’
Hilton supports Donald Trump overruling Gov. Newsom by deploying the National Guard and marines to Los Angeles, the country’s second-largest city
‘It’s not true to say that you’re an American if you’re not a citizen. That’s legally false,’ Hilton told the Daily Mail. An activist, pictured, on June 8 during the Los Angeles riots holding a mask depicting Donald Trump
Hilton argued the ‘fundamental problem’ for California is the ‘massive explosion of government bloat and nanny state bureaucracy, especially with small businesses.’
His number one task as governor would be to strip away the ‘endless red tape, taxes and bulls**t from the government’.
Hilton says his UK career gave him ‘insight into the workings of government’ and ‘showed me how bureaucracy fights to keep its power and what their tricks are.’
He said he learned ‘how strongly you have to fight them in order to make any difference.’
Hilton is ‘incredibly proud’ of the state’s business successes, but plans to turbocharge investment to attract companies with large workforces.
She has no strong convictions other than that she should be entitled to these jobs because of her identity, not her ability
Steve Hilton on Kamala Harris
‘You’ve got some incredibly successful businesses that generate huge amounts of revenue, but don’t employ very many people and therefore the general standard of living doesn’t increase.
He stressed he is ‘massively pro-business, pro-enterprise and pro-job creation across the board.’
He noted that Nvidia, the massive AI chip manufacturer, is pumping $500 billion worth of capital investment into America over the next few years with new production plants – but nothing has been announced for California.
Hilton blames the the state’s bureaucracy, regulations and taxes for stifling new manufacturing plants.
He praised Trump for the ‘direction he wants to take the country.’ He says California needs the same approach and plans to scrap state income tax on the first $100,000 earned to ‘get money in people’s pockets quickly.’
Other issues on his to-do list include the housing crisis, education and reducing the price of gasoline.
He called the latter a ‘simple way to make life easier for working class people.’
Like Trump, Hilton is fiercely against transgender women competing in women’s sports – an issue that’s remained a focal point as California high school student AB Hernandez, a 16-year-old trans girl, won gold medals in the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) state finals.
Hilton says he is a ‘big supporter’ of the Save Girls’ Sports movement and wore a pink bracelet to highlight the issue.
He called it ‘terrible’ that California’s 2013 Assembly Bill 1266 (the School Success and Opportunity Act), allows trans girls to compete in girls’ sports and ‘also be in girls’ locker rooms’. He said he will ‘strive to undo the law.’
California student athlete AB Hernandez, a transgender girl, won gold medals while competing against cisgender girls
Meanwhile, Hilton claims ‘the tide is turning’ in California and that voters are ready for a Republican governor – a powerful shift, he said, that led to 10 out of 58 counties flipping to red in November’s presidential election.
‘People have had enough,’ he said. ‘We can’t take it anymore. it doesn’t have to be like this…
‘I can win. And when I do win, I can make a big difference.’
