Can a Republican win the race of California Governor in 2026?

From Alexey KossefCalmness

This story was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

After more than a decade have been exposed to the governor’s office in California, Republicans look at the increasing dissatisfaction with voters from the dominant liberal policy of the state as a start -up pad to return next year.

Although there are no state profiles of a A flow of democratic contendersA pair of GOP hopes with dedicated conservative consequences have jumped into the open governor race in 2026 in recent months, hoping to convince voters that only radical shaking can eliminate California’s problems.

“I don’t think there is any other way to describe California other than America’s sick man,” says Steve Hilton, a former Fox News presenter and a one -way political advisor to British Prime Minister David Cameron, who officially announced his candidacy on Monday. “It’s just undeniable that we’re in a terrible, terrible mess in California and we have to change the direction.”

Hilton launched his campaign today with an event in Huntington Beach, the city that has been reworked over the past few years in Bulwark of conservative resistance in CaliforniaS He follows the sheriff of Riverside Chad Bianco County, a hero of the right to Determination of state mandates during a pandemia by KovidWhoever entered the race for success called governor Gavin News in February.

They both believe that the voters have become ill with a generation of one-party democratic government in Sacramento and are appealed to appealing to reducing taxes and provisions-which they accuse of making California inaccessible-to reach traditional guerrilla lines.

“We are led on the path of complete state control and socialism,” Bianco said in an interview. “This is no longer a Democrat against Republican. We are in a time when he is healthy against insane.”

But conservative candidates are facing a steep climb in a state that did not choose a republican in public service, as governor Arnold Schwarzenegger won a second term in 2006.

California Democratic Party President Rusty Hicks said the governor race was more than just who could deliver to Californians. Voters know that the governor has a powerful platform to Stand up the Trump Administration And they will not want a Republican in a role that is also crucial to the future of the rest of the country and the whole world, he said.

“I certainly applaud them that they continue to try,” Hicks said. “But again and again, we see that California voters see their policies for what they are, which is not in line with the values ​​of the Californians.”

Reduction of taxes and provisions

More than 20 people have already filed a statement of intention to run for governor in the main 2026 as Republicans – although few will be serious candidates, and some can never qualify for the vote, which requires to pay a fee or submit thousands of signatures from registered voters.

Only two, including Bianco, have announced the meeting of all kinds of money for their campaigns so far. While the first fund raising report from 2025 is not due until the end of July, the main donations are submitted to the country on a movable basis.

Leo Zaki, a heir to poultry and a perennial candidate who received 1.3% of the votes in the Governor Primary Primary and 0.1% in the 2021 recall elections, sown his campaign last month with $ 50,000 of his own money.

Meanwhile, after launching his campaign in February, Bianco reported more than $ 380,000 in large contributions – enough to harden as an early fronter for conservative voters, but far from the millions that some democratic contenders have already raised.

This leaves the opening for the 55 -year -old Hilton, a native of the United Kingdom, who moved to California in 2012 with his wife, CEO for public relations for technology companies. Hilton has a built-in audience from the Fox News Next Revolution Weekly Comment Program from 2017 to 2023 and the Silicon Valley’s connections that could provide the money they need to spread his message more widely.

Hilton said his campaign will focus on practical solutions to restore a “possibilities” so that every Californians can have a great job and a great home – although many of them are ideas that the democratic supermisticity in the legislature is unlikely to support.

It will eliminate the state tax on income for Californians under an unspecified level of income. He wants to strengthen the development of housing by simplifying construction rules, termination of court cases under the scandalous law on the quality of the environment in California and encourages the construction of single -family homes. He believes the needs of the state Mandatory Education on Sounds And more accountability for teachers based on test results to improve students’ achievements.

Although he had a long career in politics, Hilton has never held a chosen office that he claims to be an advantage.

“I would ask people how good are the machine politicians in Sacramento who participate in this one -party rule? How does this work?” said Hilton.

Bianco, 57, was a longtime sheriff’s deputy in Riverside County, who runs for a sheriff in 2018 by the powerlessness of what he called a “pro-criminal” approach to public safety in California. During his two terms as chief employee of the RiverSade County, he is a controversial but locally popular figure, refusing to Apply Newsom’s Covid lock orders or apologize for his Short belonging to the far right militia of the oathS

He said he is now running for a governor because, like many Californians, he is tired of how the government has failed a condition that people otherwise love. Many of his priorities are aligned with Hilton: Bianco would like to completely eliminate the tax on the income of the state, get rid of the laws that he believes expel farmers and ranches from work, and leave the environmental regulation of the federal government.

And sounded the initiative of the Ministry of Government of the Trump Administration, Bianco said he wanted to Eliminate the wasteful costs as a high -speed rail project and multi -billion -dollar programs that have does not reduce homelessnessS

“The number one government is public safety,” Bianco said. “Everything else is down.”

Anti-thrump boom

The California Republicans are cheerful of the November elections, when they have thrown three places in the state legislative body, as President Donald Trump has increased his votes in almost every county. At a party convention in Sacramento last month they, they strategized on how to upgrade inertia By bending into questions such as accessibility and crime that seem to help them win a reason, especially among the voters of Latin American voters.

“This tells us that at the local Californians and when it comes to the laws passed in Sacramento, they are looking for Republicans,” said Corinn Rankin, the newly elected chairman of the California Republican Party. “They reject the failures coming out of the Democrats Capitol.”

In a February Study The Institute of Public Policy in California, only 48% of probable voters said the state was going in the right direction, compared to 51%, who stated that it was going in the wrong direction – underwater, albeit the biggest approval of two years.

In order to win the governor next year, Rankin said the state GOP would eventually unite behind a candidate who could help Californians understand how this dissatisfaction is guided by what Democrats are responsible for the state.

“We need a change here in California. The Californians expect a change and we are positioned to deliver,” she said.

But the modest progress of the last election believes GOP, which is still far from competitive in California. Trump received only about 38% of the vote, losing to Democrat candidate Kamala Harris with more than 20 percentage points and the Republicans lost three places in the United States.

The intermediate deadlines in 2026, in which the democratic anger towards the Trump administration can lead to an even more liberal electorate, will be a difficult political environment for the California GOP to click in the country dating from 2010 in 2022 came within 10 percentage points Victory and most lost by about twice this margin.

Andrew Acosta, a democratic political consultant who does not work on the governor’s race, said there were significant problems in California for serious conservatives to campaign. “Republicans have a lot of fodder if they did the right way,” he said.

But the candidates so closely tied to Trump are unlikely to overcome the deep anti-trump sentiment in the electorate and win the government next year, added Akosta. “There is a zero chance of these Republicans.”

Both Hilton and Bianco are Trump’s vocal supporters. Hilton’s campaign even refers to Magi’s movement with “Make California Gold again” sloganand he discard approval On the first day of Vivek Ramavami, one of the architects of Trump’s Dog initiative.

Although some democratic candidates are already eavesdropping in Trump’s fury To nourish his campaigns, Hilton said the focus was placed.

“None of this helps a lonely person in California,” he said. “These are real questions. So if the candidates for Democrats want to deviate from this and become national political commentators, then luck with that.”

Bianco said Democrats have been making a “exceptional psychological war” for decades, convincing people that Republicans could not win in California, which suppresses conservative participation in elections. But at last, things got so bad, he said that these disappointed voters would be next year and elect a Republican governor.

“We cannot blame Donald Trump. Donald Trump has nothing to do with California and the laws adopted in the last 20 years,” he said. “I believe the majority of people, of hard-working Californians, have conservative slopes.”

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.