A Martinez de NPR speaks with Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host who explores an offer for the Governor of California, about his new book, Calipate: reverse the most managed state ruin in America.
A Martínez, host:
Fox News entrepreneur and former host, Steve Hilton, is considering a race for the Governor of California in 2026 as a republican. The last time a Republican won an election of governor in the Golden State, it was 2006, which launched the second term of Arnold Schwarzenegger. It’s all Democrats since. Hilton’s new book “Caliphate: Reversing the Ruin of America’s Worst-Run State” argues that the government’s democratic majority in government, among other factors, has led to a multitude of negative results for its residents. He recently joined me to talk about the book, our country of mutual origin and its policy.
Steve, I don’t know if you have announced your race for governor, but I know that it is not a secret that you are considering at least. So is this book an overview of what your platform would be?
Steve Hilton: Well, I certainly consider it very strongly. I love California. People will hear my accent. I am from the United Kingdom, my parents are in fact Hungarian, but we moved here in 2012. I love this state. I think there is nowhere better than California, but I think everyone can see that things have been going on. And I firmly plan to run for the governor, and the decision will be really based on how to make sure it is possible to do it seriously. Part of this is to have a serious political platform, and part of this is reflected in this new book, “Caliphate”. But there is much more than that. You have to count its financial support, you feel that there is an opportunity to win because it is the only basis I would do.
Martínez: So you write that Caliphate is what is happening when Democrats get everything they want. So, Steve, what would be some of these things?
Hilton: Well, these are the things that have really been done in California by the government in which we live. I think the best place to start, A, is just to look at the data. Look at the numbers. And if we said there was a state – a state in America which has the highest cost of housing, by far, the highest taxes, how did it happen? And my answer, to look at this is something that I think that many people through the political spectrum would agree, which is a rule to a party is not healthy. It generates a feeling of extremism where the only pressure comes from a direction. This takes you to directions which are far from the outside of the dominant current.
Martínez: California has the highest housing costs in the contiguous United States, just behind Hawaii nationally. And we must specify that California has the highest tax rate of individuals. New York State has the highest overall tax charge.
One of the things, however, Steve, that I always wonder, it is when people look at California from the outside and they say, you know, directing a state horribly. It is one of the highest states in the country. Then, I think that California’s gross domestic product at 3.9 Billions, or 14% of national GDP. So how could a state be misunderstood-is the accusation-how could this productive be economically and even agricultural? It’s n ° 1 …
Hilton: Yes.
Martínez: … agricultural state throughout the country.
Hilton: And therefore you are right. People can say, well, we cannot do things so badly then. But if you look at the components of this, a large part of it is motivated by a small number of companies, especially in the region of the bay, which earn huge sums of money, but do not embrace many people. And that explains why you can have two apparently contradictory things.
Martínez: If you were to run, Steve – I’m not saying you are, but if you were to run – would you have a particular candidate that you would salivate this, Steve, to say, let me happen? Do I want to sue you head-to-face?
Hilton: Well, look, I think the fundamental point is that we need a political balance in California. But when you look at the potential candidates, I think Kamala Harris, the former vice-president who strongly plans to run, she tells us that she will make a decision by the end of the summer. By the way, I make my decision much earlier than that. Kamala Harris, I think, would be a big opponent to face because, first of all, she would pay a lot of attention to the race and the problems with which California is confronted. And I think it is important that we can have a really serious political discussion on how we overthrow things and do California what it should be, which is the best in America.
Martínez: And the fact is, Steve, that I find it interesting that you say Kamala Harris because thought in California is – and you live here – it is that it is his work to lose.
Hilton: I think the problem with Kamala Harris, if I can say, is that all this conversation, and including the things that have been published by her team in the briefings, are all of her. Would she be the most excited to be the first woman black governor of a state? It’s not for her. It’s not about me. These are not the candidates. This is California. We have to go in a completely different direction.
Martínez: It’s Steve Hilton. His book is “Caliphate: reverse the most managed state of America”. Steve, thank you.
Hilton: Thank you very much.
(Soundbit of Red Hot Chili Peppers Song, “Californication”)
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