CA-GOV: Republican Steve Hilton leads California governor fundraising as large pool of Democrats lag

[RandySF]

Republican Steve Hilton is pulling in more campaign cash than nearly all other candidates in a tepid fundraising cycle for California governor in a wide-open race with no clear frontrunners, campaign finance reports filed Monday show.

Hilton, a commentator and former Fox News contributor who previously worked for conservative British Prime Minister David Cameron, brought in about $4.1 million in donations in the second half of 2025, according to campaign finance reports. He took a victory lap on social media over the figure, calling it “what momentum looks like.” But he also spent more than half that already, and started off 2026 with about $2 million on hand, only a little more than fellow Republican candidate, Riverside County sheriff Chad Bianco.

Still, his haul was higher than that of several prominent Democrats. Bay Area Rep. Eric Swalwell, boosted by donations from Hollywood entertainers like Jon Hamm, Robert De Niro and Sean Penn, raised about $3.1 million since jumping in the race in November. That’s more than the $3 million that former Rep. Katie Porter raised from nearly 12,000 mostly small-dollar donors from July to December. Former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra brought in $2.6 million, in part by transferring money from prior campaign accounts for other offices.

Hilton was second bringing in campaign cash only to Democratic billionaire and self-funding candidate Tom Steyer, who has poured $28 million of his own money into the race since declaring he was running in November.



https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/02/governors-race-fundraising-reports/

[fujiyamasan]

1. This is because there's no clear front runner on the Dem side

Going by the margin by which the redistricting initiative passed and Trump’s unpopularity in this state, I’d say the GOP’s chances to winning this race are close to 0.