A November California election will see a television personality make a run after all.



A day after Spencer Pratt was eliminated from the L.A. mayoral race, former Fox News host Steve Hilton clinched second place in the California gubernatorial primary and will face Biden-era HHS secretary Xavier Becerra in the general election. The British-born newbie candidate held off progressive Tom Steyer, who had been nipping at Hilton's heels as votes rolled in but could never quite close the gap.



The Republican Hilton held a lead of at least 300,000 votes and four percentage points over Steyer pretty much since the primary a week ago, even as Becerra passed him for first place several days in. On Tuesday, with a fresh vote drop of more than 600,000 ballots, Steyer closed the gap slightly. But Hilton still maintained a lead of 200,000 votes and 2.5 percentage points after the vote drop. With just 9% of votes remaining to be counted, the AP late Tuesday called the race.



The move ends the progressive billionaire Steyer's bid to reform California with a series of activist, worker-centric, AI-regulatory and environmentally aggressive policy proposals, as well as a staunchly opposing position on the Paramount purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery. He spent a nationwide high $200 million+ on the effort, but still acquitted himself well with more than two million votes. Liberal scenarists will be left wondering what if, though, as Congresswoman Katie Porter will end up notching more than 400,000 votes - enough, potentially, to have given Steyer the win had the fellow liberal Democrat dropped out.



A former strategist for Tory prime minister David Cameron in England, Hilton arrived in Silicon Valley with his wife Rachel Whetsone in the early 2010's as she worked a series of high-profile comms jobs at Google, Uber and Netflix. During that time, Hilton was an entrepreneur and also hosted a Sunday Fox News show for six years; while arguing for conservative positions, he stood out on the network with a more inclusive, less tendentious vibe than some of his colleagues.



Hilton also had a different kind

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