Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton held a campaign rally Sunday in Pacific Palisades, the Los Angeles neighborhood largely destroyed by the January 2025 wildfires, as he made a final push ahead of Tuesday’s election for California governor.
Addressing supporters and residents at the site, Hilton tied the community’s destruction to the state’s political leadership. “I’m so sorry. And it’s so sad about what happened because it could and should have been avoided,” he said. “This place is a symbol of 16 years of Democrat failure.”
The Palisades Fire burned more than 23,000 acres and destroyed roughly 6,800 structures, most of them homes. Driven by strong winds and dry conditions, the fire forced tens of thousands of people from their homes and leveled large portions of the neighborhood, leaving residents facing a long rebuilding process.
Hilton argued the fire and the slow pace of recovery were not isolated failures but symptoms of a broader pattern under California’s Democratic leadership, pointing to wildfire prevention, emergency response and rebuilding as areas where he said the state had fallen short.
“These are not random, disconnected events,” Hilton said. “These are what has gone wrong in the state of California over 16 years of one-party rule.”
Democrats have controlled the California governor’s office for 16 years. Hilton is running against Democrat Xavier Becerra, the state’s former attorney general and former secretary of Health and Human Services under President Joe Biden, to succeed termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Hilton, a former Fox News commentator who also served as an adviser to former British Prime Minister David Cameron, has centered much of his campaign on criticism of state Democratic leadership.
At Sunday’s rally, Hilton accused state and local officials of failing to adequately prepare for wildfires and of moving too slowly to help residents rebuild, attributing the failures to what he described as “incompetence, ideology and corruption.”
He also faulted environmental and land-management policies, saying insufficient brush clearance had contributed to the fire’s spread. “The ideology that for years and years and years not just failed to clear the brush that could have prevented these fires here and in Altadena … but deliberately chose not to do that,” he said.
Hilton said that, if elected, he would name a “recovery CEO” to oversee rebuilding in fire-affected communities. “I spent the time, I’ve listened, and I can tell you right now, when I’m governor, I will appoint a recovery CEO to finally get things done, to finally get what you deserve,” he said.
He ended the rally by urging voters not to see the race in strictly partisan terms. “This is not a blue state. It is not a red state. It’s the Golden State,” Hilton said. “And we are going to fight with everything we’ve got.”
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