Yet a win by a conservative outsider is hardly unprecedented, with movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger having served two terms as governor from 2003 to 2011.
Gove commented that Hilton “has the policy smarts and the drive” to take on the job. He noted that “of course it’s a blue state, but governor races are different, and the entrenched problems that California has — housing affordability, transportation, crime, drug problems and homelessness — no one could deny that they haven’t been resolved on Gavin Newsom’s watch.”
Others describe Hilton as passionately anti-left, partly owing to his parents’ experiences in Hungary under Communism before they fled to the U.K. in 1956, making him well-placed to take on the Democrats.
Yet some see trouble ahead in Hilton’s unorthodox style. Vaizey noted: “Even as governor of California, you can’t wave a magic wand. You will have to work with people, you’ll have to work with systems.”
A third ex-colleague and admirer of Hilton argued that, like Trump, he was more skillful at “identifying the source of all the world’s ills, i.e. the Democrats and the elites” than at forging solutions. Others noted that a perceived tendency to rail against others’ failings rather than identifying solutions had not held Trump back.
“Put it this way,” Osborne said. “I wouldn’t be completely surprised if I woke up one morning and heard the new governor of California is Steve Hilton.”
