Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host who has also worked in conservative politics in Britain, announced on Monday that he was running to become California’s next governor.
Mr. Hilton is the second prominent Republican to enter the 2026 race, but he faces difficult odds considering that California voters have not elected a Republican to statewide office since they re-elected Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006.
Gov. Gavin Newsom cannot run for re-election because of term limits, creating a wide-open contest that has already attracted several elected Democrats and Chad Bianco, the Republican sheriff of Riverside County.
The field, however, is waiting for former Vice President Kamala Harris to decide whether she will enter the race. If she does so, several Democrats could end their bids out of deference to Ms. Harris, their party’s presidential candidate last year. But her entrance could have the opposite effect with Republican hopefuls, who may be eager to take on the former vice president.
Mr. Hilton, 55, has been a supporter of President Donald J. Trump. But in recent media appearances, he has tried to avoid culture war issues and focused more on reducing costs and regulations for California businesses, lowering the cost of living in the state, curbing crime and reducing homelessness.
California remains a heavily Democratic state. But Mr. Hilton may be hoping that the electorate’s shift in last year’s presidential election will benefit his campaign. In 2024, Mr. Trump flipped 10 California counties that he had lost in 2020, and voters statewide overwhelmingly passed a measure that made it easier to prosecute theft and drug crimes.
“We’ve got to end the one-party rule that got us into this mess,” Mr. Hilton said in a video that announced his candidacy on Monday and flashed images of Mr. Newsom and Ms. Harris. “It’s time to end the years of Democrat failure. It’s time for a new future.”
In Britain, Mr. Hilton helped David Cameron win the prime minister’s office in 2010 and became one of his top advisers, though he broke with Mr. Cameron in 2016 to support the Brexit movement and help Britain leave the European Union.
In 2012, Mr. Hilton moved to Silicon Valley because his wife was working for Google. He became a fellow at Stanford University, hosted a Fox News program and started a research group called Golden Together. The organization proposed policies such as building more single-family homes, increasing oil production and cutting more trees to reduce fire risk.
Even though Republicans made inroads in California last year, the gains were not big enough to make it likely that Republicans will win the governor’s office, said Rob Stutzman, a Republican strategist who worked for Mr. Schwarzenegger and is not involved with a 2026 campaign.
About 45 percent of California voters are registered as Democrats, while 25 percent are registered as Republicans, according to the latest data released in February. About 22 percent have declined to register with a political party.
“The numbers just aren’t there in terms of registration,” Mr. Stutzman said.
He also said that Republicans were likely to face difficulties next year given that it is a midterm election for Mr. Trump and that the party that holds the White House typically loses ground in such years.
Mr. Hilton’s ties in Silicon Valley could help him, though, if wealthy donors spend heavily to bolster his profile with independent campaign accounts.