Gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton broke with Donald Trump’s “rigged” election narrative about California’s results, saying he has “seen nothing” to justify intervention.
During Monday’s broadcast for CNN’s “OutFront,” the Trump-backed Republican was asked by host Erin Burnett point-blank about the president’s claims that both the Los Angeles mayoral race and the California gubernatorial race were “rigged.”
While Hilton made it clear that he was frustrated with the Golden State’s slow counting process, noting there were “so many things wrong with the system,” he refused to co-sign Trump’s voter fraud theory.
“I’ve been saying all along that we take it very seriously because we don’t want to let people down,” Hilton told Burnett. “And we’re being very vigilant on it. We’re keeping an eye on it. We’ve got teams standing by, lawyers standing by. And, actually, it’s the same answer that I’ve been giving for a few days now. We’ve seen nothing that would give us cause to intervene in that way.”
Though, Hilton said that if anything questionable has occurred, he was confident the U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli would act on it. He added: “I trust that if there is anything that needs to be investigated that he will make sure it happens.”
Hilton held onto his No. 2 spot as ballot updates came in Monday evening, showing the British-born Fox News contributor lock in 25.1% of the vote after 83% had been counted. Democrat Xavier Becerra already nabbed his spot in the runoff.
“Well, I think the most important point, Erin, is that we’re feeling as confident as we ever have been that I’m going to make the top two,” Hilton noted amid the update. “Tom Steyer is just not getting the numbers he needs to catch up with us, and there’s a diminishing amount of votes out there for him to make up that ground.”
Per Hilton, this means California voters “will be able to choose change” come November.
“Change from 16 years that have given us these terrible results,” he added. “The highest cost of living in the country … that’s the substantive point that matters here, that in November there will be a real choice.”
Republican Steve Hilton breaks with Trump’s baseless claims of a “rigged” election in California: “We’ve been very vigilant… we’ve seen nothing that would give us cause to intervene.” pic.twitter.com/oOWsH2UWCP
— Erin Burnett OutFront (@OutFrontCNN) June 9, 2026
Watch Hilton’s “OutFront” appearance above.
