California GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Tells Bannon How ‘Working-Class Latino Voters’ Will Impact 2026 Election

During a Tuesday appearance on “Bannon’s War Room,” Republican California gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton laid out a bold strategy for victory in 2026.

Hilton, who announced in April that he’s running for governor of California, said that working-class Latino voters will form the backbone of a populist political realignment in the nation’s largest state. Hilton began by analyzing the math of a midterm election in California, saying that voter turnout in such years typically hovers around 11.8 million.

“I’m very serious about this, and here’s the path, right? In 2026 the gubernatorial election in California is a midterm. You’re gonna have a lower turnout. Roughly if you look at the average of the last two years, last two midterms, the vote that you can expect is about 11.8 million. To win in California next year you need 5.9 million votes. President Trump just got 6.1 million. If every Trump voter turns out — now, that is a big if — but if every Trump voter turns out, I’ll be the governor,” Hilton told Steve Bannon.

While acknowledging that full turnout is a high bar, the candidate said the key lies with disaffected working-class Latinos.

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“There’s a huge untapped potential, and this is where it absolutely is all about populism. The people who’ve been hammered the most by these insane far-left policies on climate and the taxes and the regulations and all the rest of the nonsense, the gender ideology in the schools. Who really is being hammered the most by that? Working-class Latinos, the biggest demographic group effectively in California now,” Hilton said.

Hilton dismissed media narratives that he said portray the GOP, particularly its MAGA wing, as “white supremacist adjacent,” calling them deliberate distortions meant to stall the movement’s momentum. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Steve Hilton Has A Message For Those Who Think It’s ‘Impossible’ To Save California)

Hilton said the establishment is desperate to discredit the growing alliance between working-class Americans and the Republican Party.

In the 2024 U.S. presidential election, President Donald Trump secured 46% of the Latino vote nationwide, marking the highest share ever achieved by a Republican candidate among this demographic. This significant gain played a crucial role in his victories. Trump won 55% of Latino men, an increase of 19 points from 2020, and saw his backing among Latina women rise to 38%, up 8 points from the previous election.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to decide by summer’s end whether she’ll run for governor of California. Hilton said he would welcome the challenge, calling Harris a “great opponent to face” whose national profile would draw major attention to the state.

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