Steve Hilton

The former No 10 aide is tipped to run California — despite Trump’s ‘help’, says Andrew Anthony

- Andrew Anthony

Before his Downing Street days as David Cameron’s director of strategy, Steve Hilton made a couple of unsuccessful attempts to run for the Tory safe seats of Wealden and Surrey Heath.

The failure to get past local constituency selection boards obviously didn’t limit the scale of his ambition: he is now the leading candidate to become the next governor of California, the fourth largest economy in the world, in November's election.

The journey from maverick Conservative sidekick, known for wearing shorts to work and wandering around in socks, to an American Republican party politician in a well-cut jacket is only one of the striking transformations that Hilton, now 56 and an American citizen since 2021, has undergone. When he was Cameron’s blue-sky thinker-in-chief, he emphasised environmental concerns — he had once voted Green, and set up the company Good Business to foster corporate social responsibility. Now he wants to maximise California's gas and oil production.

Credited as being the brains behind Cameron’s “hug a hoodie” campaign that called for empathy for young offenders, he has become a favourite of Donald Trump, known, among other things, for his rather more draconian approach to law and order.

In April, Trump surprised many people, including Hilton himself, by backing his candidature. “Steve Hilton has my COMPLETE & TOTAL ENDORSEMENT. He will be a GREAT Governor and, importantly, WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!!!,” he wrote on Truth Social.

But it wasn’t an endorsement that necessarily did the chosen candidate any favours. Hilton’s best chance in the state’s open primary is if the two Republican candidates come top in the first round, because he would be favourite to win the all-Republican runoff. Going head-to-head with a Democrat - in a famously Democratic state - would be an altogether more daunting prospect.