In this episode of the California Underground Podcast, host Phil interviews Steve Hilton, a Republican candidate for governor of California. Steve shares his journey from the UK to California, his vision for the state, and his plans to address economic opportunity, affordability, and immigration. He emphasizes the importance of faith in humanity and the need for California to reclaim its status as a beacon of freedom. The conversation also touches on the challenges facing the state's economy and the impact of government policies on its citizens.
Are you a Californian who feels isolated and alone in your political views in a deep blue state? Feel like you can’t talk about insane taxes, an overbearing government, and radical social experiments without getting a side eye? Then join us on the California Underground Podcast, the most trusted podcast on all things California politics.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Steve Hilton and His Journey
03:20 California's Economic Challenges and Opportunities
06:18 The Importance of Education and Business Climate
09:13 Liberty vs. State Control: A Philosophical Discussion
12:24 Immigration: Balancing Legal and Illegal Perspectives
15:16 California's Economy: Myths and Realities
25:27 Conclusion and Call to Action
Original air date 7.20.25
*The California Underground Podcast is dedicated to discussing California politics from a place of sanity and rationality.*
Check out our full site for more information about the show at www.californiaunderground.live
Join our Discord server https://discord.gg/Tzp8d5xw
Check out our sponsor for this episode, StopBox, by going to www.stopbox.com/californiaunderground to get 10% off your order
Follow California Underground on Social Media
Instagram: www.instagram.com/californiaunderground
X: https://twitter.com/CAUndergound
Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@californiaunderground?_t=8o6HWHcJ1CM&_r=1
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj8SabIcF4AKqEVFsLmo1jA
Read about our Privacy Policy: https://www.spotify.com/us/legal/privacy-policy/
00:00:16
What's going on, everybody? Thanks for tuning in to another
00:00:18
episode of the California Underground podcast, the most
00:00:20
trusted podcast for all things California politics.
00:00:22
Tonight, I have a very special guest, Steve Hilton, who is
00:00:27
running for governor of California as a Republican.
00:00:30
Steve, welcome to the show. Thanks for coming on.
00:00:33
It's so great to be with you. I love what you're doing with
00:00:36
this show and I'm so happy to be here with you.
00:00:39
Well, thank you. I'm, I'm happy with what you've
00:00:41
been doing. You're sort of an inspiration to
00:00:43
me because when I started this podcast, I know you focused a
00:00:46
lot on California politics and you had a California political
00:00:50
podcast. So you're kind of like an
00:00:52
inspiration to me and what I'm I'm doing right now.
00:00:55
So all right, I want to thank you for that.
00:00:56
So quick introduction to people who don't already know who you
00:01:00
are and where you come from. Yeah, so as everyone can hear
00:01:05
from my accent, originally from the UKI want to take one step
00:01:09
further backs. It's very important in kind of
00:01:11
how I see the world, which is that my parents are Hungarian
00:01:15
and they were refugees from communism in Hungary.
00:01:18
They went to England. I was born in England, then
00:01:21
moved here in 2012 with my wife and my two sons.
00:01:25
Originally that was just for to kind of our family sanity.
00:01:29
My wife had a job here that involved a lot of travel to and
00:01:32
from California. When our second son was born, it
00:01:34
got a little bit crazy, so we weren't sure that it would be
00:01:37
forever when we first moved here.
00:01:39
But then after four years, I went back to the UK to campaign
00:01:43
for Brexit in the Brexit referendum.
00:01:46
And then I remember landing back in San Francisco after that.
00:01:50
I remember it really clearly just that that we live in the
00:01:52
Bay Area and and thinking, oh, it's so great to be home.
00:01:56
And I suddenly thought, yeah, this is my home.
00:01:58
I really kind of deeply feel that.
00:02:00
And that's what I feel about California.
00:02:02
It's my home. I've raised my family here.
00:02:04
I've started businesses here. I've taught at Stanford
00:02:07
University. I've had this recent career in
00:02:09
the media. I've had amazing opportunities
00:02:11
in this state. And this state represents to me
00:02:13
everything that's just the best of America, the ideal of
00:02:17
California. That's really what I'm, I'm
00:02:19
talking about. The idea of California is just
00:02:22
the, you know, all the things that we love about America,
00:02:25
freedom and ambition and opportunity and swagger and
00:02:28
hustle and, and, and, and for me, a very important component,
00:02:31
the rebel spirit, right? Just like go for it and don't
00:02:34
let people tell you what to do and boss you around and just
00:02:36
follow your dreams. That's all that California
00:02:38
represents for me. And it's been crushed by this
00:02:42
kind of far left, nanny state, bureaucratic extremist nonsense
00:02:48
we have to put up with. And so as the years went on, I
00:02:51
just felt, I don't want to just complain about these things.
00:02:54
I want to do something about it. Back in the day, before we moved
00:02:58
here, I had a job in England. I was the last job I had before
00:03:02
moving here. I was senior advisor to the
00:03:04
Prime Minister in the UK government.
00:03:07
My career is basically gone between private sector, working
00:03:10
in politics and government. And the last job I had was
00:03:14
really being responsible for the implementation of our reform
00:03:17
program domestically in the UK. So I've got some experience in
00:03:21
government, I've got business experience started companies
00:03:23
here back in the UK as well, more recently a media platform.
00:03:27
So putting all that together, I thought, you know what, I can
00:03:29
really make a difference here if I really go for it and put up a
00:03:33
really strong campaign to try and end this 15 years of one
00:03:37
party rule in California. So that's the, that's the sort
00:03:40
of speed date version of what I'm all about.
00:03:44
Excellent. Yeah, I mean, as a fellow
00:03:45
transplant, I'm not as from Far East as you are, just to the
00:03:49
edge of the Atlantic and from New Jersey.
00:03:53
I agree with you. That's that's one reason I came
00:03:55
out to California was the idea of this freedom, this rebel
00:03:58
spirit, this kind of that old American motto of go West, young
00:04:03
man. It was like that's where it was
00:04:04
the opportunity, the American dream.
00:04:06
That's what California stood for to people like me on the East
00:04:10
Coast. It was you went out West to get
00:04:12
opportunity. So I, I guess that's a good
00:04:15
place to start is economic opportunity.
00:04:17
I know you have a a plan if you want to jump into that real
00:04:20
quick. Well, I think let's just, you
00:04:22
know, diagnose the problem, which is that you've got
00:04:25
California. California is now, I mean just
00:04:27
to take that word opportunity, we are 50th out of 50 states on
00:04:31
opportunity as well as 50th out of 50 on affordability.
00:04:35
Have you put those two things together?
00:04:37
I think that's the driving sort of underlying problem of
00:04:39
everything in California, which is it's, it's so difficult for
00:04:42
particularly working class people just to survive in
00:04:45
California because we have the highest costs for everything,
00:04:48
highest housing costs, highest gas, gas prices, electricity,
00:04:52
water, everything. I mean, it's literally true.
00:04:55
And and not just somewhere in the middle.
00:04:58
You know, we are the worst on all those measures, 50th out of
00:05:01
50 states. Or if you're saying most
00:05:03
expensive, you know, one out of 50.
00:05:06
And then on opportunity, it's just so hard because I mean,
00:05:09
obviously a big part, part of opportunity is climbing that
00:05:13
ladder of opportunity. And, and, and the way I put it
00:05:16
is very, you know, it's basic sense, the California dream,
00:05:19
which is a good job where you make enough to raise your family
00:05:23
in a home of your own in a safe neighborhood with a good school,
00:05:27
so your kids have a better life. And it's really basic.
00:05:30
But California did that better than anywhere else.
00:05:33
We used to be the most affordable place to own a home,
00:05:35
if you can believe that, in the whole country within living
00:05:38
memory. And that's just completely gone.
00:05:40
And so I think that to me, the the priority is, is, is is
00:05:45
attacking both those things, affordability and opportunity on
00:05:48
affordability just got to get more.
00:05:50
I mean, longer term, what that means is reducing the things
00:05:55
that are making everything more expensive.
00:05:57
And that is regulations, the government bloat in in
00:06:01
Sacramento and so on. So in terms of making housing
00:06:04
more affordable, that is getting rid of the ridiculous
00:06:07
environmental regulations, ending the war on single family
00:06:10
homes. But they say you don't, you
00:06:12
can't build out. You can only build apartment
00:06:14
buildings in urban transit centres.
00:06:16
All that nonsense has to go on. And so there's a lot a long
00:06:19
term, we can go back to the details, but on affordable,
00:06:23
there's a long term plan of, of getting rid of regulations that
00:06:27
make everything more expensive. But immediately what I've been
00:06:30
thinking about, how do you help people right now?
00:06:33
Because you don't people are struggling.
00:06:35
I mean, I'm on the road the whole time.
00:06:37
And the word that kind of captures what I'm feeling and
00:06:40
seeing and hearing from people more than any other word is
00:06:43
struggle. It's such a struggle in
00:06:45
California to just to live, to survive, to make ends meet, to
00:06:48
run a business. So the, the, the first thing I
00:06:51
think is the quickest way we can help people financially is to
00:06:55
cut taxes. And so there's two particular
00:06:58
things I'm focusing on #1 is on state income tax, which you, you
00:07:03
obviously coming from Sacramento.
00:07:05
My plan is to reduce is to eliminate state income tax for,
00:07:09
for the 1st $100 of what you earn.
00:07:12
And that will be thousands of dollars of benefit to over 7
00:07:15
million households in California above 100 to have a flat tax
00:07:20
of 7.5% that would bring that's that's an ambitious plan, but,
00:07:24
and it involves cutting spending, but the spending's
00:07:27
gone way out of whack to do what I've just described your first
00:07:31
100 grand tax free 7.5% flat tax over that reduces state revenue
00:07:36
by 18.5%, which sounds like a lot, but it just takes the
00:07:40
budget back to what it was just before COVID.
00:07:42
So this is not some some crazy Republican destroy this the the
00:07:46
state thing. It's like what Gavin Newsom's
00:07:48
budget was before the pandemic. So it's totally affordable and
00:07:51
doable on opportunity. It's, I mean, the school system
00:07:55
is the start of it. We have the worst school results
00:07:57
at grade 4, which is the most important driver of future
00:08:00
success in the country. Across the board.
00:08:04
We've got, you know, like barely 1/2 of students meet state
00:08:07
standards in English and reading.
00:08:09
With math, it's a third. I mean, it's catastrophic
00:08:12
results in the schools. So you've got to immediately
00:08:15
attack that by getting by, by addressing the the central
00:08:19
driver of that, which is the takeover of the school system,
00:08:21
the government monopoly, the teacher unions, protect bad
00:08:25
teachers. You've got to end that, got to
00:08:26
kick them out. We've got to have information
00:08:28
about what's going on in the schools that's been taken away
00:08:30
from parents, what school. You can't find out how different
00:08:34
teachers are performing, how different schools are
00:08:35
performing. It's all across the board.
00:08:37
So I think you've got to attack that and you've got to have.
00:08:41
And then the final piece of the opportunity part is business is,
00:08:44
is is, you know, what's been the main driver?
00:08:46
All the things you were just talking about for people in
00:08:48
California to follow their dream is to start a business.
00:08:51
And it's now harder here than anywhere else.
00:08:53
We have the worst business climate in the country.
00:08:56
And that comes back as well to the regulations, the fees, the
00:08:59
permits, the inspections, all of that.
00:09:01
And so the good news is that while, you know, as governor,
00:09:04
you can't do everything, you don't control the legislature.
00:09:07
Looks like the Democrats would still be in control of that.
00:09:11
You control all of the executive branch, the administrative
00:09:14
agencies, the bureaucracy in Sacramento where so much of this
00:09:19
nonsense and this nanny state bureaucracy is coming from.
00:09:22
And that's how you can make an immediate change by kicking out
00:09:26
the ideologues and the bureaucrats who are just getting
00:09:28
in the way and either closing down these agencies or massively
00:09:32
reducing them or putting good people in who will do the right
00:09:35
thing and support businesses and families.
00:09:37
So that's the plan. I, I watched a couple of your
00:09:43
past interviews and there was one I, I, it was either with
00:09:45
Anthony Kabasa or Brit Mayer and, and I had to write it down
00:09:49
because it was so perfectly the encapsulation of this entire
00:09:54
notion of liberty versus statism.
00:09:57
You said you have to have faith in humanity and you said that.
00:10:02
And I thought to myself, that is that's the crux of what liberty
00:10:06
versus statism is. And to your point about nanny
00:10:08
state, California State government in my mind must think
00:10:13
that Californians are dumb and can't provide for themselves
00:10:16
because they have to do everything for you.
00:10:19
And I think when you said that, that's really the the kind of,
00:10:22
that's the the message, that's the core message that has to get
00:10:25
out to Californians. Would you agree?
00:10:27
I love that. Thank you for that.
00:10:29
I I agree because that's what's driving all this, these
00:10:31
bureaucrats and these bureaucratic minded politicians
00:10:35
to just assume that everyone's going to do the wrong thing and
00:10:39
get and you know, and hurt people and whatever, including
00:10:42
their own children. If they don't, if they aren't
00:10:45
told what to do by the government, they have no faith
00:10:48
in people. And the rules are made and the
00:10:51
regulations are made as if everyone's a criminal and
00:10:56
assuming that everyone has bad intent and will do the wrong
00:11:01
thing unless they're stopped by the government.
00:11:03
And it's so outrageous and offensive to the vast majority
00:11:07
of people. You know, the vast majority.
00:11:10
I mean, not even, you know, 99 point whatever percent of people
00:11:14
do the right thing. They don't need the government
00:11:16
to tell them what that is. Most, again, the vast majority
00:11:21
of parents love their kids obsessed with making sure that
00:11:27
their kids have the best opportunity in life.
00:11:29
That's their main focus certainly is for me as a parent
00:11:32
of two boys. And you just think, why do they
00:11:34
take the fact that of course there's a handful of
00:11:39
irresponsible people who, who don't do the right thing and
00:11:43
then treat everyone like that? It's so offensive to me.
00:11:47
And so, and that takes you to another territory, which you
00:11:50
see, which is so upsetting for people, which is that in
00:11:52
California today, And it feels as if all the rule, the way it's
00:11:56
all the system works is that if you do the, if you do the right
00:12:00
thing, you're actually punished. But if you do the wrong thing,
00:12:04
you're rewarded. And you see that right across
00:12:06
the board on crime. We're seeing it with this
00:12:08
immigration stuff, you know, there's and homelessness, you
00:12:11
know, on and on. It's like it's all upside down.
00:12:16
And I think that that is the sort of, and that's why it's to
00:12:18
me. I, I actually, I'm really happy
00:12:21
we're talking about it in this way because sometimes I put my,
00:12:24
if you think about my family's journey, you know, my parents
00:12:27
from Communist Hungary and then to England and then me here now
00:12:31
in California. I really think of it as a
00:12:34
journey towards freedom. And California should literally
00:12:38
be the ultimate expression of ambassador of freedom in the
00:12:42
world. Because if we agree that America
00:12:46
is that right and America is the country where freedom is most
00:12:49
prized and protected, then California should be the best of
00:12:54
if we agree that California is the best of America, it should
00:12:57
be the ultimate home of freedom as a, as a inspiration to the
00:13:01
whole world. This is what happens if you
00:13:03
create a place where human nature is just allowed to
00:13:06
flourish and thrive. And, and that's what I see
00:13:09
California as being. And that's why I love and that
00:13:12
vibe actually, I mean, it's a very cultural as well as policy
00:13:16
base. It's like, that's what we're all
00:13:18
about here. And, and I think this whole
00:13:20
Democrat nanny state nonsense is just crushing the spirit of our
00:13:25
state. I I agree and, and I think it
00:13:30
should be, there should be freedom for everybody to be who
00:13:33
they want to be. I love that California is a
00:13:37
rebellious state. It's sort of a quirky state.
00:13:39
I love that it's quirky. I love that there's people who
00:13:42
are quirky because that breeds creativity.
00:13:45
We got some of the most creative innovations out here in
00:13:47
California because those quirky people and creative people show
00:13:50
up here in California. So I'm Let people be people and
00:13:55
amazing things will happen. So when I.
00:13:57
Heard that quote, love. I love it and actually I'm just
00:14:00
thinking, honestly, I should do more to capture that in in the
00:14:04
campaign. I'm just, you know, I because
00:14:06
I'm really connecting with you on this and I feel very, you
00:14:09
know, excited about this conversation and we've got to
00:14:12
really capture that. You know, it's not just policy
00:14:15
plans and I'll do this and that and whatever.
00:14:17
It's like that spirit of California, quirky, brilliant
00:14:20
word. I totally agree.
00:14:22
I love it. In LA, for example, you drive
00:14:24
around and you call these crazy houses of different, you know,
00:14:29
the older ones right now, the new stuff that's being built is
00:14:31
all homogeneous identity. It's like those Lego block
00:14:35
apartments that everyone's kind of sick of seeing.
00:14:38
I mean, of course we need to build more housing, but what
00:14:40
about all that lovely, quirky housing where you just go,
00:14:42
especially in, you know, all over LA, you just drive around.
00:14:45
It's just amazing to see that, the creativity there.
00:14:48
That's what I love about California.
00:14:50
Yeah. And I think that's a message
00:14:52
that hasn't permeated because Democrats sell this notion of
00:14:57
freedom, but it's only freedom in certain aspects, whether it's
00:15:01
social issues, divisive cultural issues.
00:15:04
But when it comes to business or the economy or your Second
00:15:07
Amendment rights, you know, you can't have freedom there.
00:15:10
But we'll we'll let you have freedom on these social things
00:15:12
that don't really change kitchen table politics.
00:15:15
So, yeah, it's a great message. And I think that's a winning
00:15:18
message for someone to kind of change the narrative here in
00:15:21
California is if you believe in freedom, that you want to be
00:15:24
free in California, we have to throw off the yoke of the the
00:15:28
giant nanny state that's here. Yes, yes, exactly.
00:15:33
The one thing I know we, we, I don't want to keep you because
00:15:36
you're a very busy man. You touched upon immigration and
00:15:42
obviously running as a Republican.
00:15:45
Let's, let's Fast forward to next year.
00:15:47
You're the Republican nominee. I'm not making any endorsement
00:15:50
or anything like that. I'm just we're playing
00:15:52
hypotheticals here. And it's inevitable that you
00:15:55
will be tied to President Trump and immigration as governor.
00:16:01
I I appreciate as a candidate you are very honest with the
00:16:06
people about what a governor can and cannot do.
00:16:10
I caution all my listeners. If there's a gubernatorial
00:16:12
candidate who promises they can wave a magic wand and get rid of
00:16:16
everything, then don't trust them.
00:16:18
So I appreciate that you're very honest about that.
00:16:21
So federal issue immigration, but I think the question is, how
00:16:26
are you as a candidate going to assuage the fears of a lot of
00:16:31
Hispanic voters or maybe independents who are on the
00:16:34
fence about what's happening with immigration and talk about
00:16:40
that? Because that is going to be
00:16:42
something that's going to come up.
00:16:43
So I'm I'm interested to hear your take on your explanation.
00:16:48
You know, it's this, it's it's an issue that's been allowed to
00:16:51
fester for half a century really, where you've had
00:16:57
basically an open border that got much worse under Biden.
00:17:03
And so you've had a total free for all of people coming into
00:17:05
the country, which in the election we just saw people are
00:17:08
completely fed up with and wanted that to be gotten under
00:17:12
control. And now that is, and I just want
00:17:16
to put it this way, I'm, I'm a, I'm an immigrant.
00:17:19
I'm actually an immigrant twice over, right?
00:17:21
My family from Hungary to England and from England to
00:17:24
here. I totally get the immigrant
00:17:27
experience. That's what we were in, in
00:17:29
England. We were working class Hungarian
00:17:32
immigrants trying to make our way.
00:17:35
And I really relate to that. And I get that.
00:17:38
But we were legal immigrants. And I, I'm, I'm a legal
00:17:40
immigrant here and became a citizen in 20.
00:17:43
You know, we moved in 2012, got my citizenship nine years later,
00:17:48
2021. And so I think that the point of
00:17:52
agreement that we got to start from is that the vast majority,
00:17:57
I mean, let's if we go back to the earlier conversation, maybe
00:18:00
not 99.9%, but you know, it's a big majority of people agree
00:18:05
that support legal immigration and dis and disagree with
00:18:10
illegal immigration. The problem is, and so the
00:18:13
closing the border, massive agreement that's been done.
00:18:17
So that's straightforward and that needs to be continued to be
00:18:20
enforced and that's federal and they've done that.
00:18:22
Then you look at what's the consequence of the open border
00:18:25
is that you have millions of people here in this, in this,
00:18:29
you know, twilight zone of, of not having of not being legal.
00:18:32
And it's heartbreaking. I'm not, you know, remember, I'm
00:18:34
on the road the whole time. I talk to businesses, I talk to
00:18:36
people on every side of this issue from farm owners, farm
00:18:41
businesses in the Central Valley and elsewhere in the state and
00:18:44
Ventura County and where we just saw those raids.
00:18:46
I mean, very close to there the other week and I talked to
00:18:50
working class Latinos in East Los Angeles where there's this
00:18:53
huge, you know, that's the really the heart of the Latino
00:18:56
community in LA. It's the biggest county in the
00:18:59
state in the, in the country and a huge, you know, part of how I
00:19:02
see victory in California and I'm hearing it from all sides.
00:19:07
And I think there's a way through this, and it's this
00:19:11
which is it's true. So you hear the argument that we
00:19:15
have to have all, you know, millions of illegal immigrants
00:19:20
here because we can't do our economy won't survive without it
00:19:26
and we need the jobs and so on. And so that's basically a
00:19:28
concession that we have to put up with this.
00:19:31
You know, we have to either just continue just turning a blind
00:19:36
eye to what it is law breaking on a massive scale.
00:19:39
I mean, when I came here, I didn't I didn't even think that
00:19:42
I would do it illegally didn't enter my head and and most legal
00:19:46
immigrants see it that way. So the, the up till now, the
00:19:50
choice will be, well, either turn a blind eye to it and just
00:19:53
keep going with, with this sort of completely broken system,
00:19:57
which is also cruel to the people involved.
00:19:59
Because if you're here as an illegal immigrant and you're,
00:20:02
and you don't have proper documentation and so on, what
00:20:05
does that mean that you can't go?
00:20:06
I mean, you hear these heartbreaking stories, you know,
00:20:08
you can't go back to Mexico, wherever it is for the funeral
00:20:11
of your, you know, close family member because you worried about
00:20:13
getting back and so on and so forth.
00:20:15
Like really really bad. Or that you, we have to, you
00:20:21
know, expel everyone and, and, and, and then the economy
00:20:25
collapses because there's no one to do the work jobs Americans
00:20:28
won't do all of that. I find that unacceptable as
00:20:31
well. The jobs Americans won't do
00:20:33
thing is ridiculous in most sectors, including in
00:20:36
agriculture, the majority of the workforce is American.
00:20:40
So even that when you look at the highest numbers for
00:20:43
penetration of illegal immigrants in any sector, it's
00:20:45
up to about 40 or so percent. I mean it varies with you know
00:20:48
construction, farming, all the things that we hear about
00:20:50
hospitality, the majority of the jobs are done by Americans.
00:20:53
So first of all, it's just not true that Americans won't do
00:20:56
these jobs. Second very important point in
00:20:59
California right now, if you look at the the first of all,
00:21:03
for the last 12 months or so, we've had the highest
00:21:05
unemployment rate in America in California.
00:21:08
Another for example of how opportunities being crushed.
00:21:10
But behind the unemployment rate to me the most important number
00:21:14
is the labour force participation rate.
00:21:16
That is the proportion of working age adults who are
00:21:19
actually working. We have one of the lowest in the
00:21:22
country and what you have right now is millions of Californians,
00:21:26
adults who are not working, who are being paid not to work
00:21:30
through welfare, who can who are earning a living on welfare.
00:21:33
And when people may hear that and think that's not true, that
00:21:36
some kind of, you know, talking point.
00:21:40
I just the other week I was up in a dairy in the Central Valley
00:21:44
talking to the dairy workers in the dairy farm.
00:21:47
And they, they're on about 50 grand a year, not well paid jobs
00:21:51
for California costs at all full time workers, these mainly guys.
00:21:55
And they're all telling me their girlfriends make more money by
00:21:59
not working, literally end up with more income from not
00:22:03
working through various welfare payments.
00:22:05
That's ridiculous. Like really ridiculous.
00:22:08
Also, they won't get married because if they get married,
00:22:10
they lose some of the benefits. And so we've got millions of
00:22:13
people in that situation in California.
00:22:15
I mean, my back of the envelope calculation is it's between 2
00:22:19
1/2 and 3 million people in California, adults of working
00:22:22
age who could be working but are being paid not to work.
00:22:25
So before we start importing illegal and in the an illegal
00:22:31
workforce, let's start by getting Californians who could
00:22:34
be working to work and focus on that and especially and then you
00:22:38
can connect, connect it to the whole argument about what's
00:22:40
going on in the economy with AI. All the jobs connected without
00:22:44
the working class jobs going to other states, you know, like
00:22:47
Texas and and and Arizona, the kind of construction jobs,
00:22:51
building data centers, all of that.
00:22:52
If we get rid of some of the regulations, we can bring those
00:22:55
jobs here. You know, I think there's a
00:22:56
story here which is just not being covered as part of this,
00:23:00
which is that, you know, we've it's been the sort of cheap way
00:23:03
out which but it's not cheap because it costly in economic
00:23:07
and societal, societal terms. They have so many millions of
00:23:10
people not working and having substitute illegal labour come
00:23:14
in instead. So I think that's for me where
00:23:16
the focus needs to be. I always say, I know Newsome
00:23:21
loves to kind of brag about how we're the 4th or 5th largest
00:23:24
economy in the world. And I always say Californiae
00:23:27
economy I think does well despite what California policies
00:23:31
and California government so. Exactly.
00:23:34
I just addressed that directly because he says it the whole
00:23:37
time and it actually gets to the heart of what's gone wrong.
00:23:40
First of all, what's the we don't just want to and look like
00:23:44
it's true. By the way, it's not made-up.
00:23:46
We are the fourth biggest economy by GDPI love that.
00:23:49
I'm proud of that. I want us to.
00:23:51
And by the way, when I get going, I think we can become the
00:23:55
third biggest. We can overtake Germany Right
00:23:57
now it's USA, China, Germany, California and Italy.
00:24:01
And I'm sorry, Japan behind us. We just overtook Japan.
00:24:05
I think we can overtake Germany if we have that kind of, you
00:24:08
know, freedom based approach to the economy.
00:24:11
But like even within that, OK, we're the fourth biggest, what's
00:24:14
the point of just being big if it's not a good economy for the
00:24:17
people who live here? And so the, the reason that that
00:24:21
the economy is so big is, is exactly what's going wrong with
00:24:24
the economy, which is that it's driven that that scale point is
00:24:28
driven by these massive, particularly tech companies in
00:24:30
the Bay Area that are generating enormous amounts of revenue.
00:24:34
Huge. Like look at NVIDIA for
00:24:36
basically NVIDIA in the Bay Area.
00:24:39
Fantastic company, just passed the milestone $4 trillion
00:24:43
company. Now that's valuation not, not,
00:24:46
you know, not operational size, but still just for the point of
00:24:51
comparison, that's the size of the California economy just over
00:24:54
just over 4 trillion. So you've got a company like
00:24:57
that generating huge amounts of revenue and there's lots more
00:25:00
like that in California, but not creating very many jobs.
00:25:04
And, and this round of, of AI innovation is creating even
00:25:09
fewer, a lot fewer jobs than the previous sort of tech boom with
00:25:12
when which threw up Google and Facebook and all of that.
00:25:16
This time around, it's even fewer jobs.
00:25:18
And, and the jobs that are being created are not really being
00:25:21
created in California. The, and Nvidia's a perfect
00:25:24
example. So they just announced this
00:25:26
massive investment in America a few months ago with President
00:25:29
Trump, half a trillion dollars, all of it was going outside
00:25:33
California, Texas, Arizona and so on, because it's so
00:25:36
impossible and expensive to build anything here.
00:25:38
And so if we keep going down this road, what you end up with,
00:25:42
and other people have made this point, it's not an original
00:25:43
point is you basically have California becoming an economy
00:25:47
for the Uber rich and the and the very poor on welfare and
00:25:51
just regular working class middle class people can't can't
00:25:53
do anything here. That's got to change.
00:25:57
Yeah, it's there's plenty of opportunity in California.
00:26:00
It just needs to be completely unleashed in my opinion.
00:26:04
I know you got to run in a couple minutes, so why don't you
00:26:07
let people know where they can learn more about you and donate
00:26:11
support if they want to? Lovely, thank you very much and
00:26:13
you know, I just want to say I'm happy to see that it I'm very
00:26:17
busy. I'm on the road the whole time.
00:26:18
I hope to see everyone somewhere at some event.
00:26:20
We're we're covering the state it's a big state, but I'm loving
00:26:23
it. I'm loving it.
00:26:24
It's a beautiful state and everyone's so and they're
00:26:26
getting a lot of support. And actually we had a poll this
00:26:29
week, which was the first poll that I've been in since I
00:26:32
announced my candidacy. And I'm happy to say I'm leading
00:26:35
the field. I'm actually ahead of all the
00:26:37
Democrats who've announced and way ahead of the other
00:26:40
Republicans. And so, so far so good.
00:26:42
I know it's early, but I'd love everybody's support.
00:26:44
Steve Hilton for governor.com FOR join the movement for
00:26:49
change. Give some money if you can.
00:26:51
That's always, you know, we could.
00:26:52
We're fighting this terrible Democrat machine, you know, the
00:26:55
the unions, and there's so much money the government unions get
00:26:59
from their members in a very unfair way.
00:27:02
And so we got to fight all of that.
00:27:03
And you can follow what I'm doing at Steve Hilton X on
00:27:06
social media. We put out a lot of great videos
00:27:09
all the time. You can see where I'm at and
00:27:11
hope to see you on the road. All right, Steve, thank you for
00:27:14
stopping by. Best of luck out there on the
00:27:16
road and hope to talk to you soon.
00:27:18
Absolutely would love that, thanks.