As previously reported on AFN, polls have shifted in recent weeks, and Republican Steve Hilton (featured bottom right) now trails Democrat Xavier Becerra by four to six points. Billionaire Democrat Tom Steyer has also moved past Hilton in some polls for second place.
Kevin McGary is president of the Fredrick Douglas Foundation of California. He thinks the number of Democrats in that field can help the GOP.
"I think a lot of them are going to delude their own vote on that side, which is going to help (Republicans) get one of them,” McGary says.
There are 61 candidates on the California governor’s ballot, leading to a top-two or jungle primary, where the top two candidates advance to the November election. The Democrats have eight candidates, while Republicans have 12 candidates, but only two — Hilton and Chad Bianco — are considered true contenders.
McGary really believes Steve Hilton is the one.
“I was hoping that Chad Bianco would have conceded the race, encouraged everybody to get behind Hilton so we could assure ourselves that we'd have the one vote on the one candidate in there on the Republican side,” states McGary. “Right now, it's close. Steyer is within a few points, which is within a close distance, and you never can tell."
McGary says if Hilton can make the top two, President Donald Trump hopes to help in November. He says that a number of things are being implemented between now and November.
"Including further cleaning up the voter rolls here, assuring that all paper ballots must be counted and that they can only be counted for citizens who are eligible to vote,” states McGary. “I don't know how far that will get in this election cycle, but there's some safeguards that he's (Trump) putting in place that's perhaps going to have an impact on our November elections here.”
Just as with the race for California governor, the top two finishers in today's jungle primary for Los Angeles mayor will advance to the general election. A new Cygnal Poll shows incumbent Mayor Karen Bass (D) leading with 25%, former reality TV star Spencer Pratt (R) with 22% and far left Los Angeles Council Member Nithya Raman (D) with 18%.
McGary believes Spencer Pratt is the only chance to turn things around in Los Angeles.
"We need everybody in Los Angeles to go out for Spencer Pratt because he is the real deal. He's at least a chance to actually start turning things around there in Los Angeles," McGary says.
Pratt (featured right) first entered the public eye on the reality series “The Hills” in the mid-2000s and married “The Hills” star Heidi Montag in 2008. They are still married and currently have two children.
According to Los Angeles Times, he announced his candidacy for mayor in January 2026 in response to losing his home in the Palisades fire a year before, blaming Bass and California Gov. Gavin Newsome for their handling of it.
McGary says voting for one of the other two candidates would be a disaster.
"Los Angeles is a really rat-infested, feces-infested, crime-infested, illegal alien-infested area that is just losing all of its luster. You have A-listers and others in Hollywood that are moving out because it's too dangerous,” says McGary. “I think the only hope really is Spencer Pratt, and I hope that all Los Angeles will show up in droves and vote for him and give him an opportunity to change things."
