California GOP Candidate Critiques Election Process
California’s Republican gubernatorial candidate, Steve Hilton, has voiced strong criticism of the state’s election procedures after the recent exclusion of Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt from the upcoming runoff.
Hilton attributes Pratt’s late loss to California’s slow ballot-counting system. Initially, early election night results had Pratt in second place—this would have secured him a position in the November runoff. However, the prolonged counting of mail-in ballots eventually enabled his progressive opponent, Nithya Raman, to emerge ahead and challenge incumbent Karen Bass.
According to California’s primary rules, only the top two candidates progress to the general election, irrespective of their political affiliation. Consequently, the late-counted mail-in ballots changed the standings, leaving Raman to compete against Bass while Pratt missed out.
“Spencer Pratt made a compelling case for change in Los Angeles. What happened to him is a travesty,” Hilton stated during a press conference.
“It’s a travesty that Los Angeles, with all its visible issues, will only have the option between the clearly incompetent incumbent and an ideological extremist. Now, they are deprived of a chance for change in November. It’s an outrage that Spencer won’t be included,” he added.
Pratt had gained significant attention during the primary with his vigorous campaign. Hilton expressed his willingness to involve Pratt in his administration if he secures victory.
“I would be proud to have him work alongside me as the next governor in any role,” said Hilton.
Former President Donald Trump also criticized the state’s election system, declaring on Truth Social: “No way this could have happened. Rigged Election!”
“This is a joke. Everyone sees what’s occurring. When will Republicans realize the urgency and pass measures to fix this broken system before Americans lose faith in our elections?” expressed Representative Abe Hamadeh (R-Ariz.) on X, echoing shared frustrations.
As of Tuesday morning, Democratic candidate Xavier Becerra led the gubernatorial race with over 2.2 million votes, accounting for 27.7% of the tallied ballots. Hilton was close behind with 25%, while Tom Steyer (D-Calif.) followed at 22.4%.
Hilton emphasized the need for voter ID as a crucial, long-term solution to California’s sluggish vote-counting process.
“If we had voter ID, we wouldn’t need all this endless verification and signature checking, which takes considerable time,” Hilton insisted, highlighting the essential need for state Voter ID regulations.
Hilton is set to face Becerra in the general election this November.
