A brutal new campaign from California GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton launching on Wednesday takes direct aim at Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom’s push to further gerrymander the Golden State’s congressional maps.
The statewide digital ad, first shared with The Daily Wire, highlights Newsom’s recent comments about punching Republican “sons-of-bitches” in the mouth and urges California voters to vote against Proposition 50. Prop 50 would skew election maps further in favor of California Democrats and would shrink the Republican delegation to Congress if passed in November.
Hilton says that instead of cracking down on his state’s crime and homelessness problems, Newsom is focusing on pushing a political agenda to set up his own presidential aspirations.
“We’ve got to defeat this totally outrageous scheme by Gavin Newsom to rig our elections here in California,” he told The Daily Wire. “It’s a direct assault on democracy, by Gavin Newsom, who lectures us endlessly about democracy. This guy’s a total joke. He’s a total failure, the most useless governor in America.”
The ad features a loop of Newsom saying that he was “going to punch these sons-of-bitches in the mouth” when discussing redistricting efforts in Texas.
“Why is Gavin Newsom so angry? He’s not angry about the addiction and despair. He’s not angry about crime and chaos in our cities or the neighborhoods burned on his watch. He’s not angry about our crushing cost of living. Newsom is angry because he will never be president with his record of failure,” Hilton says in the ad. “Gavin Newsom wrecked our state. Now he wants to make it worse.”
Hilton ad.
Newsom has billed the maps as a way to “end the Trump presidency” and followed Texas’s move to draw maps more favorable to Republicans.
Hilton said that, currently, California Republicans hold only 17% of the state’s congressional seats, though roughly 40% of the populace votes Republican. The new maps would reduce Republican representation to about 6% of the seats. He said it would take, on average, about 193,000 votes to elect a Democrat, while it would take 1.5 million to elect a Republican.
Hilton ad.
The maps have already been approved by the Democratic supermajority in California and will appear on the November 4 ballot in California. It will only require a majority to pass.
Hilton has also filed a lawsuit to block Prop 50, but says he has been given a court date after the election. The author and former TV host said that Democrat lawmakers in California believed that they could do whatever they wanted to.
“They’re just arrogant beyond belief. They assume that they’ll never be held accountable, but they can do whatever they want. It’s the behavior of an authoritarian, arrogant, ruling elite,” he said.