EXCLUSIVE — California Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton on Thursday sent letters to television stations and digital platforms demanding they stop airing ads promoting the state’s controversial redistricting ballot initiative. 

Hilton called Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D-CA) pro-Proposition 50 campaign ads, which have been running on stations statewide, a “flat-out lie.” 

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The former Fox News host told the Washington Examiner that Newsom is purposely deceiving voters when he claims Proposition 50 “preserves and protects California’s independent redistricting commission.”

In reality, Hilton said, the ballot measure suspends the independent redistricting commission’s authority until 2031, invalidates the maps created through the Census-based process, and replaces them with carved-out congressional districts that ignore constitutional safeguards put in place to ensure fair representation. 

“If Gavin Newsom pushed Prop 50 through, a Democrat vote in California would be worth eight times a Republican vote,” Hilton said. “It’s an obscene attack on our democracy, an outrageous power grab by an arrogant, authoritarian, and corrupt ruling elite.” 

Proposition 50 is a ballot measure that would approve a new congressional map passed by the state legislature last month and possibly give Democrats five additional House seats. The push for new maps is a direct response to Texas redrawing its map in favor of Republicans at the request of President Donald Trump, who is seeking to hold on to power during next year’s midterm elections.  

At stake is control of the House of Representatives. Republicans have a 219-212 edge in the House, with four vacancies. Trump has enacted his agenda because the GOP controls the White House and both chambers of Congress. If Democrats flip the House, they could stifle Trump during his last two years in office by blocking his legislation and launching congressional investigations.

Millions of dollars have already flooded into the Yes and No camps for Proposition 50. Massive efforts are underway to support messaging and turnout. Department of Finance Chief Deputy Director Erika Li estimated the election will cost counties $251.3 million and the state, which is already facing a multibillion-dollar deficit, another $31.3 million. 

Newsom has framed the fight as one for the survival of democracy. Hilton believes the governor, who will be termed out of office next year, is using the issue to promote his presidential ambitions. 

“Newsom has turned into a puffed-up buffoon whose entire focus now is pandering to Democrat primary voters with pathetic, juvenile partisan stunts,” Hilton said. “Based on the facts, he is clearly the worst governor in America: California right now has the highest unemployment rate in America, the highest poverty rate, highest taxes, we are ranked 50th out of 50 states on affordability and opportunity—crime and homelessness are out of control. “

“The Newsom regime has been a total, calamitous failure on every front, so now he’s running away from the mess he made by running for president. The danger for us is that he uses California as a plaything for his personal ambition. The danger for America is that he actually becomes president! Imagine the whole country infected by the Newsom virus.”

Hilton told the Washington Examiner that he expects his complaints to stations and digital platforms will be addressed in the coming days and that they should “do their duty and stop broadcasting partisan Democrat lies and disinformation.”

“We believe our case is 100% accurate and fair,” he said. “Prop 50 does not ‘protect’ independent redistricting, it destroys it. That is why I fully expect Gavin Newsom’s lying ads to be taken down.”

Hilton has also asked federal regulators at the Federal Communications Commission to intervene, though he has not heard back. 

“What matters is they are now aware of the situation,” he said. “These ads by Gavin Newsom, funded by George Soros, are obviously totally dishonest disinformation. Prop 50 would affect federal elections and the government of our entire country, so clearly there is a federal regulatory interest here in stopping this kind of disinformation from Gavin Newsom.”

Hilton said he wants the FCC to step in and “remind broadcast outlets of their duty not to broadcast false, partisan disinformation that deliberately misleads voters.”

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Hannah Milgrom, a spokeswoman for the Yes on 50 campaign, dismissed Hilton’s criticisms. 

“This is a desperate cry for attention from a flailing candidate,” she told the Washington Examiner.