Fox News Host Considers Running For California Governor

Steve Hilton, the former Fox News host and policy adviser to British Prime Minister David Cameron, is seriously considering a run to succeed California Gov.

Gavin Newsom in two years, three people in close touch with him tell POLITICO.

While Hilton and his team did not comment when approached for this story, several prominent political figures in the state conveyed that the Silicon Valley entrepreneur, who has been increasing his public appearances and focus on California public policy, is already deep in discussions about a possible run as a Republican.

“He is thinking very seriously about running for governor and he is doing it in a very organized way,” said Jim Brulte, the former California Republican Party chair and GOP leader of the state Senate. “I know he’s talking to a lot of the right people because I have heard from a lot of the right people that he’s talking to them.”

Hilton’s candidacy would amount to a major test of voters’ appetites to challenge Democratic dogma and conventional wisdom in one of the nation’s biggest, bluest states.

It also could help resolve whether deteriorating conditions on the ground — pockets of high crime, homelessness and soaring cost of living — will precipitate a fulsome conversation about alternative leadership that hasn’t happened in decades.