Republican Steve Hilton will advance to the general election in California’s gubernatorial race, according to the Associated Press.
The Fox News host will now face Democrat Xavier Becerra, President Joe Biden’s Health and Human Services secretary, in November for the seat of outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat.
Becerra was leading the field when The Associated Press reported Friday he would go on to the general election. As of Tuesday when about 88 percent of the votes counted, Becerra had 27.9% of the votes counted, while Hilton came in second with 24.9% percent of the vote, the AP reported. Democrat Tom Steyer was running third with 22.6%.
Becerra and Hilton will nowtev move on to the November general election.
As the counting has continued, President Donald Trump has sounded off on the process, baselessly alleging the election that “Dumocrats” were “trying to STEAL THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA PRIMARY, AND THE MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES, PRIMARY, AWAY FROM TWO GREAT REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES. Here we go with the very late and massive numbers of MAIL IN BALLOTS.”
LA City Councilwoman Nithya Raman, a Democrat, moved into second place, pushing past reality TV star Spencer Pratt (a Republican Trump backed) as the mail ballots were counted. Californians vote in large number via mail-in ballot and they can be post-marked on Election Day.
Becerra was California attorney general from 2017 to 2021 and was a member of Congress for more than 20 years. He made a late-in-the-race surge in polling at 25% in late May, after coming in at 5% in early March.