Steve Hilton targets Xavier Becerra in California gubernatorial race

Republican candidate Steve Hilton is intensifying his campaign for Governor of California, focusing heavily on get-out-the-vote operations and ballot-harvesting efforts. Hilton aims to challenge frontrunner Xavier Becerra, the former Health and Human Services Secretary and state Attorney General, in an attempt to elect California’s first Republican governor since Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Hilton’s strategy involves organizing volunteers and developing instructional templates for door-knocking and ballot collection to compete with the established Democratic turnout infrastructure. The two candidates are scheduled to participate in their first one-on-one debate on September 30, a nationally televised event on CNN, coinciding with the mailing of ballots to California’s approximately 23 million registered voters.