On Thursday morning, the Loma Vista gas station was selling fuel for $5.69 a gallon. By lunchtime, the digital sign overhead showed the price had dropped to $3, and a line of cars snaked down the road, waiting for a turn to fill up in the Central Valley town of Sanger, Calif.
Standing by the pump and greeting drivers as they pulled up was Steve Hilton, the Republican candidate for California governor. If there were any question as to why they were suddenly being offered significantly cheaper fuel, his T-shirt read: “$3 Gas Is On Me.”
It was the latest stunt in Mr. Hilton’s lively campaign, a long-shot bid to win in this heavily Democratic state. He has trailed Xavier Becerra, the Democratic candidate and former Biden administration official, by wide margins in polls this fall. It has made it nearly impossible for him to get the kind of attention lavished on more competitive races.
California voters have not elected a Republican to statewide office in 20 years and President Trump’s immigration raids, tariffs and the war in Iran have only made conditions more challenging for Republicans. Mr. Hilton was endorsed by Mr. Trump in the primary, making it difficult to find distance from the president despite his attempts to appeal to Democratic voters.
So Mr. Hilton has campaigned with increasing gusto, traveling the state as a cheerful wonk with a British accent. He’s cooked dinners with voters in their homes, attended street fairs and gone to lowrider cruise nights.
His website is packed with policy proposals, from state spending cuts to requirements for homeless people seeking housing. His social media feeds are full of videos amplifying his live events, as well as more experimental videos that use artificial intelligence. He has sat for interviews with news outlets from across the political spectrum, from Pod Save America on the left to Sean Hannity on the right.
Mr. Hilton, 57, once worked for David Cameron, the former prime minister of the United Kingdom, and made enough of an impression that he was satirized on a British sitcom. He moved to California in 2012 for his wife’s career in Silicon Valley and became a U.S. citizen five years ago. He has also been a Fox News host and an entrepreneur.
Mr. Hilton’s retail approach to politics is unusual in this sprawling state, where candidates for governor typically focus on raising money to air their television ads and put on a few splashy rallies. But for Republicans running statewide in California, an element of spectacle has become essential.
Just ask Fred Davis, a veteran Republican ad-maker who worked with John Cox, a candidate for governor in 2021 during the attempted recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom. Mr. Cox had lost to Mr. Newsom three years earlier and was struggling to gain traction. So Mr. Davis convinced his client to campaign alongside a 1,000-pound bear.
“That was the first time we got enormous press coverage,” Mr. Davis said in an interview. “That was the first time people started crowding when he was about to speak.
“The purpose of the bear was obvious,” he added. “It was to get attention.”
Mr. Davis was also behind the bizarre “Demon Sheep” ad that Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard chief executive, ran during her 2010 primary campaign for Senate in California. The ad went viral and Ms. Fiorina won the primary, but lost in the general election.
Four years later, Neel Kashkari, a banker who was the Republican candidate for governor, tried to appeal to voters by living for a week as a homeless man on the streets of Fresno. He was later trounced by Gov. Jerry Brown.
Mr. Hilton’s own viral moment came this month, when he released an ad titled “Just Try It, California,” showing two young women sitting on a bed with a Pride flag behind them. The ad was filled with sexual innuendo, and the kicker was that one woman was daring the other to cast a vote for a Republican; Mr. Hilton.
It attracted plenty of national coverage, but other prominent Republicans tried to distance themselves from it.
Mr. Hilton is employing the same catchphrase, “Just try it,” throughout his campaign, including on billboards in Los Angeles that declare “$3.00 Gas.”
The event in Sanger was both a way for Mr. Hilton to attract voters and a manifestation of one of his policy proposals. He has said that he would bring gas down to $3 a gallon by allowing more oil production and eliminating environmental regulations that make gas more expensive in California than elsewhere.
He called his gas station discount “a preview of what you’ll get when I’m governor” as he addressed a crowd on Thursday. Then he picked up a black marker and scrawled figures on a whiteboard to explain how his plans would save California drivers thousands of dollars.
“Vote, everybody,” he said. “You’ve got to vote to cut your costs with Steve Hilton for governor. Just try it.”
Mr. Hilton has staged several similar events at gas stations around California in recent weeks. The first 150 people who showed up Thursday were allowed to buy up to 12 gallons at the $3 rate. Mr. Hilton’s campaign paid the gas station the $2.69 per gallon cost difference.
“You absolutely have to be creative to get attention, but also, simple,” Mr. Hilton said in an interview.
Surprisingly, he said he was inspired by the successful campaign that Zohran Mamdani ran for mayor of New York City last year, though their politics are far apart. “I liked the freshness and simplicity of the campaign, and the focus on practical things,” he said.
People at the gas station certainly appreciated Mr. Hilton’s efforts. Angel Gonzalez said he took the day off work at an auto body shop to get cheap gas for his truck. Jacob Zailian, the pastor of a church in Sanger, said he spends about $4,000 a month on gas for the vans that his church uses to deliver meals and bring homeless people to shelters. He brought five vans to gas up.
Mr. Zailian, a Republican, said he planned to vote for Mr. Hilton because he believes he will lower the cost of living and end the long-delayed high-speed rail program. But he also appreciated Mr. Hilton’s energy.
“The loudest person who is doing the most should be the one that wins,” Mr. Zailian said. “And he’s doing it. He’s out there.”
While Mr. Hilton has focused on California regulations as the reason for its higher gas prices, Democrats, including Mr. Becerra, have been quick to blame President Trump for the surge in fuel costs after he launched the war in Iran, which stifled oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.
Mr. Hilton has criticized Mr. Becerra for running a quiet campaign and said that his opponent was taking voters for granted.
Mr. Becerra has been doing more public events in recent weeks but spent most of the summer raising money and meeting with voters and community leaders without media coverage, said his spokesman, Jonathan Underland.
“Steve Hilton has this strategy of going out and shouting at people, but Becerra prefers to listen, sit down with folks, hear their concerns, have a conversation,” Mr. Underland said.
Their campaigns look different, Mr. Underland said, because Mr. Hilton “is just kind of throwing anything he can against the wall to see what sticks.”
After an hour of pumping gas and shaking hands, Mr. Hilton made his way into the minimart, where he stood behind the counter with the owner of the gas station. He had an announcement to make: the first action that would be taken up by his new Office of Fun and Freedom.
In his hand was a can of Zyn nicotine pouches. He said that he would overturn California’s ban on flavored tobacco products so that stores could legally sell flavored Zyn.
Only about a dozen people were on hand at the minimart.
But hours later, Mr. Hilton posted a video of his announcement on X. It quickly racked up more than 100,000 views.
The post Steve Hilton Tries Anything as a G.O.P. Long Shot in California appeared first on New York Times.
