California gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton is pitching a dramatic end to the state’s troubled high-speed rail project — imagining a future where the multibillion-dollar undertaking is transformed into a monument to government failure.
The Republican candidate’s AI-generated campaign ad, titled around his proposal to “cancel High Speed Rail, turn it into the Government Failures National Monument,” offers a stark before-and-after vision of California depending on who occupies the governor’s office.
The spot contrasts a sun-drenched, prosperous California under Hilton with a frozen, dystopian version of the Golden State under Democratic gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra, blaming the latter’s hypothetical administration for soaring gas prices, struggling businesses and worsening conditions on Skid Row.
The ad opens with an AI-generated vision of California two years into a hypothetical Hilton administration, portraying the high-speed rail project as a “failed promise.” In the opening sequence, Skid Row is transformed into a luxurious destination resembling Rodeo Drive, complete with cherry blossoms and fine dining.
The Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica is bustling with shoppers, while gas prices have fallen to $3 a gallon and families are back on the road.
The narrator describes the rail project’s cancellation and transformation into a national monument, declaring: “Visitors come from around the world to see the most expensive piece of concrete in human history.”
The idyllic imagery then gives way to Hilton’s depiction of California under Becerra, with the ad claiming that gas prices would climb to $8 a gallon and families would struggle to afford driving.
The campaign’s sunny visuals abruptly turn dark and wintry, depicting an apparently deserted Third Street Promenade and a worsening public health crisis on Skid Row, where the narrator claims typhoid and rat infestations have overwhelmed emergency crews.
The ad also accuses Becerra of raising taxes to funnel another $200 billion into the rail project, which it derides as a “railroad to nowhere.”
The spot closes with a final transformation: sunlight returns to the bleak landscape as the narrator urges Californians to back Hilton.
“California’s future is still being written. Vote for Steve Hilton. Just try it,” the voice-over declares.
The ad targets one of California’s most expensive and politically contentious infrastructure projects.
The California High-Speed Rail Authority’s draft 2026 business plan estimated that completing the first phase of the 494-mile line between San Francisco and Los Angeles and Anaheim could cost approximately $231.3 billion under its full-buildout scenario. A revised approach puts the cost at roughly $126.2 billion.
The project was originally approved by voters in 2008, with an initial estimate of $33 billion and a target completion date of 2020. Construction and funding challenges have since forced repeated revisions to its projected cost and timeline.
Hilton has pledged to cancel the project entirely. Becerra, meanwhile, has said he would scrap its current configuration, though he has offered fewer details about his plans for the rail system, according to KPBS.
The two candidates are competing to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom in the Nov. 3 election, with the race placing affordability, homelessness and the future of California’s government spending at the center of the campaign.
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