'Gollum' for gov? Failed Fox host with foot fetish covets California

The Point: Steve Hilton, a far-right demagogue and talking head whose show was canceled by the Fox channel last year, is eyeing a run for California governor. Some tech bros in Silicon Valley think it's a good idea – one of many indicators that it's a PR stunt that's doomed to fail. Content Warning: Weird foot stuff ahead.

The Backstory: Over the past year it has become clear that Steve Hilton, a former advisor to conservative UK Prime Minister David Cameron, fancies himself as a future candidate for California governor.

When Fox canceled his show in 2023, Hilton – a California resident since 2012 – immediately announced he was forming a new group called Golden Together to focus on the state's problems. Since then, the rabid Donald Trump supporter has taken to wearing a yellow shirt (gold, get it?) and posting banal tweets about how great the state can be with proper leadership (his, presumably).

Now Hilton is making it quasi-official. A Politico story by Chris Cadelago cites "three people close to Hilton" who say he's eyeing a run. This made me laugh out loud because the idea that anyone but Hilton is leaking this story is just plain funny. (No one else would care!)

Hilton's candidacy is an idea so bad that, of course, it has wealthy supporters in Silicon Valley. From the story:

Word of Hilton’s interest has already piqued the curiosity of leaders in Silicon Valley, including figures pining for a political disruptor. In an interview, Chamath Palihapitiya, the billionaire tech venture capitalist who has increasingly waded into national and state politics, said Hilton’s emergence could jumpstart conversations around a range of issues plaguing California.

Palihapitiya himself considered running for governor as a moderate Democrat a few years ago. Now he's converted into a full-throated Donald Trump supporter, after having previously established himself as a Democratic Party megadonor.

Analysis: Hilton has zero chance of winning office in a state where Democrats generally trounce Republicans with 60% of the vote.

But victory is not the point. His candidacy would simply be a vehicle for the kind of extreme right-wing talking points currently favored by the weird dudes in tech.

Michael Shellenberger – the former leftwing PR man turned rightwing propaganda man – played this role in two previous campaign cycles, excoriating Democrats while pushing right-wing solutions to the state's ills. (Shellenberger got .5 % of the vote in 2018 and 4% of the vote in 2022.)

With no chance of victory, Hilton's goal would be simple: Get as much press as possible. As a failed TV host, Hilton is desperate for air time and relevance. He knows he'll never sit in the governor's office. But perhaps he thinks a quixotic run for governor could land him another TV gig or book contract – or a startup investment from Peter Thiel.

Personal History: I find Hilton particularly irksome because I've met him. Back in 2014, when Hilton was forming a company called Crowdpac, he requested a conversation with me.

Crowdpac was a political fundraising website that aimed to help political outsiders raise money for their campaigns. Hilton, posing as a moderate conservative at the time, was looking for contacts in the California Democratic Party.

Over a couple of drinks at a San Francisco bar called Alchemist, Hilton came off as a thoughtful guy with good intentions. He praised Gov. Jerry Brown, for whom had I recently worked. And I specifically remember Hilton telling me that he wanted to find a way to hold Republicans accountable for their failure to support sensible immigration reforms.

Flash forward to 2018: Hilton had morphed into a bomb-throwing Fox host. Now he was regularly lambasting Gov. Jerry Brown, demonizing immigrants and ranting and raving about the "deep state" and whatever other MAGA talking points might increase his viewership.

I was surprised by the fervor with which Hilton had completely changed his stripes – especially since he was still listed as a leader of Crowdpac. Here was a guy actively stoking the fires of MAGA delusion while actively funding (and profiting from) progressive Democratic campaigns at his startup. Yet it seemed most of Crowdpac's users had zero idea they were doing business with a Fox zealot.

That needed to change. Working with Berkeley cognitive scientist Dr. George Lakoff, I created the #DumpCrowdPAC movement to raise public awareness:

Are you putting money into the pockets of a pro-Trump Fox host? You are if you’re supporting Democratic candidates through a company called Crowdpac.

Crowdpac CEO Steve Hilton regularly launches ugly attacks on Democrats and progressives during his Fox News appearances. His specialties:

1. Attacking our immigrant communities and enthusiastically supporting Donald Trump’s bigoted immigration policies.

2. Attacking unions.

3. Parroting NRA talking points on guns.

Yet as CEO of Crowdpac— a political fundraising platform — Hilton makes money off of Democratic political campaigns. The very candidates and policies he attacks on Fox are paying him a percentage when they use his platform!

Hilton stepped down shortly afterward. "Lakoff’s post was part of a pressure campaign that got results," wrote the Washington Post.

Our little discussion at Alchemist had come full circle.

Weird English attention hound

The California Republican Party is dead and never coming back. Today, it's little more than a host body for any parasitic organism that decides to take control of its empty husk. This makes it vulnerable to attention-seekers like Hilton and Shellenberger, who are happy to run losing campaigns in order to spread propaganda and get some press.

Hilton is not a serious candidate, but if one did take him seriously, it would be easy to point out why he has no chance with California voters. First, he's a raging Trump supporter who has gone along with every vile lie and scheme over the past eight years. And he's done this on television. The attack ads would write themselves.

Second, Hilton is a political failure. Once a respected strategic guru in British politics, Hilton hit the skids over 10 years ago. From the Guardian:

His career fell apart in 2012. Cameron lost patience with him and he left Downing Street. The former Tory guru, who was once the centre of attention, had joined the left-behind elite. If he was known, he was known because of his wife, a successful Silicon Valley executive – and not all men are happy with being upstaged by their partners. Once a somebody, Hilton was a nobody. He did what yesterday’s men have always done and jumped on the next big thing, which in the case of rightwing politics was the Trump movement. A job at Fox followed and the nobody was a somebody again.

Third, Hilton is just plain weird. He was known for padding around the prime minister's office in bare feet. His colleagues referred to him as "Gollum," the creepy and power-hungry slimeball character from J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of The Rings."

From a Daily Mail story headlined "Footloose or screw-loose? David Cameron's shoeless aides look plain silly":

The man referred to as Gollum by colleagues, thanks to his shaved head, questionable appearance and deportment, has taken to leaving his footwear at home – last week shunning shoes when hosting a group of suited entrepreneurs. According to reports, the businessmen at the formal drinks party were shocked to see Cameron's director of strategy – who was standing in for the PM while he was busy dealing with the Libya crisis – making his speech in stockinged feet.

Hilton was really, really into his barefoot fetish. In 2013, the Daily Mail reported that he threw a fit when he attempted to board a plane to the United States sans his shoes:

But when he tried to board the plane with wife Rachel Whetstone, a Google executive, and their two young children, he was stopped and told he was not allowed to do so without footwear, even in California.

Reports of what happened next vary. According to one, he became embroiled in a heated row with officials who refused to back down until he paid a $200 surcharge to get on board.

Weird! But weird is exactly what the right-wing tech bros of Silicon Valley are into these days (see: J.D. Vance). And Hilton is certainly connected in tech. As the Daily Mail mentioned, his wife is Rachel Whetstone, a former Google and Facebook executive who is now chief communications officer at Netflix. Of course, Hilton is no stranger to tech himself, having co-founded the failed Crowdpac startup with Giselle Kordestani, a former Google executive who is married to Omid Kordestani, the former executive chairman of Twitter.

Lord of the Rings fetish for the win?

Hilton may have another big advantage when it comes to attracting tech billionaire support. His nickname – Gollum – could catch the eye of Peter Thiel, the PayPal mafia billionaire who has bankrolled J.D. Vance's political career.

Thiel has a well-known obsession with "The Lord of the Rings." The names of two of his companies – Palantir and Mithril – are derived from Tolkien's fantasy world. Will he try to add Gov. Gollum to the mix? Time will tell.

Final Thought: Hopefully Hilton will find some other way to embarrass himself besides running a loser campaign for governor.

If not, I'll be waiting in the tall grass.