By
Ed Kilgore,
political columnist for Intelligencer since 2015
Steve Hilton on primary night.
You could see it coming a mile away. Thanks to divided Democratic allegiances and the predictable pattern of vote casting and reporting in California, the initial results of the state’s June 2 primary were bound to look good for the Golden State’s embattled minority Republicans. That was particularly true of the two highest-profile contests. In the gubernatorial race, Trump endorsee and former U.K. political strategist Steve Hilton was very sure to do relatively well against Democrats Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer. And in the Los Angeles mayoral race, former reality TV villain Spencer Pratt’s much-hyped candidacy cornered the small GOP voting market as incumbent Karen Bass and progressive rival Nithya Raman divided the Democratic vote.
