Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton held campaign events in Southern California on Wednesday, the final days before the election, while his Democratic opponent, Xavier Becerra, kept a lower public profile.
Hilton participated in two scheduled appearances. One was a press conference in Altadena, an area affected by wildfires, where he spoke alongside representatives from HPP Cares, a nonprofit assisting families impacted by last year's Eaton Fire. He also planned to rally with Democratic and Independent supporters in Van Nuys, where he intended to argue that a decade and a half of single-party rule in California has led to increased costs for residents.
Hilton has recently engaged in a six-figure advertising campaign aimed at courting Democratic voters, including one advertisement that generated controversy.
Becerra, the current frontrunner, had no public events scheduled for Wednesday. He spent Tuesday campaigning in the Bay Area, attending meetings with Asian American community leaders and an anti-Prop. 39 rally in San Francisco. He later participated in a reception with Black community leaders and a phonebanking event hosted by SEIU Local 2015 in Oakland.
Recent polls indicate a significant lead for Becerra. A Public Policy Institute of California poll released Wednesday showed Becerra with 61% of likely voters compared to Hilton's 37%, a 24-point margin. This represents a slight increase from September's poll, which showed Becerra leading by 22 points.
Becerra, a former California congressman and attorney general, has criticized Hilton's endorsement by former President Donald Trump. Hilton, a former Fox News host, has countered by portraying Becerra as a symbol of California's status quo.
Earlier in the week, during a campaign event in Newport Beach, Hilton criticized the state's "Broadband-for-All" program, citing that it has produced only one completed project despite a substantial initial investment.