John McEntee wrote a $39,200 check to Steve Hilton’s gubernatorial campaign — the largest donation permitted in the California primary. The amount is notable less for its size than for its source. John McEntee ran the White House Presidential Personnel Office under Trump and has spent the years since building a national profile in conservative media, shaping how a generation of young Republicans engage with politics. His involvement signals that the 2026 California governor’s race is drawing interest from within the inner circle of the national conservative movement.
Hilton, a former Fox News host and one-time adviser to UK Prime Minister David Cameron, entered the crowded field last year with a housing-centered platform and the argument that California’s cost of living and public safety failures represent a genuine political opening. Trump has since endorsed him.
The Housing Argument at the Center
McEntee’s support is grounded in specific policy alignment, not just party affiliation. During his tenure at the Presidential Personnel Office, he was among the officials involved in the rollback of the Obama-era Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule, which required localities receiving federal housing funds to document and address patterns of housing discrimination. Critics of the regulation argued it amounted to federal pressure on single-family neighborhoods to accept higher-density development. The Trump administration formally revoked it in July 2020.
Hilton’s platform stakes out nearly identical terrain at the state level. He has argued against California’s regional housing needs assessment mandates, which require cities and counties to zone for specified numbers of new units across income categories. His position is that those requirements override local community preferences and add regulatory costs that reduce rather than expand housing supply.
California’s Department of Housing and Community Development has estimated the state faces a shortfall of more than 2.5 million units. The gap is real. The disagreement is about causation. Hilton and his supporters argue that top-down mandates and regulatory burdens are the problem. His critics argue that single-family zoning restrictions are.
The 2026 Opening
Gavin Newsom cannot seek a third term, leaving the 2026 governor’s race without an incumbent Democrat on the ballot for the first time in more than a decade. That matters in a state where the political composition of suburban areas, Orange County in particular, has continued to shift in ways that neither party has fully locked down.
McEntee framed his support in personal terms. “Too many Republicans seem to have abandoned hope that we can take California back,” he said. “But it’s my home, and I’m never leaving. With Steve in the running, I’ve never been more bullish on the Golden State.”
His backing is consistent with a pattern. In 2023, when most Republican lawmakers were calling for a TikTok ban, McEntee came out publicly against one. He tends to stake positions at odds with conservative consensus before that consensus moves. Whether California Republicans in 2026 are approaching one of those moments remains the central question of the race.
Hilton’s campaign offered a direct response to the endorsement: “We’re building a real statewide movement and we’re in it to win.”
