Could Trump’s Hilton endorsement sabotage GOP chances?

From CalMatters Capitol reporter Jeanne Kuang:

President Donald Trump has endorsed Republican Steve Hilton in the California governor’s race, a move that could consolidate the conservative vote and, ironically, tank the GOP’s best chances of winning the seat.

With California’s top-two primary system, the eight Democratic candidates could split the vote such that the two GOP competitors, Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, end up as the only ones on the general election ballot. 

As CalMatters reported last week, pollsters and strategists of both parties agree that that extraordinary outcome would be the GOP’s only realistic chance of winning the seat in November. 

But it could also only happen if both Republican candidates continue to tie, splitting Republican votes roughly evenly. If one Republican pulls significantly ahead — say, with the endorsement of the president and de facto leader of the party — that makes it more likely one of the Democrats will get enough support to make it on to the November ballot. Either Republican would then face steep odds.

Hilton has insisted he’s the GOP’s best chance to win and has spent months attacking Bianco to consolidate the Republican vote, and the endorsement is likely to help him. Democrats will also use it to attack Hilton given how unpopular Trump is with California voters; several candidates issued statements Monday condemning their connection.

Hilton is a British American political strategist and past adviser to the conservative prime minister David Cameron. He has praised Trump for years on his former Fox News show and once called for an audit of the 2020 presidential election that Trump lost. 

Bianco is also a Trump fan and has in the past aligned himself with far-right movements such as the Oath Keepers militia. He endorsed Trump’s 2024 re-election bid by calling on America to “put a felon in the White House.” He has recently seized the ballots cast by Riverside County voters in the 2025 congressional redistricting special election, in a move that mirrors Trump’s FBI seizure of 2020 ballots in Georgia. 

California community college students in need of medication abortion services could access care directly on campus if the Legislature passes a proposal by Assemblymember Catherine Stefani.

The San Francisco Democrat introduced the bill Monday, which would require community colleges to provide such services through campus health centers by Jan. 1, 2028. The measure follows similar legislation passed in 2019 enabling students at the University of California and California State University to access medical abortions.

At a press event outside the state Capitol in Sacramento, Stefani said her bill closes “a critical gap” that allows some of the roughly 2 million students attending the state’s community colleges the same reproductive health care services as “their peers in four-year institutions.” 

Claire Densmore, a student at Sacramento City College and one of the legislative affairs directors for the Student Senate for California Community Colleges, said the bill would help make reproductive health care “not just legally available, but practically accessible.”

• Densmore: “At its core, this work is about … ensuring wherever you go to school does not undermine your right to whole-person health care.”

From CalMatters higher education reporter Mikhail Zinshteyn:

Seven campuses at the Cal State system are in fiscal dire straits because of chronic enrollment declines.

Last month the schools — Channel Islands, Chico, Dominguez Hills, East Bay, Humboldt, San Francisco and Sonoma — submitted reports to the Legislature on their turnaround plans. 

Some of their stated goals include:

• Adding more internship opportunities in majors. 
• Building stronger relationships with local high schools and community colleges that simplify the application process.
• Increasing how many students return from one year to the next.

All of these efforts could mean retaining more students and the tuition dollars they bring.

San Francisco State, the only campus of the seven that projects student declines, foresees dropping from 18,500 California residents last year to under 15,000 by 2030. In 2022 the campus enrolled around 21,500 Californians.

Before the official report was published, CalMatters went in-depth on how Cal State Dominguez Hills plans to add 800 more students — which should generate $25 million in additional annual revenue.